A really interesting idea, well executed. The explanations of the ecosystems and the way they were filled seem plausible to me (a complete amateur, to be fair) and the illustrations, which range from uncanny valley to outright horror, have enough cohesiveness to suggest a real world. ( )

I remember thinking this was stupid ( )

I remember thinking this was stupid ( )

This book is very, very pretty, and also a fascinating excercise in worldbuilding for the fun of it. It describes a postulated future Earth, 50 million years from now, built on the remains of a world which was devastated by mankind and then regenerated after Man wiped himself out.

It's a wonderful demonstration of evolution in action, with a guide to Earth's evolutionary history in the front, and every new animal described in terms of its evolutionary history and sorted by biome, with gorgeous watercolor illustrations of everything.

I had some difficulties with the book itself, though: firstly, the particular species he chose to wipe out as a results of Mankind, and the species which survived - he thinks rabbits and rats would survive because of their ability to live among human habitats, but not deer, cats, or horses? I'm sure a lot of the individual choices were simply down to what animals he wanted to work with, and what would give cool results, -- and extinctions do often seem utterly arbitrary - but presenting it as the obvious result seems like sloppy thinking.

Much more importantly, though, he focuses entirely on charismatic animals. There is almost no mention of fish or invertebrates, and plant communities - which have if anything been more wholly altered by human action - are left unmentioned and completely unchanged, so that his fantastical rabbucks and giant predatory rats wander through a forest ecosystem of still entirely recognizable modern plants.

I first discovered this book when I was about eight years old in the local library. But then it was stolen so I could no longer drool over the beautifully drawn images. I found it again in later years, thanks to the internet, and it is one of my all-time favourite books. I can't rave about this book enough! ( )