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  • Otherlands

  • A World in the Making
  • By: Thomas Halliday
  • Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
  • Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (207 ratings)
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Otherlands cover art

Otherlands

By: Thomas Halliday
Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

A dazzlingly original, lyrical and epic encounter with the Earth as it used to be.

What would it be like to visit the ancient landscapes of the past? To experience the Jurassic or Cambrian worlds, to wander among these other lands, as creatures extinct for millions of years roam? In this mesmerizing debut, award-winning palaeontologist Thomas Halliday gives us a breath-taking up-close encounter with worlds that are normally unimaginably distant.

Journeying backwards in time from the most recent Ice Age to the dawn of complex life itself, and across all seven continents, Halliday immerses us in a series of extinct ecosystems, each one rendered with a novelist's eye for detail and drama. Yet every description - whether the colour of a beetle's shell, the rhythm of pterosaurs in flight or the lingering smell of sulphur in the air - is grounded in fact. We visit the birthplace of humanity in Pliocene-era Kenya; in the Jurassic, we wander among dinosaur-inhabited islands in the Mediterranean; and we gaze at the light of an enormous moon in the Ediacaran sky, when life hasn't yet reached land.

Otherlands is a naturalist's travel guide, albeit one of lands distant in time rather than space, showing us the last 500 million years not as an endless expanse of unfathomable time, but as a series of worlds, simultaneously fantastical and familiar.

©2022 Thomas Halliday (P)2022 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about Otherlands

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Fascinating.

Not being a writer myself I'm going to find it very hard to type a review that does this title justice. The author's use of language paints such a vivid picture at each point in time I could almost be there myself. My only criticism is I wanted more, a lot more.

A wonderful book.

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4 people found this helpful

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Looking through a glass darkly

Fantastic flight through time unimaginable. The author brings the deep past into context linking it seamlessly into lessons for our modern world. Narrated in a really first class fashion it kept me hooked from beginning to end.

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3 people found this helpful

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Superb

Written, researched and narrated perfectly. This is a chronological walk back into environments of the past. Arriving at the earliest forms of life and bringing awareness to our chance existence on this fragile, mysterious, beautiful and enigmatic planet.

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1 person found this helpful

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The best-written science book I've ever read

What makes this book truly exceptional is not just the fascinating subject matter, but how beautifully well written it is. Halliday is an exceptionally gifted literary talent, and he brings the strange worlds of the past vividly alive. A masterpiece.

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1 person found this helpful

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Brilliant!

The most fantastic story, superbly told and gorgeously narrated.
Don’t leave many reviews but this one deserves the effort.
The writing is masterful - he has conjured worlds for me in glorious technicolour and filled them with insight and detail.
The narrator is, no other word for it, perfect.
This was a joy to listen to on every level. Brilliant!

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1 person found this helpful

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Fantastic!

An excellent book, giving an accessible snapshot of some of the key geological periods in Earth history, leading the reader to follow up with further reading if interested. This book allows you to put yourself in each location/time, so you can see and understand what is happening around you.

Narration was fantastic too. would thoroughly recommend.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Incredible voice art!

Beautifully read, there’s no way I could have finished this if I was reading it. So much scientific language.
I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum so I will say I have some interesting facts from this book.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Favourite book of the year

A truly wonderful book. A fascinating journey through time, colourfully described, and excellently narrated. my top book of the year

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Mind blowing!

I would make this book compulsory reading in every school. The depth of knowledge is outstanding. While it is incredibly scientific, the information is easily accessed. Beautifully written and beautifully read. I have listened to it 3 times already.

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Totally enthralling

This book is gripping. There is so much information here I will have to listen to it again and I plan to buy the written work so that I can make notes.

I have seen Thomas Halliday talk about his work at a local literary festival and he gives a fascinating presentation.

This book would make an amazing TV series.

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