A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
"Extraordinary. . . . Anyone with the slightest interest in biology should read thi... read full description
"Extraordinary. . . . Anyone with the slightest interest in biology should read thi... read full description
reviews
Feb 09, 2008
Chris
rated it: 
I've read this story before, many times. The interesting thing is how different each approach is to telling the story of the appearance and evolution of life on Earth. Carl Sagan approaches it with reverent awe, one of the Universe's great mysteries. Bill Bryson, on the other hand, took an outsider's view, since he is not really "in" on the whole paleontology thing. And Terry Pratchett and his buddies told the tale through the eyes of the Wizards of the Unseen University, which always
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Nov 28, 2008
Tony
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Fortey, Richard. LIFE: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth. (1998). **. My rating of this heavy book in no way should reflect on the quality of the material or the quality of the writing. It reflects solely on my ability to understand the subject matter. The author starts out his book with an account of his expedition, while still a student, to Spitzbergen in the late 1960s, and uses that trip as a metaphor for the themes that pervade the book. Through his
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Jan 15, 2012
John
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Richard Fortey has almost done the impossible, describing in vivid, elegant prose, the history of life on Earth in a mere 322 pages. Yet I fear he gives too cursory a treatment; one which have benefited immensely from including additional drawings, diagrams, and perhaps, photographs, offering readers more visual insights on Planet Earth's rich biological history. Among his finest achievements are his excellent descriptions of cladistics as an important methodological tool for classifying animal
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May 22, 2011
Daveski
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Four billion years may seem like a lot of ground to cover for a single book, but Fortey handles it pretty well. He is helped by the fact that we simply don't know a whole lot about much of this time, and this book is as much about we don't know as what we do. Using the fossil record as a guide, he takes us through the evolution of life, starting from the primordial soup and ending with the start of recorded human history.
Fortey, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Londo More...
Fortey, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Londo More...
Mar 27, 2010
Matt
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I always wanted to read a book that went through the entire chronological sequence of life on earth and I thought this book did a good job of doing that. I also enjoyed the autobiographical portions of the book (probably because I am a scientist and find the author's line of work very interesting). I do wish the author would have focused more on the ages of dinosaurs and mammals, but he is a trilobite guy, so he expectedly focused on the earlier periods of life. I also liked the fact that he
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Jun 30, 2011
Adam
rated it:
After Fortey's Earth: An Intimate History nearly turned me into a geologist, I had pretty high expectations of 'Life.' In some respects, these were met. Fortey's prose is very nice, his metaphors creative, and his references erudite. Yet this book was fundamentally lacking most of the things I was looking for it - expectations I had no right to expect it to fulfill, really.
I was disappointed first of all that Fortey really doesn't cite sources. If he had, anything I felt he'd sho More...
I was disappointed first of all that Fortey really doesn't cite sources. If he had, anything I felt he'd sho More...
Dec 14, 2011
Jason
rated it:
Fortey surveys the progress of life over 4 billion years, detailing the developments and kinds of organisms, as well as their effects on and reactions to an ever-changing environment. A paleonotologist himself, he illustrates the account with fossils and geology, with pleasant asides, anecdotes about other scientists and light allusions to poetry and literature. There are 4 sections of black-and-white photo plates, a glossary, reading list and index. (A diagram of the geological timeline would h
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Aug 01, 2010
James
rated it:
Yet another of the myriad of "history of life" pop-science books, I think what makes this particular one stand out are the auto-biographical elements interspersed with the scientific topics. Without these elements, the book would have been fairly generic, despite Fortey's readable and engaging writing style.
Many other books cover the same ground scientifically, most significantly of the books I have read being Don Prothero's Evolution: What The Fossil's Say And Why It Matt More...
Many other books cover the same ground scientifically, most significantly of the books I have read being Don Prothero's Evolution: What The Fossil's Say And Why It Matt More...
Jul 06, 2010
Kristen
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Great book but as much as I enjoyed it I'd recommend one of his more recent books instead. Fortey is one of those rare science writers that combines a gift for explanation with the rare feat of being a great writer and often invokes a Saganesque beauty of science. His description of tetrapods wandering across Pangaea as 'perfectly pandemic perambulation' and his constant inclusion of numberless quotes of fine literature and poetry sucks the reader in (in a way another British science author, w
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Dec 17, 2010
Steve
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Fortey has provided an accessible and highly informative account of evolution. The book follows a line of development which mirrors ‘stratigraphy’ – the study of sedimentary rocks and the fossil faunas they contain, thus dating the emergence of all life-forms - in following a linear trajectory through history of life on Earth. What such analysis reveals is that there have been clear moments in the history of the Earth in which a cataclysmic event, such as the impact of a great meteorite, or an i
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Feb 08, 2012
Only into Chapter 2 but I can tell, as interesting as the topic is, its going to end up being one of those texts that I would have spent a wee bit more time editing down. I would wager that a good 50 pages could be excised without hurting the style or content a bit.
The author attempts to make the subject matter accessible to the layman by interject personal history, anecdotes and humor while covering 3,500 million years of life in 350 or so pages. The mesh is usually awkward, and the More...
The author attempts to make the subject matter accessible to the layman by interject personal history, anecdotes and humor while covering 3,500 million years of life in 350 or so pages. The mesh is usually awkward, and the More...
Oct 21, 2011
Emma
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I started off really loving this book but by the end of it I wasn't so sure I was that taken with it.
I am a big fan of Fortey's writing style and the personal experiences he recounts but by the end of the book I felt as though these experiences were taking up space that could have been given to the story of Life. There is a few billion years to work with after all. I would have liked to have seen more in depth discussion throughout the book and more on subjects such as terrestrial inve More...
I am a big fan of Fortey's writing style and the personal experiences he recounts but by the end of the book I felt as though these experiences were taking up space that could have been given to the story of Life. There is a few billion years to work with after all. I would have liked to have seen more in depth discussion throughout the book and more on subjects such as terrestrial inve More...
Oct 08, 2011
QueenOfSwords
rated it:
I like better the title of my own copy of this book, “Life: An Unauthorized Biography”, as this is indeed the biography of life, since its birth, shrouded in mystery, going through its long infancy of bacteria and stromatolites, its youth of excess after the Cambrian Explosion, its blooming and its crises, with species rising and vanishing or becoming other species, until the present and us; the growth of the Tree of Life that, as Darwin said, is indeed beautiful, the most beautiful thing that e
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Sep 07, 2011
Cassandra
rated it:
Of the two books I have read by this author. His book entitled Earth was much better than this. This was still fairly comprehensive for the size and was enjoyable in a sense, but I think the writing was not as good and the layout was a bit less well conceived. I should have liked this one better for subject matter alone but he really does a wonderful job from the geology perspective, much more than the biology side of things.
Dec 29, 2011
Jordan
rated it:
It sprawls a little but it's a great history of life and had some really beautiful and thoughtful moments. One of my favourite all-time books.
Mar 24, 2011
Definitely interesting. It gets a little dense at times, but very accessible science for curious minds....and typical fiction readers.
Jun 24, 2011
... Fortey's paleontological history of the earth from the very first life forms through to the emergence of man...
Jan 17, 2011
Alan
rated it:
Good summary of the history of life on Earth. I got annoyed by his writing, though.
Sep 05, 2011
A.
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Mr. Fortey is a grand old man of science and a great pleasure to read. This book made me smile and outright laugh on many occasions due to his sense of humor.
Sep 04, 2007
Jerome
rated it:
A fun book about basically the first four billion years. Richard Fortey's a charismatic writer and just makes you want to dig for trilobite fossils. He doesn't go into too much detail but explains just enough to make casual readers interested and think about (oh dear here I go) the wonders of life. Not something I would give as Xmas presents to hardcore Creationists...LOL
Apr 01, 2011
Adrian
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Encyclopedic overview of a truly overwhelming topic. The author is clearly passionate about his topic, and communicates it wonderfully.
Feb 26, 2008
Julia
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This guy can really write. Everything you ever wanted to know about the beginning of life is in this book and more. He adds a personal touch by talking about the scientists who made some of these discoveries as well as his own experiences. A very rewarding read.
Mar 03, 2008
Susan
rated it:
Very well-written. Very literate writer. I didn't learn much new about the topic, but the writing is so beautiful it was a lovely review.
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Apr 17, 2007
Boniva
rated it:
Read twice. Want to go back & read it again & again. Beautiful, eloquent history of the development of early life on our planet.
Feb 11, 2012
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