Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 in Around the Year in 52 Books

Oct 08, 2014 Book Concierge rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, history, nature, 19th-century, concierge, library, nonfiction, science

Book on CD read by the author.
3.5***

On August 27, 1883 the volcano Krakatoa exploded in a cataclysmic eruption that literally annihilated the island. The explosion resulted in more deaths than any other natural disaster – over 36,000 people lost their lives (most due to the resultant tsunami). This is a natural history of the island, the geological forces that led to its formation, destruction and rebirth, and the aftermath of that event.

The enormous magnitude of this eruption is hard to imagi Book on CD read by the author.
3.5***

On August 27, 1883 the volcano Krakatoa exploded in a cataclysmic eruption that literally annihilated the island. The explosion resulted in more deaths than any other natural disaster – over 36,000 people lost their lives (most due to the resultant tsunami). This is a natural history of the island, the geological forces that led to its formation, destruction and rebirth, and the aftermath of that event.

The enormous magnitude of this eruption is hard to imagine. Dust swirled around the planet for years, resulting in blood-red sunsets as far away as England. Average temperatures dropped worldwide. Barometers in Washington DC and in Columbia were affected. Bodies floated on pumice “islands” as far away as Zanzibar. The sound of the blast was heard in Australia and on islands thousands of miles away. The most surprising effect, to me at least, was the political unrest. A Muslim zealot had predicted a series of events that would herald the coming of the Mahdi and a holy war against the infidel. The eruption and its aftereffects seem to be an exact fit for this prophecy. And the slow response of the ruling Dutch colonists to assist those displaced and injured by the disaster helped fuel in Java a wave of anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims; one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings followed.

Winchester is a geologist as well as a writer, and so is the perfect person to pen this history. However, he seemed determined to include every bit of scientific research he uncovered. The reader must wade through 150 pages (over 3 discs) of background before the eruption begins; I found myself talking back to the CD player “when is it going to explode?!” I’m sure I was influenced by having seen the PBS show about the volcano; I was expecting more action. Still it’s a fascinating story and I was mesmerized for most of it.

Winchester narrated the audio version himself. He does a very a good job of this, though he does tend to sound like a professor delivering a lecture in many sections. The text version has quite a few illustrations and maps which cannot be part of the audio book. The audio also left out the many footnotes (which is NOT a bad thing).

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Jan 08, 2022 Cora rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, asia, science, history, nature, 19th-century, audio-book-at-library, indonesia, disaster, geology

This was an interesting read for me. Although I have heard of Krakatoa, I really did not know much about the volcano or the disaster that resulted from its eruption. Winchester went into great detail about the historical and scientific contexts of the event. He often took the reader on tangents into topics somewhat related to the event. For example he gave the background on the Alfred Wallace/Charles Darwin controversy because Wallace discovered the Wallace line which was important in the develo ...more

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Aug 11, 2015 Wendy rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, audiobooks, science-nature

Living within sight of Mount Fuji, especially after last year's unexpected eruption of nearby Mount Ontake that killed 57 hikers, I can't say that I don't occasionally run through a worst-case scenario of volcanic disaster in my head now and then. Luckily, though Fuji last erupted in 1707 and is supposedly overdue for more action, it likely won't be anything like the 1883 eruption of the Indonesian volano of Krakatoa. Likely. But anything can happen, right?

Well, thanks to the author's thorough s Living within sight of Mount Fuji, especially after last year's unexpected eruption of nearby Mount Ontake that killed 57 hikers, I can't say that I don't occasionally run through a worst-case scenario of volcanic disaster in my head now and then. Luckily, though Fuji last erupted in 1707 and is supposedly overdue for more action, it likely won't be anything like the 1883 eruption of the Indonesian volano of Krakatoa. Likely. But anything can happen, right?

Well, thanks to the author's thorough scientific discussion of tectonic plates and subduction zones and the like, the geological factors that govern volcanoes near Java do not necessarily apply to places like Italy, or Washington State, or Japan. Please don't ask me to repeat the exact scientific explanation...I'm not sure I can do it without referring to notes, despite the fact that I feel readers of Krakatoa should be awarded honorary doctorates in vulcanology for reading this. It's pretty dense, luckily in interesting ways, especially when it comes to the science of Krakatoa, and of the new developments in Victorian science that helped scientists at the time of the eruption to understand the huge global impact that Krakatoa had on the environment. However, I found some of the other digressions less interesting and far more tenuously tangential. The misadventures of a visiting circus elephant may or may not have had anything to do with the mountain's pending eruption, but that didn't stop the author from spending an entire chapter on the incident. And while radical Islam violence against colonial governance did spread throughout Indonesia in the late 19th and early 20th century, I didn't buy the author's argument that the eruption and its aftermath had much to do with it.

I most enjoyed the section following the geological and biological aftermath of the eruption -- how the new Krakatoa has been rising out of the sea, and how it has been colonized (and recolonized, and recolonized ad infinitum each time it erupts) by cast-away seeds, birds, and parachuting spiders. Overall it was a mixed bag of interesting and not-so-interesting (but always very thorough) information. Did it make me more paranoid about living near Fuji? Not particularly, though I am looking forward to the lovely sunsets caused by fine volcanic ash in the atmosphere. Maybe I should take up watercolor, to prepare. ...more

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Aug 11, 2020 Jen K rated it really liked it

The story of the great eruption of the volcano Krakatoa in Indonesia in 1883 is worthy of such an epic book. Winchester thoroughly researched everything related to Krakatoa from well before the eruption to well after the eruption. His history includes the history of the term "continental drift" as well as the nature explorations leading to that research including his own research in Greenland in the 60's, the history of colonialism of Indonesia, the Dutch Indies Company, and life in Indonesia at ...more

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Sep 10, 2016 Nancy rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, non-fiction, science

I listened to this book on audio, read by the author who has a wonderful, melodic and elegant voice and writes in a manner equally as good. There were a couple of occasions he attempted an accent which didn't quite work, but it really was a pleasure to hear him narrate his own book. The story of Krakatoa is fascinating in the extreme, and this book covers it in great detail. Through a combination of history, science and story, the massive explosion in the 1880s simply comes to life. ...more

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Aug 30, 2023 Trish rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, science, src-2023-2-summer

Not intentionally, but I managed to start this book on the 140 anniversary of Krakatoa's final, cataclysmic eruption. I enjoyed the storytelling and the history. I had more trouble keeping up with the science: this was a lot denser and more scientific than other Simon Winchester books I've read, which caught me a bit by surprise. There was quite a long chapter earlier in the book which really stretched my memories of learning about plate tectonics and continental drift in school.

What I hadn't r ...more

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