Otherlands: A World in the Making - A Sunday Times bestseller

Product Information

A brilliant series of reconstructions of life in the deep past, richly imagined from the fine details of the fossil record... A real achievement... Reading Halliday's book is as near to the experience of visiting these ancient worlds as you are likely to get Jon Turney, Arts Desk Otherlands is one of those rare books that's both deeply informative and daringly imaginative. It will change the way you look at the history of life, and perhaps also its future Elizabeth Kolbert, author of THE SIXTH EXTINCTION Daniel Yacoubian (Horus)—A US Military general who is involved in the power plays in the Grail Brotherhood. Thomas Halliday's debut is a kaleidoscopic and evocative journey into deep time. He takes quiet fossil records and complex scientific research and brings them alive - riotous, full-coloured and three-dimensional. You'll find yourself next to giant two-metre penguins in a forested Antarctica 41 million years ago or hearing singing icebergs in South Africa some 444 million years ago. Maybe most importantly, Otherlands is a timely reminder of our planet's impermanence and what we can learn from the past Williams, Tad (2013), "The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story", in Adams, John Joseph; Cohen, Douglas (eds.), Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, Las Vegas, NV: 47 North, pp.84–123, ISBN 9781611099041

In January 2012, Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to the Otherland novels. The producer of the planned feature film was set to be Dan Lin, and the script was to be written by John Scott III. [16] As of 2023, no news has surfaced about this adaptation and it is presumed to no longer be in production. Otherlands is one of those rare books that are both deeply informative and daringly imaginative. It will change the way you look at the history of life, and perhaps also its future.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future This book is an exploration of the Earth as it used to exist, the changes that have occurred during its history, and the ways that life has found to adapt―or not. It takes us from the savannahs of Pliocene Kenya to watch a python chase a group of australopithecines into an acacia tree; to a cliff overlooking the salt pans of the empty basin of what will be the Mediterranean Sea just as water from the Miocene Atlantic Ocean spills in; into the tropical forests of Eocene Antarctica; and under the shallow pools of Ediacaran Australia, where we glimpse the first microbial life. By studying the distant past, Halliday can envision prospective climate change scenarios. Depending on how much CO 2is emitted, the Earthcould very well be heading towards Eocene-temperature levels far faster than any underlying long term paleontology-cycle would suggest. Vivid . . . An intricate analysis of our planet’s interconnected past, it is impossible to come away from Otherlands without awe for what may lie ahead.” — IndependentKaleidoscopic and evocative . . . [Halliday] takes quiet fossil records and complex scientific research and brings them alive—Maybe most important, Otherlands is a timely reminder of our planet’s impermanence and what we can learn from the past.” —Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature Florimel—A German woman who is just as strong-willed as Renie, although not as forthright with her story and motivation. Halliday takes us on a journey into deep time in this epic book, showing us Earth as it used to be and the worlds that were here before ours ‘The Hottest Books of the Year Ahead’, Independent

A kaleidoscopic and evocative journey into deep time" (Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature), from the Ice Age to the first appearance of microbial life 550 million years ago, by a brilliant young paleobiologist.Hideki Kunohara—a Japanese man of unknown allegiances who nevertheless owns private space on the Otherland network. Imagine the history of life on Earth as a road across Australia, Thomas Halliday suggests. You, in the present day, are in the centre of Adelaide, South Australia. The Last Universal Common Ancestor, an unknown organism that probably lurked by a deep-sea volcanic vent about four billion years ago, is in Darwin, on the north coast. Otherlands review: A fascinating journey through Earth's history". New Scientist. January 19, 2022. Vivid . . . An intricate analysis of our planet's interconnected past, it is impossible to come away from Otherlands without awe for what may lie ahead.” — Independent

Robert Wells (Ptah)—head of the Telemorphix Corporation and one of the wealthiest men in the world. He tries to wrest power from Jongleur. Christabel Sorensen—a girl of approximately 7 or 8 years who has a special friendship with the strange old man Mr. Sellars. She is unaware that Sellars is under house arrest, and willingly helps him with his plans. The world on which we live is "undoubtedly a human planet", Thomas Halliday writes in this extraordinary debut. But "it has not always been, and perhaps will not always be". Humanity has dominated the Earth for a tiny fraction of its history. And that History is vast. We tend to lump all dinosaurs, for example, into one period in the distant past. But more time passed between the last diplodocus and the first tyrannosaurus than has passed between the last tyrannosaurus and the present day. A mind-boggling fact. This is a glorious, mesmerising guide to the past 500 million years bought to life by this young palaeobiologist's rich and cinematic writing Ben Spencer, Books of the Year, Sunday TimesThe relevant references are collected paragraph by paragraph in endnotes. One minor annoyance is that Halliday omits the titles of journal articles, which I normally find the most informative bit. No doubt done to save space, I cannot imagine this will bother many people. Johnny "Dread" Wulgaru (Anubis)—a half-Aboriginal Australian psychopath obsessed with rape and murder, employed as an assassin by the Grail Brotherhood. He possesses the ability to mentally interfere with machines, allowing him to do many seemingly impossible things. He refers to this ability as his twist. Halliday is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist. He has held research positions at University College London and the University of Birmingham, and has been part of paleontology field crews in Argentina and India. He holds a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Birmingham, and is a scientific associate of the Natural History Museum. His research combines theoretical and real data to investigate long-term patterns in the fossil record, particularly in mammals. He was the winner of the Linnean Society's John C. Marsden Medal in 2016 [1] and the Hugh Miller Writing Competition in 2018. [2] Remarkable... Ingenious... A work of immense imagination [...] rooted firmly in the actual science Stuart Kelly, Scotsman This is a piece of nature writing that covers millions of years, from the very start of evolution, while capturing the almost unthinkable ways geography has shifted and changed over time. Epic in scope and executed with charming enthusiasm, Otherlands looks set to be a big talking point for fans of non-fiction in 2022 ‘The 15 New Novels And Non-Fiction Books To Read In 2022’, Mr Porter

In this remarkable book, the award-winning scientist Thomas Halliday takes us on a tour of the landscapes, flora and fauna of the distant past." [7] The table below provides more detailed information about the specific locations and periods covered. Vivid... An intricate analysis of our planet's interconnected past, it is impossible to come away from Otherlands without awe for what may lie ahead Amancai Biraben, Independent

Book review: Otherlands: A World In The Making, by Thomas Halliday". www.scotsman.com. 2022-02-09 . Retrieved 2022-08-28. The Happiest Dead Boy in the World" (published in Legends II, edited by Robert Silverberg, from Del Rey/Ballantine/Random House, Hardcover 2003) Gally—a young boy who travels with Paul. He is neither a puppet (non-sentient character) nor a citizen (a human wearing an avatar).