This book explores the crucial role of prehistoric plants in shaping life on Earth. Fossil records reveal how plants paved the way for animal evolution, from dinosaurs to humans. Using a narrative approach, the book journeys through prehistoric landscapes, highlighting key moments in plant evolution and their impact on the world we know today.

Beautifully written, this captivating book provides an excellent overview of how plant life developed and thrived on Earth. I loved the audio narration. It’s a book worth reading and savoring a second time.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This was a fascinating read about the relationship between prehistoric plants and life on Earth. It was dense and hard to get through it. I will pick up the audio version once it comes out to read it again.

There’s so much information in this book. Written differently, it could be dense or cumbersome. Thankfully the narrative story weaved is so readable and accessible. You don’t need to be science minded to enjoy this.

Riley Black’s The Last Days of the Dinosaurs made my top ten books of the years when it came out (if you haven’t read it, you absolutely should), so I was excited to read her follow-up When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance. I’m happy to report that like its predecessor, it’s an impressive work of popular science marked by wonderful prose and an engaging voice.

The book opens with Black on a dig, frustrated by not finding any sign of the T-Rex fossils she was hunting for, but then happily surprised when she pops up a sheet of sandstone to reveal a beautifully captured fossil leaf that “looked almost new, as if it had just recently wafted down on a later summer breeze . . . I could see everything down to the tiny, branching veins.” Musing on her find, she notes her realization that “What is a Tyrannosaurs without a forest to conceal its shadow as it stalks? What is a Triceratops without a buffet of ferns and cycad fronds to eat?” And thus this book, which takes 15 key moments in time when plants and animals, separately and together within their inseparable connections, changed our planet.

Black starts 1.2 billion years ago in Arctic Canada with the algae Bangiomorpha, which was not only one of the first life forms to make its own food (via photosynthesis) but one of the first to reproduce by sex, allowing for more and faster variety amongst descendants, which meant more adaptability to changing conditions and a greater flowering of life. In clear, lucid language Black concisely explains the rise of photosynthesis, how chloroplasts likely formed, the creation of stromalites (evidence of early life), the increase in atmospheric oxygen, the shift from asexual to sexual reproduction.

From there it’s a jump to 425 million years ago in Oman and shore-dwelling low plants akin to liverworts. Unassuming plants that are the beginning of massive changes due to the ripple effects of oxygenating the air, taking carbon out of the air and burying it as they decompose, weathering down the rocks freeing minerals like calcium to be taken up by creatures that use it for skeletal features, increasing fires, cooling the planet by reducing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and more. Meanwhile, Black reminds us, invertebrates were already crawling around amongst the sand and rocks and plants.

This pattern continues for a total of 15 time slices, including the rise of forests 307 million years ago thanks to the repurposing of lignin inside plant bodies, creating habitats for giant insects and protomammals like Melanedaphodon; an Apatosaurus munching, thanks to an evolved digestive system, on giant conifers, ferns, ginkgoes and monkey puzzle trees in Utah 150 million years ago; and the growing expanse of grasslands in Nebraska 34 million years ago, and their impact on creatures that remained wedded to the forest, like Megacerops, and those who adapted to the new open areas — early horses like Mesohippus.

In each section we get a vivid sense of the world in that particular time and place, clear explanations of changes in plant and animal types and how those plants and animals interacted in their environments, adapting to or driving further changes in the planet. The focus on interaction and the cascade effects are particularly fascinating and one way this book stands out amongst similar titles.

Another way is Black’s prose, which is wonderfully engaging, always crystal clear, and at times nicely lyrical. Technical language is employed, but relatively minimally and always within a clarifying context. Here is an example of one of her most poetic passages:

The entire forest seems to ask for quiet, a long shhh among the trees. Another great autumnal gust sweeps through the woods, shaking multicolored leaves in a susurration so all-encompassing it seems like a soft blanket of sound. Red, yellows, oranges, and a vanishing hint of green wave and flutter, a few leaves carried off to tumble and twirl along the wind.


If I had any complaint or quibble, it’s that the format is more akin to a collection of brief science essays/vignettes, and I wouldn’t have minded a brief “interchapter” (very brief) that acted as some connective tissue by filling in those gaps between time periods via a big picture (what happened to the continents, the atmosphere, etc.). Just a sketch would have been enough for me. As it was, I had to constantly recalibrate as I started a new chapter. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was noticeable.

At the end of the book Black turns more personal, making a connection between her own transition to female and queerness and the wild diversity of life and nature. I'm sure there will be some who prefer she had left the personal out of a popular science book entirely, regardless of topic, and I’m sure there will be some who bridle at the queer/trans reference. I don’t and will never fathom the latter reaction. I have more understanding of the former, though I don’t agree with it; I'm a fan of scientists presenting themselves as people and enjoy the more personal touches. As for this specific example, I found this section both profoundly moving and inspiring, and that to me seems the goal, along with informing, of any good popular science book. And When the Earth Was Green is just that, a very good popular science book.

This book is written like a novel despite being nonfiction, which hooked me from the beginning. It was a lot of information about Earth and its creatures from millions of yeas ago that I enjoyed and didn't know before. The author really told a story with all of the information, and I think everyone should give this book a try.

Riley Black’s When the Earth Was Green is a fascinating deep dive into the incredible history of prehistoric plants and how they’ve shaped life on Earth as we know it. If you think plants just sit around looking pretty, think again—this book will make you see them in a whole new light.

Black has a way of making science feel like storytelling, and I loved how she brought these ancient worlds to life. Whether it’s the towering forests that helped dinosaurs thrive or the swamps that played a role in getting animals onto land, she connects the dots between plants and evolution in a way that’s both eye-opening and easy to follow. You don’t need to be a science buff to enjoy this one—Black breaks it all down in a way that feels natural and engaging.

What really stood out to me is how much plants have quietly shaped everything around us. From fueling evolution to literally making it possible for life to exist, they’ve been the ultimate MVPs of Earth's history. And honestly? I’ll never look at a leaf the same way again.

That said, the book does slow down in parts, especially when it gets into the nitty-gritty of plant evolution. Some chapters felt a little dense, and I found myself wanting to get back to the bigger picture. But Black’s passion for the subject shines through, and it’s worth sticking with it to fully appreciate the journey.

Overall, When the Earth Was Green is a solid read for anyone curious about the hidden world of plants and their role in evolution. It’s a little science-heavy at times, but if you’re into nature, history, or just love learning cool new things, it’s definitely worth a read.

4.5 stars! This book is right up my alley and I was excited to hear more through the evolution of plants throughout time. The narrative was easy to follow although at times had to reflect on what the main takeaways may be for a particular topic. The writing was the perfect blend of prose with scientific fact without trying too hard to make it lyrical. I enjoyed reading this and felt a positive refresh and reset after finishing.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance reader copy.

Riley Black's writing is gorgeous and this book is no exception! If you love plants or dinosaurs or both, then this book that interweaves the history of mostly-land animal and plant life is for you!

The book starts out in our present to set up the story whi begins in the farthest distant past. I adored how each chapter was a time unit in a specific place that came closer and closer to our present and visited locales all around the globe. Through this, Black elicited an emotional response from me about individual animals who show up in our fossil record with examples of thier world and lives during the points of time. She made me care about a mosquito 100 million years ago in Myannmar! Each chapter is a bite from that time and place, putting us on the path to where we are today.

Black's Conclusion has a bit about hope that was especially pertinent to me at the time that I read it and likely will still be necessary. Ultimately, this is a book about hope. We see how all these lives converged to give us what we have now and how it will change and we are contributing to a future.

The appendixes was extremely fun to read to see how and what Black chose for the topic of each chapter.

I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read the audiobook when it's released.

Thank you Riley Black and St. Martin's Press for an ARC through NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In When the Earth Was Green, paleontologist and science personality Riley Black returns for a breathtaking new look on the relationship between plants and animals over hundreds of millions of years in fifteen short essay-length snippets. Once again, Black’s narrative flare shines. I’m not sure I would have ever thought about the first plants to have sex or the relationship between foliage and hooves until now. At its best, reading When the Earth Was Green is like watching a nature documentary. Your mind fills in the blanks of the past with vivid images of lush forests and the animals shaped by them. Here, the fifteen brief snippets of the world through the intersection of plants and animals is greater than the sum of their parts. By the end, you will gain a new appreciation for what Black calls “evolution’s greatest romance,” and I’m certain a few new facts will wiggle their way into your brain along the way.

On the topic of narrative appeal, When the Earth Was Green necessarily requires more buy-in than The Last Days of the Dinosaurs. It spans a far greater length of time, and it jumps between subjects with reckless abandonment. This can sometimes lead to a sense of vertigo. Where are you in the narrative? How does it connect to the bigger picture? Not to mention that, as Black herself notes, there’s just something about how our brains are wired that makes us more naturally inclined to appreciating animals, especially big, charismatic megafauna like the dinosaurs and the mammoths. It’s hard enough for us to empathize with plants, much less see them as subjects worthy of their own inclusion in the history books. That’s why I continue to appreciate the inclusion of a lengthy appendix to Black’s work, a sort-of bookend to the narrative pieces that gives Black a chance to discuss her thought process as well as dig deeper into the scientific and social-political background behind each discovery.

When I read scientific non-fiction, I love discovering how scientists know the things they know. In this case, the appendix more than filled my appetite. On the other hand, the narrative chapters scratched another itch in my brain. The part of me that’s still a child obsessed with paleontology and breathing life into long-dead things. When the Earth Was Green, like The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, toes the line between narrative conjecture and scientific knowledge. Which is doubly more impressive now that we are entering the realm of plants. Grounding us are the introduction and conclusion, which are set during our current time and situated in Black’s own life. They also, fittingly, remind me of the brief cuts to the speaking host we see in some nature documentaries. When the Earth Was Green is not a scientific textbook. It’s not trying to be. It’s a reconstruction of the past using our current knowledge. And inevitably, it will get some things wrong. But the spirit will remain unchanged: Satiating our great curiosity about the planet that we happen to call home with ethical science.

This was a really good nature book! At times it was a little content heavy which made the chapter somewhat overwhelming. But the story telling by Black was done very well.

While I did enjoy it, I think this would have benefited from either removal of some text or maybe another pass thru from editing to help make some of those overly text heavy pieces flow a little better. Overall very interesting!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this ARC!

In a series of chronologically organized vignettes, Black beautifully narrates scenes from earth’s geological history, from the origin of multicellular organisms to the most recent ice age, as told by plants. She describes not only the evolution of plants themselves but also how their structures shaped and were shaped by animal behaviors. On the whole, this is an engaging story of evolutionary history. However, at times it was difficult to focus on the “point” of each chapter, as they are each crammed full of so much detail to the point of being noisy. Most sentences are beautifully crafted, but some are too engorged with meaning for their own good. Even so, I never thought this book was poorly written or overstaying its welcome- just that it needs a judicious round of editing. I will definitely pick up the final version when it comes out!

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book that looks at the evolution of plants, how they changed the world for the better, were effected by the animals that shared the Earth with them and how they both became the stronger for their relationship, and what it means for our continued survival.

When I was in school I was never much into the science courses that were offered. Honestly I was never much into school, but for a person who lived and breathed science fiction, my interest in the field was not there. Maybe it was the teachers, but I blame them for many things. I can't imagine trying to teach photosynthesis to 25 students, especially now with so many real distractions including TikTok, getting shoot in school and more. It was of all things Omni magazine that my father used to borrow from our library that made me interested in science, outside of hyperspace and antimatter drives. My father always looking to me interested in things, saw I liked Omni and raised the stakes with Discover and the occasional Scientific American. That is where I really found science, with articles by writers like Lewis Thomas, and Stephen Jay Gould, and later John McPhee in The New Yorker. Writers who wrote about science in a way that taught, but never lectured, in a style that was interesting and readable. Riley Black is one of those writers. Black has a real gift for writing about science that is both informative and golly-gee-wow that's cool, and back to here is why its cool, and what it means. When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance by Riley Black is a story of the Earth told from the green side, about plants their evolution, their symbiosis with animals, and what this means for all of us.

The book begins with a search for dinosaur bones. The cool things to find out in the wastelands, a little bit of bone sticking up that good mean more under the surface. A dream of many, but instead the search ends with a leaf, trapped in rocks, and here is where the story begins. Black looks at plants from the smallest little growths in a big messy sea from the beginning, to the plants we cultivate, smell and count on to give us oxygen today. The book if broken into essays about different eras, all important to the evolution of how we came to be today. Black looks at how these plants developed, spread, continued or in some cases known to us only as fossils. Black creates fictional lives for plants, based on science, a bit of speculation, and a lot of good writing, which gives a peek into the inner lives of plants, view that is pretty cool. We end with thoughts about the future, and how we might be viewed years and years from now.

True confession time, I did not grow up with a dinosaur fascination like many children do. I missed the Jurassic Park dinosaur explosion, being older, but have recently found myself reading quite a few books on the subject. Maybe its the end of the world aspect that has my interest. This is the second book by Riley Black I have read and I am still fascinated by the fact that one can write so well about a subject, sharing both facts, science, and speculation. I learned quite a bit from this book, and found myself looking at plants in my yard and wondering about them, even as the snow covered them. Where did you come from, what brought you here, and locked inside of you, how much do you know? Black has a very good writing style a mix of you are there, with a way of making science interesting, fun, and worth sharing. I found myself wondering a few times if these plant would make it, would these animals find this, and in a science book that is pretty rare. And again exciting and fun.

For people interested in early Earth this is a great read. For people who like well written science books they can learn from, this is perfect. Fans of science fiction and writers of speculative fiction will also get a lot of ideas for world building in both the future, or in a fantasy setting. I can't wait to see what Riley Black publishes next.

Absolutely captivating! A wonderful and thought provoking look at how earth came to be.
Not too wordy, nor too smart for the average reader who feels intimidated by other science books. This was perfect.
Highly recommend.

"When the Earth Was Green" is a captivating and thought-provoking work of science writing that will leave readers questioning why they don't delve into this genre more often. Riley Black takes us on an eye-opening journey through Earth's geological history, from its earliest days as a lush, green planet to its eventual transformation into the world we know today.

Black's ability to weave together scientific facts and engaging storytelling, making complex topics accessible and enjoyable for readers of all backgrounds, is notable. The author's passion for the subject is infectious, and their vivid descriptions bring Earth's distant past to life in a way that is both fascinating and deeply humbling.

"When the Earth Was Green" is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the forces that have shaped our planet, and the fragile balance that sustains life as we know it. It's a book that will challenge your assumptions, expand your knowledge, and leave you with a newfound appreciation for the incredible story of our world.

I enjoyed many aspects of this book. The topic is fascinating and the chronological structure is interesting. Some of the wording is very clever and there is some humor in the book. The best aspect of the book are the stories Black tells to bring life to the book. However I found the attempts at literary writing interfered with the rhythm of my reading. It was as if these nuggets of great information were surrounded by masses of excess verbiage that I had to dig through. I also found the conclusion did not add anything to the story. I did not find that I had developed a relationship with the writer, as I have in many other non-fiction books, until the appendices where Black revealed more of herself and were well worth reading. Overall though, this book was a good read. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance reader copy.

She's done it again! Riley Black has written a marvelous book that feels more like having a conversation with a friend, than absorbing words from a page. When the Earth Was Green is a deeply personal look at the most prolific "background" character of life on Earth. As someone who lives and works in a field dominated by Fiction, it is always refreshing when a good piece of refreshing nonfiction finds its way to me. Even more so when the book is an easy, smart read that doesn't insult you or presume that you are arriving with a strong background in paleontology. It is because of this easy going, conversational writing style and her talent for infusing such a powerful personal message to her prose that I believe Riley Black is one of the strongest science writers today.

Thank you to Riley Black, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for advanced access to this book. Expected date of publication is February 25, 2025 at time of writing.

This is a very informative book about a gorgeously composed look at the longstanding relationship between prehistoric plants and life on Earth. I am very fond at reading this book.

One of my favorite books of the year. Beautifully laid out and expertly written, this book will be a physical copy purchase that I will read again.

From back when Earth was just a bunch of rock and water and life had barely begun, plants have been there, changing the landscape one little tendril at a time and providing food and habitat as life evolved. This book travels from the first sexually-reproducing organism all the way to modern day, stopping to view remarkable plant life along the way.

For the most part, this book felt like I was in a biology lab and the professor kept showing the same slide of a simple organism, saying, "Look at this! Really look at it! Wow, look!" And although I can appreciate the poetry and enthusiasm, I also kind of don't get it? I'd like to say I learned something, but a lot of the content was lost in the effusive delight that permeated each page. Some of the visualization was helpful and gave me the chance to imagine myself looking around when Earth was much different. But this book also took a lot of energy to decipher, so it's not really my idea of a coffee table book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. I have read some early Earth non-fiction about dinosaurs and mammals so learning more about the interaction between plants and early animals seemed like it would be interesting too. The writing is done in a way that kept my interest. The book was divided into different sections of the Earth which made me think of each area in a new way. I definitely learned lots of good information.