A very interesting audiobook and concept.
Although I enjoyed it took a little while to get into the narration.
Overall was thought provoking and I learned a lot listening to this one!

I loved this book and found it an easy and informative read. Science has never been my strong suit, and the author made it fun without being dense. I look forward to reading more from her.

This was not a quick read for me, but I found myself picking it up and enjoying in sections. I think this is a book that will stay with me. It was a book that made me pause to reflect. Sometimes I enjoyed that, and sometimes real life was too much for that to be enjoyable. I especially think all the AI discussion will be something I think about for a long time after this book. For science nerds or those curious about evolution of life on our planet, this is a great book!

This highly academic content was very well written. I was engaged in the material from start to finish.

The idea of epigenetics was particularly interesting to me. Lamarckism is "the idea that organisms can actively acquire new traits in their own lifetimes, according to need." The Holocene mass extinction is also of great interest. How can we stop this devastation in its tracks?

The 10.5 species that were presented were fascinating and relevant. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the world we live in.

Described as 'thought provoking' this book by Marianne Taylor definitely met everything that it was advertised to be. I enjoyed the witty banter, the opportunities for science geekiness, and even more the way in which Taylor chose to deliver her book. This would make the perfect gift for so many people.

I asked for this book because I was intrigued: what are the ten species that could represent life on Earth?
It was even better considering that these species are a way to explain key events or key elements of the story of life on Earth. From bio-engineering to evolution, from extinction to the future of humanity, the subjects are interesting and well explained. It was sometimes a bit complicated for me to follow because of the scientific words employed, but it was still captivating most of the time. I learnt many things, I remembered others and I'm still interesting in all these subjects to read other non-fictions about them!
My only regret is that my e-reader doesn't provide colors! This book is illustrated with photos of the species and other animals mentioned: it must be even better with colors! I also appreciated that there were graphs, drawings and other such things to explain some ideas.


So, an interesting book in which I learnt many things; I would be interested to own it to flip through it now and then!

Such an interesting and fun book. I really like the idea behind it and the way it shared the valuable information. It was great to read it, and gave me lots of talking points and ideas for little lessons and crafts, with my daughter, based round species and the story of life on earth, and in our solar system. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it, as a great informative read.

I simply LOVED this book. It almost reads like a novel.
As a kid, I loved biology. I'd take my older sister's textbooks and I'd read them when I didn't have any novels from the library. I loved finding out how species work, how organisms evolve and how the hell a plant can create the oxygen that I need to survive.
I remember my sister drawing the process of photosynthesis for me when I asked her how a mandarin slice is created. I listened to her with my mouth open in amazement. I was 10, so that was understandable.
Well this book brought all that back.
Marianne has a way of telling the story in a way that you almost don't notice all the heavy science she throws at you, but when you look back at what you've just read you realize that you now know what the basis of life, creation of glucose, formation of proteins or whatever else looks like. She keeps you interested from chapter to chapter and you can't help but turn the page.
She also makes you understand our place, humans' place in this ever-changing story that is life.
In addition to this, THE PHOTOS! oh my god the photos here. Simply amazing.
I'm sure if we'd had this book as our highschool biology textbook for seniors, our average class grade would have been at least a grade higher.

This book was fairly interesting for people who would like a snapshot into a select few species and how their life cycle goes. I liked how the variety proved the author's point that life on Earth is varied and complex. However, it isn't the easiest read and I won't lie, I skipped a few sections if I got bored of that species' "story."

The Story of Life in 10 1/2 Species, by author, illustrator and photographer Marianne Taylor, must be the most interesting, beautifully designed and enlightening book about biology I’ve ever read. Packed with colourful illustrations, graphics and photos, it is also firmly rooted in rigorous science and doesn’t shun complexity.

The premise of the book is surprising: “If an alien visitor were to collect ten souvenir life forms to represent life on earth, which would they be?” Taylor uses soft-shelled turtle, Darwin’s finches, the giraffe and other living organisms as a springboard to survey the long evolution of life on Earth and break down the intricacies -and in some cases the subjectivity- of taxonomy.

The fern, for example, opens up observations about the formation of oxygen in the atmosphere, about chlorophyll and the fact that “before there was life there was chemistry.”

Nautiluses have changed very little over the past 500 million years. Taylor explains how these “living fossils” survived 5 catastrophic mass extinctions. And yet, today they need to be protected from human activities. Already threatened by pollution and climate change, the molluscs are also hunted for sale as live animals or for their shells.

The chapter about humans is a humbling one. It comes after the chapter on sponges, animals that have no organs, no circulation, no digestive systems, no distinct body parts. The human species has all of the above, plus an impressive list of evils: it is hyper-predatory, obsessed with domestication and it thrives at the expense of all other living things. The section also rehabilitates Neanderthal men. They were great apes too and were as quick-thinking and as societally advanced as we are today.

The chapter on the stick insect of Lord Howe Island does restore a tiny bit of faith in humanity. The story of the massive insect offers lessons about Lazarus species (organisms thought extinct and rediscovered), life in an ultra hostile environment and the phenomena of island gigantism and island dwarfism but it also shows that many surviving species are dependant on human conservation efforts. If we disappear the least adaptable will fall into the “evolutionary dead-end” category.

The giraffe (Latin name: Camelopardalis!) tells about the inbreeding depression. A low population is accompanied by a drop in genetic diversity which can concentrate harmful genetic mutations that further weakens the population as a whole and slows down its potential rate of evolution.

The author uses the dusky seaside sparrow and the many, unsuccessful programs put in place to save it from extinction, as an opportunity to look at cloning technologies, genetic engineering and other tools at the disposal of conservationists to “rebuild” a species that is extinct or about to be extinct.

The “half” species in the title is artificial intelligence. That section is a bit of an odd one. It crams together the “artificial selection” imposed on cultivated crops and domesticated animals, genetic engineering, cybernetics, the marriage of living tissue to non-living components, etc. Its conclusion suggests a planet in the throes of mass extinction and powered by flying robot pollinators and artificial photosynthesis. Nothing to be cheerful about but Taylor keeps such a good balance between reasons to despair and reasons to keep the hope alive that I almost forgot to be angry about what we’re doing to the other inhabitants of planet Earth.

A clever way of telling about life on our planet via 10 different species. It’s a good lesson in biology for both young adults and adults. The pictures and info graphics are both visually great and informative. This is not hardcore science written to other scientists, but a good approach to reach anyone and everyone.

I would be interested in knowing how these ten species were chosen. Not an easy decision to make, because there are so many species out there, despite the sixth mass extinction. I always find it good to go back to the basics and read about these things, just to get a reminder, but also to get an update. There are many things we constantly learn about, so it’s good to keep a tab on things.

It’s hard to choose which chapter is my favorite, because they are all good and informative. The chapter about giraffes is great, even though I knew about the species, and subspecies, but since it’s fairly new information I think it’s good to spread the news. What I haven’t read about before is Lord Howe Island and stick insects. Also very interesting.

A beautiful and thought-provoking book about life on Earth. It is written in an accessible way but covers so broad range of topics that will interest every reader, from a student to an adult with a keen interest in biology. The science is very up-to-date, with mentions about the newest discoveries, the coronavirus pandemic, and experiments in creating artificial life.

I will definitely buy a hardcover edition and will come back to this book many times. My only complaint is about the selection of presented species - I wish there would be a section on some of my favorites, like octopi or tardigrades, but I guess it had to be arbitrary.

Thanks to the publisher, MIT Press, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Learning about ferns being one of the first plants is cool, but having information on Covid-19 when we are still elbow deep in it does not lead me to believe that they have the ample research for this book.

Great lessons in biology

I enjoyed this book. It is a unique way to learn about biology, using different species to learn specific lessons. The writing is conversational, with a sense of humor and some clever wording. All the biology discussed is at a lay level with great explanations. The art in the book is beautiful. I recommend this book for anyone interested in biology. Even with a biology background, I found the book a pleasure to read.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

It is wonderful science picture book. It describes various aspects of life with the help of different species. Species chosen are unique and provide perspective of evolution at different times.
Information is excellent and interesting.
Tribolites and viruses are fascinating to read.
Pictures are awesome.
It is a little difficult at places where information is packed tightly.
But a very good book to have a look on our place in biodiversity. It is an eye-opener towards general negligence towards importance of all species in balance of biosphere.
Thanks netgalley and the publisher for review copy.

First thing to point out that this author has many wonderful books on similar non-fiction titles, so there will be those looking for this title in your library. The infographic styling in the book will appeal to both teen and adult readers. The breakdown of each topic is helpful for dusting off your knowledge on concepts like classification and organic chemistry. Color photos of the species mentioned help the reader connect as many might not have seen some of them. Each species has a breakdown that helps understand why it was selected for this publication with explanation like bottleneck genetics, hybrids, evolution. This book is a great first step but isn't a deep dive on any one of the species, which the author acknowledges in the introduction, more of an overview if an alien was to arrive upon our planet and wanted to get a "picture of complexity" of our world.

I did not read the entire text, and therefore can't make reference to how accurate the science. There is a discussion about Darwin and theory of evolution. The section with viruses is helpful, but based on publication timetable, what it mentions about Covid-19 will be outdated (as Covid-19 continues to evolve and the details in the book are from March 2020) as this book is being published in October.

Imagine someone inviting you to be the first to sample their culinary skills and then serving you an undercooked unseasoned meal, essentially not even so much a meal as a just a slab of meat or tofu and saying…well, that’s the gist of it, you get the idea, it’s going to be great once it’s done, but can you just review this as is and maybe write up something about to promote it? That would be pretty crazy, wouldn’t it. And yet, time and again certain publishers decide that’s a totally ok thing to do on Netgalley and lamentably this was very much the case with this book. A well written informative interesting book that was nearly impossible to enjoy due to the terribly unfinished formatting. This even had all the right ingredients, but mostly you only knew that from reading about it…such as (like all nonfiction books ought to and few do satisfactory) this one provided tons of visual materials, charts, photos, graphs, etc. We know this because their descriptions are left intact, but the material itself didn’t make it into the ARC version with exception of some photos. And this is very much the sort of book that needed the visual aid, because it was structured around I, much like a textbook, albeit more engaging. The text itself is all over the place too, but readable. And I suppose the publishers decided that was enough, just throw some readable text out there and see how the readers like it. Well, not that much. Frankly, it’s really frustrating. That was the main experience here. Probably not what they were going for, but there it is. I mean, yes, I can objectively say that once properly published, with all of its contents intact, this’ll be a worthy read. It’s interesting, it’s smart, it’s worth stumbling through some of the early chapters’ chemistry to learn all about various species, living and long gone, and what it says about our planet, evolution and future. There’s tons of science, most of it accessible, and tons of food for thought, all of it digestible…albeit a somewhat grim meal, since we are technically living through yet another extinction and this one is all manmade. The author made interesting selections to represents the story of our world, some obvious, some not, but all fascinating to learn about. This isn’t just a biology lesson, this goes well beyond flora and fauna to involve every aspect of the natural world, because, after all, it is all intricately interconnected. It’s engaging, well presented (well, it would have been had it been complete) and thoroughly edifying. If, like me, your main goal with nonfiction is continuous self education, this’ll certainly meet and exceed your autodidactic needs. I would have definitely rated this book higher, but it’s impossible to do that for the condition in which it was presented, because mainly my reviews are meant to represent a personal reading experience and this one was just too frustrating. So yeah, reader beware. Maybe wait for the properly published version. Thanks Netgalley.