Eileen's Reviews > Underland: A Deep Time Journey

3.5 stars rounded up

This was a fascinating book about the deepest parts of the earth, focusing mostly on science, but touching on the myths and other stories that exist about these places. I really enjoyed this a lot, but I found I had to focus to follow the science. There were times when I just had to pause and listen to something else because this required more of my attention than I was able to give it. That said, there were portions of it that had me hanging on the edge of my seat. For example, I loved the section on fungi and the connection between them in the trees. It was so cool to think of forests as one giant organism rather than as individuals. It made me think of the forest as a multcelled organism and all the trees, plants, fungi, insects, etc., as organelles, working together to strengthen the entire organism. It also made me think about how we have destroyed many of those systems in ignorance.

The section on cave divers made me think about the connection between divers and mountain climbers, extreme on both ends of the earth. Some of the stories were so sad in terms of what happened to the explorers although the author also did a great job of letting us see that they went on their own terms and they wouldn't have had it any other way.

Near the end, when he talks about the places where nuclear wastes are buried, I found it very interesting how they dealt with the wastes and shortly after I read that section, I was having lunch with some friends at church and we started talking about nuclear wastes and alternatives in terms of what they do with them and how they may be able to reused (Canada is using unrefined nuclear material in mini power plants so that they can be reused). In any case, it was rather timely in terms of when I read this and when we had the discussion.

I think this is definitely a book where you could read or reread a chapter here and there. The chapters are extremely long, but the sections are short, so you can definitely read them in bite-sized pieces. If you enjoy learning about the earth, this is definitely a good read and I can highly recommend it. But it definitely requires more of your attention so that if you're looking for a casual read, you might want to put this one off. Regardless, I'm really glad I read this!