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A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth
- 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters
- Narrated by: Henry Gee
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
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A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth
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Summary
For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place - covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea.
From that first foray to the spread of early hominids, who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you’ve never seen it before.
Life teems through Henry Gee’s lyrical prose - colossal supercontinents drift, collide and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from ‘gregarious’ bacteria populating the seas, to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period, to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long-extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life’s evolutionary steps - from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight - are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.
Critic reviews
"A dazzling, beguiling story...told at an exhilarating pace." (Literary Review)
"Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy reading this book? - Everybody!" (Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel)
"Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years.... Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account...[making] clear sense out of very complex narratives." (The Times)
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What listeners say about A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Pete E
- 09-01-23
So slow and annoying.
The author reads this so slowly it's almost painful, had to speed up the play back but then the stupid sound affects are even more ridiculous, you can't have a sound effect of space objects there's no sound in space! In the end it became too much and I couldn't carry on, such a shame to spoil what could be a brilliant book!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- oliwiagar03
- 20-10-22
Great Book
I originally listened to it as it is part of my course and was a requirement however i enjoyed it far more than i ever expected (i even bought the physical book). At first i found the music and sound effects a bit distracting but after a chapter i got used to it and stared to really like them, they added to the overall experience making it far better. I especially liked the one at the bringing of chapter 7.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dan Edwards creative
- 19-08-22
Really amazing book, didn't like the music
This is a one of those really amazing books that puts everything in perspective. There's so much incredible writing it really is a must-read. I really could have done without the music though - not that the music was bad, it was just distracting and the text didn't need it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard Davies
- 12-01-23
Revelations
From formations, Ice ages, natural selection and apocalyptic endings. A journey of knowledge with mind blowing growth of history, that you could teach every generation in just one reading. Wonderful book
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bunty
- 04-12-21
Fabulous
I loved every minute of this audiobook. Such a wealth of information delivered in language I could understand. I loved the narration too and
was hooked all the way through.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alexander EF McClintock
- 14-10-23
Already listened to it six times
A quite extraordinary book that I’m already listening to for the seventh time - and every time I learn more. I was interested in pre-history before, but now I’m fascinated by it and can’t get enough, but no book I’ve found so far explains things quite so lucidly as this. My one criticism? Wish it was longer.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris
- 09-11-21
Life-force is a real thing
The breadth and depth of this bowled me over. A pageant of fantastical creatures thrown up by evolution march across the pages flaring up and dying away in turn. Most of these names were new to me and I would like to get a print copy to look them up more easily! There is an understandable tendency for humankind to consider itself the apotheosis and indeed the whole point of creation. This is firmly debunked. He shows that in during the short history of hominins, Homo Sapiens barely clung to existence for most of this time and could easily have been wiped out had a major volcanic event occurred a few tens of thousands of years earlier. He sees extinction as our inevitable fate too. Ironically, our current greenhouse gas emissions will only delay the onset of the next inevitable ice age which could come on in the space of only a human lifetime.
I enjoyed the very articulate narration (needed for those tricksy names!) and I thought that the music and sound effects complimented the presentation very well . I could not recommend this book more highly.
PS I've now bought a hard copy and the copious notes add interesting background to the story
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vee
- 02-03-23
Excellent book
Great short story about so so much, I never thought possible! Must”read for everyone.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 27-12-22
Distracting sound effects
Might be a good book, but found the sound effects increasingly irritating and finally couldn't take any more and gave up
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ian.J
- 20-11-23
Horrible background music
The Music does nothing for this book. The last chapter is more a work of fiction than fact!
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