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thecrookedspine's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
5.0
This book should be required reading for the human race. I’m not saying it’s the perfect book, but the information Helen Scales conveys and the clarity with which she conveys it are invaluable, necessary, and exigent.
The first half of the book introduces us to an incredible cast of unique characters that exist in the deepest, darkest reaches of the ocean, living strange and hidden lives. Learning about them was extremely interesting and it was clear through her writing that Helen Scales has a lot of passion and love for these beings. For my part, I feel that visually seeing them was important to fully engaging though, so I highly recommend the documentaries that can be found free on YouTube by a channel called Natural World Facts, which focuses heavily on the deep sea and does a wonderful job. Their footage is astonishing and they’re incredibly informative pieces. Here’s a link to a documentary they did on chemosynthetic oases: https://youtu.be/1LrcTa0dDmw?si=45bNvazdpKCO1Q5H
The second half though is where this book really becomes mandatory reading. Scales begins to go over some of the struggles the oceans and our new friends from the first half of the book are facing as the planet faces more and more human impact, and crucially she speaks of things which have yet to happen but which are being planned, perhaps most notably (though not exclusively) deep sea mining. If you’ve not heard of this Last Week Tonight with John Oliver recently did an episode on this, which it seems to me they took directly from reading this book, so if you want to get a brief synopsis of this issue you can also find that here: https://youtu.be/qW7CGTK-1vA?si=E05-vKmGfRiF9oE
There are some reviews for this book here on Goodreads which I’ve seen that are extremely reductive, claiming that Scales is saying we only harm the ocean, that we should stop interacting with it in any way, stop fishing, stop investigating, stop everything all at once, right now. I want to be clear that in no way does she advocate for any such thing in this book. This is an extremely reasonable, science-lead woman who wants to preserve the oceans for the sake of every being on the planet, including people, and wants to make use of it for people, too. She advocates for using the deep sea as a source for new medicines, and she advocates for responsible fishing, and continued scientific research. I think above all else she advocates for relationship to the sea, looking beneath the surface to see the impact we make beneath the waves and recognizing the fellowship of the life it holds. And that is something that would enrich us all, make us stronger in the fight against climate change, and make our world 75% bigger and bluer.
I highly recommend this book. No, it’s not perfect, but that’s not the point.
The first half of the book introduces us to an incredible cast of unique characters that exist in the deepest, darkest reaches of the ocean, living strange and hidden lives. Learning about them was extremely interesting and it was clear through her writing that Helen Scales has a lot of passion and love for these beings. For my part, I feel that visually seeing them was important to fully engaging though, so I highly recommend the documentaries that can be found free on YouTube by a channel called Natural World Facts, which focuses heavily on the deep sea and does a wonderful job. Their footage is astonishing and they’re incredibly informative pieces. Here’s a link to a documentary they did on chemosynthetic oases: https://youtu.be/1LrcTa0dDmw?si=45bNvazdpKCO1Q5H
The second half though is where this book really becomes mandatory reading. Scales begins to go over some of the struggles the oceans and our new friends from the first half of the book are facing as the planet faces more and more human impact, and crucially she speaks of things which have yet to happen but which are being planned, perhaps most notably (though not exclusively) deep sea mining. If you’ve not heard of this Last Week Tonight with John Oliver recently did an episode on this, which it seems to me they took directly from reading this book, so if you want to get a brief synopsis of this issue you can also find that here: https://youtu.be/qW7CGTK-1vA?si=E05-vKmGfRiF9oE
There are some reviews for this book here on Goodreads which I’ve seen that are extremely reductive, claiming that Scales is saying we only harm the ocean, that we should stop interacting with it in any way, stop fishing, stop investigating, stop everything all at once, right now. I want to be clear that in no way does she advocate for any such thing in this book. This is an extremely reasonable, science-lead woman who wants to preserve the oceans for the sake of every being on the planet, including people, and wants to make use of it for people, too. She advocates for using the deep sea as a source for new medicines, and she advocates for responsible fishing, and continued scientific research. I think above all else she advocates for relationship to the sea, looking beneath the surface to see the impact we make beneath the waves and recognizing the fellowship of the life it holds. And that is something that would enrich us all, make us stronger in the fight against climate change, and make our world 75% bigger and bluer.
I highly recommend this book. No, it’s not perfect, but that’s not the point.
lalawoman416's review against another edition
4.0
My five year old recommended it. Lol. Not really, but he's really into marine paleontology & biology right now and so this seemed necessary to communicate with him.
somesnarksareboojums's review against another edition
informative
3.0
a bit slow and a bit too preachy for my 100% liking, but not bad.
thoughton98's review against another edition
5.0
My third popular science book of the year, this fascinating tale about the deep sea explores the lesser-known species, the most unexplored regions and the growing threats to both - particularly from the impacts of undersea mining. The final chapters are particularly moving in terms of the call-to-arms, especially as this is a region that people rarely focus on and consider it to be relatively devoid of life. Therefore a fascinating but equally tragic read!
stephen_baird's review against another edition
4.0
Though my main reading genre at the moment is speculative fiction I really love reading well-written books on science and aspects of the planet, especially nature writing.
This is a well-written book, covering one of the most unexplored areas of the planet, The Deep Abyss.
In the first part of the book we explore various habitats with Dr. Helen Scales, revealing some truly wondrous examples of animals such as the Scaly-foot snail with a shell made from iron, jelly creatures of all shapes and function, lantern fish, and so much more. Detailing intricate webs of dependency and extremely localised habitats with unique species, but also expanding the view on how much actually lives in the abyss.
The detailed explanations revealed a passion about the abyss which then transferred to the next sections where Dr. Scales described the possible consequences of mass exploitation of this habitat and how it would most likely be wiped out due to the type of species that lived there (slow growing and eveloping), but also gave solutions to stop this.
I really enjoyed the writing style which was in depth enough to give detail without being too brief to fit a lot in, Dr. Scales obvious passion shines throughout. Lots of new information (to me) kept me riveted from start to finish.
I was given this for an honest review by NetGalley.
This is a well-written book, covering one of the most unexplored areas of the planet, The Deep Abyss.
In the first part of the book we explore various habitats with Dr. Helen Scales, revealing some truly wondrous examples of animals such as the Scaly-foot snail with a shell made from iron, jelly creatures of all shapes and function, lantern fish, and so much more. Detailing intricate webs of dependency and extremely localised habitats with unique species, but also expanding the view on how much actually lives in the abyss.
The detailed explanations revealed a passion about the abyss which then transferred to the next sections where Dr. Scales described the possible consequences of mass exploitation of this habitat and how it would most likely be wiped out due to the type of species that lived there (slow growing and eveloping), but also gave solutions to stop this.
I really enjoyed the writing style which was in depth enough to give detail without being too brief to fit a lot in, Dr. Scales obvious passion shines throughout. Lots of new information (to me) kept me riveted from start to finish.
I was given this for an honest review by NetGalley.
angeliqueazul's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0