Book review: Otherlands: A World In The Making, by Thomas Halliday". www.scotsman.com. 2022-02-09 . Retrieved 2022-08-28. Otherlands is an exceptional debut that can be savoured like a fine wine. I found myself reciting passages to anyone within earshot. Beyond a fascinating tour of extinct lifeforms, Halliday’s carefully crafted yet poetic descriptions of scientific concepts are a masterclass in spellbinding science communication. Sweet William-an elderly British man wearing the avatar of a vampire. He and Martine seem to know each other. Like Florimel, he is also silent about his personal life. Journey into Otherland". IGN. August 15, 2011. Archived from the original on October 4, 2011 . Retrieved August 15, 2011. Writing with gusto and bravado [...] Halliday has honed a unique voice... Otherlands is a verbal feast. You feel like you are there on the Mammoth Steppe, some 20,000 years ago, as frigid winds blow off the glacial front... Along the way, we learn astounding facts Steve Brusatte, Scientific American

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE •“One of those rare books that’s both deeply informative and daringly imaginative.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky inquisitivebiologist (2022-03-15). "Book review – Otherlands: A World in the Making". The Inquisitive Biologist . Retrieved 2022-08-28.Gally—a young boy who travels with Paul. He is neither a puppet (non-sentient character) nor a citizen (a human wearing an avatar).

Description of the specific location and time frame of each chapter within the book, "Otherlands." "Otherlands" & Thomas Halliday on climate change [ edit ] Halliday’s brilliantly imaginative reconstructions, his deft marshalling of complex science, offersa thrilling experience of deep-time naturefor pop-science buffs.” — Library Journal (starred review) An extraordinary history of our almost-alien Earth... Epically cinematic... The writing is so palpably alive. A book of almost unimaginable riches. It is a book that will make its own solid and lasting contribution. It could well be the best I read in 2022 - and I know it's only January James McConnachie, Sunday Times A bracing pleasure for Earth-science buffs and readers interested in diving into deep history." [5] 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.” — IndependentA mesmerising journey into those vast stretches of Earth's pre-history that lie behind us, on such a scale that you experience a kind of temporal vertigo just thinking about it... [Halliday is] a brilliant writer, his lyrical style vividly conjuring myriad lost worlds... It's obviously a bit of a gamble choosing one's Book of the Year in March - but there's a very good chance already that mine will be Otherlands. Stunning Christopher Hart, Mail on Sunday

Daniel Yacoubian (Horus)—A US Military general who is involved in the power plays in the Grail Brotherhood. McConnachie, James (January 30, 2022). "Otherlands by Thomas Halliday review — an extraordinary history of our almost-alien Earth". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 2022-08-28.This study of our prehistoric earth is "beyond cinematic", James McConnachie says. "It could well be the best book I read in 2022 Robbie Millen and Andrew Holgate, Books of the Year, Sunday Times 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 Remarkable... Ingenious... A work of immense imagination [...] rooted firmly in the actual science Stuart Kelly, Scotsman 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 Halliday immerses us in a series of ancient landscapes, from the mammoth steppe in Ice Age Alaska to the lush rainforests of Eocene Antarctica, with its colonies of giant penguins, to Ediacaran Australia, where the moon is far brighter than ours today. We visit the birthplace of humanity; we hear the crashing of the highest waterfall the Earth has ever known; and we watch as life emerges again after the asteroid hits, and the age of the mammal dawns. These lost worlds seem fantastical and 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 the fossil record.

Halliday uncovers for the lay public the vast changes in fauna, flora, topography, and climate over the past 555 million years. He observes cyclical changes, including cycles of ice ages and climate warming, and periods of mass extinction followed by periods of mass flourishing. However at each renewal, life takes on completely different forms that are adapted to the new environmental conditions. Thus, life goes on but species do not. Looking forward on a paleontology time scale, humankind will inevitably go extinct. A sweeping, lyrical biography of Earth -- the geology, the biology, the extinctions and the ever-shifting ecology that defines our living planet Adam Rutherford, BBC Radio 4 Start the Week Evolutionary biologist Halliday takes an energizing spin through Earth's past in his magnificent debut...This show-stopping work deserves wide readership." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)On October 9, 2014, Drago Entertainment revealed that it had taken over the game's development. [13] The game was preparing for early access through Steam in August 2015, [14] but the release was postponed until September 10 due to bug problems in the U.S. and German servers. After releasing through Steam Early Access, Otherland's development woes continued. The game was removed from the Steam store due to alleged technical issues on January 28, 2016. [15] The game became available again on October 4, 2016. Servers for the game were shut down permanently on September 23, 2021. 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. 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. Hideki Kunohara—a Japanese man of unknown allegiances who nevertheless owns private space on the Otherland network.