I like this book. Climate novels are tough, and this one exhibits some familiar tropes -- not least the Musk figure colonizing Mars -- but does so fairly gracefully and subtly, with a warmheartedness that I ultimately found really winning. The premise is perhaps a touch overcomplicated and the prose can be self-serious -- I struggled with the first chapter, which had maybe been through one too many edits -- but I was often moved by the characters' attempts to grapple with their circumstances and found the nature writing especially precise and lovely. There's nothing especially groundbreaking here, but this is a well-conceived and well-executed novel that's certainly worth a few hours of anyone's time.

Big thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for the E-ARC. *4.5 Stars*

This multi-generational tale of survival, displacement, family, and time-travel has a little bit of everything. The first pages draw you in, establishing a character sensibility (that stays as a trait passed throughout generations): these are people of science; believe in evidence, what they can see, prove. Which is a needed anchor for where the book goes, and continues to go throughout.

I really enjoyed how the book sort of unfurled out of itself the further through it you got. It took a bit of trust in the writer to get through the beginning, I'll admit, because after the hook there is quite a bit of wordy exposition. It was necessary though, as I said above, as it grounded the character(s) as sensible people, making everything believable and even a bit more urgent. That said, by the time I made it to Roban's first chapter, I was bought in and was confident I'd enjoy the book.

There are good stakes coming from large external entities (ecological collapse; billionaires fleeing the planet), and others where the characters, while family, must face down each other to make the most important choices of their lives. They tread a delicate line of friction between family members, and addresses a sad sort of estrangement not driven by one singular traumatic event, but by a small peppering of times where you've found yourself simply, and respectfully, at odds.

I really liked the use of repetition in scenes, and how it served the sort of time-bending thesis that drove the plot. That time is not linear but something that spreads, sprawls out. The author says it better, I don't want to say much more than that on that right now.

I'm not normally one for sci-fi but 2025 has been packed full of great sci-fi, I'm sure the current political climate is ripe for inspiration. Terrestrial History is a great, multi-generational story about a family trying to save humanity, the earth, or both.

When Hannah is visited by a man from the future who wants to help her save the planet from climate change, she couldn't begin to guess how this would change the shape of her life, as well as her son Andrew, her sister Kenzie. Each have their own ideas about the best path forward and they clash against one another as well as Roban, the man from the future who has come to warn them.

Thought-provoking and quite the page-turner, Terrestrial History is a fantastic piece of climate fiction, one of the best I've read in a long while.

This is on my shortlist of 2025 books so far. Terrestrial History hit the bullseye for me, being the right blend of lit fic, speculative fiction and science fiction (time travel and space colonization.)
At its core, this novel is a family saga that spans four generations. I loved the way that they were all woven together and connected. This is one of my favorite multi-generational family sagas of all time.

Space travel is one of my least-read sci-fi/speculative-fi sub genres, but I really enjoyed the Mars colonization thread in Terrestrial History. Like in many stories, humanity looks to evacuate the Earth because we’ve trashed it. The story of this family and their relationship to that activity was fascinating to read about. From those who were all in and ready to blast off to Mars, to those who felt it was better to save the planet and stay. Their points of view were so well described. Reed did a fabulous job giving each side its fair telling.

While there were four time periods and four generations told in a non-linear pattern in this 250 page book, it was very easy to follow. Reading this one was anything but a chore. As I look back at this fact, it makes me enjoy the book even more. Reed did such an awesome job dealing with time and space. The fact that it was not difficult to follow is true testament that he did an excellent job writing it!

After reading it, I tried to pick a favorite character. I couldn’t do it, I have to pick two- the bookends, if you will. The oldest generation and the youngest generation. Who are so well written and so beautifully connected.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Joe Mungo Reed and W. W. Norton & Company for the free advanced e-copy!

I really, really liked the author's last book, "We Begin Our Ascent," about the world of competitive cycling and doping. He has a very distinct writing style, and it was on display again in "Terrestrial History." Even though the scope of the story is much larger than one rider's story on the Tour de France with time travel, climate change, and social politics, Reed's emphasis on character development and small moral moments continued to shine through here. Spanning 85 years and four generations, this is grand in scope and themes, and I've been thinking about it since I finished it. Really cool to see the difference between the two books I've read by him, this author has range!

I really liked the idea of this book--a saga that goes from earth to space complete with time-bending?! Amazing. However, I just wasn't captivated. Actually, I actively disliked the book. I liked the idea and the imaginativeness behind it, but....this book wasn't at all for me. The writing was a little too low energy for me and I really found the characters to be unlikeable. Hannah, in particular, just irked me. I didn't like her snarky dialogue. I think at the heart of it was the multiple POVs--I like having a main character to cheer on. To follow their journey from the beginning to the end. Going back and forth prevents me from emotionally connecting--but, that's a me problem and not the book's problem.

Like I said, the book sounded like it would be a great match with me, but in the end....didn't get there.

Did Not Finish 40 percent
Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

I tried. But with the world and my current job the way it is. I am not doing one blessed thing this year that is not bringing me joy. Heck, sometimes I can read a book that I am not exactly hate reading, but I go into a "I am finishing this because what in the world is happening here and where is the author going?" mode. But sometimes, like this, I hit an, "I just don't care. I don't care about the characters, the journey, the ending. I refuse to keep reading this because it's doing my head in." mode. 

I really did love the cover of this book when I saw it. I don't know with the world the way it is right now, it spoke to me. The book synopsis did too. I liked the idea of following four people in really separate timelines that end up being the key from humankind moving on from an Earth that is growing more inhabitable to a settlement on Mars.

"Terrestrial History" follows Hannah, who is working off the coast of Scotland and is a scientist working on fusion. Roban lives in the Colony (big C every time it is discussed which was jarring) where he dreams of Earth. And then you have Andrew and his daughter Kenzie who are taking up different sides about whether Earth can really come back the way it needs to for humankind to survive. Throw some time travel in (which honestly this book did not need that at all) and that's this book.

I have to say this upfront. This book was pretentious as hell. I don't know. It didn't hit me the right way at all. And I got tired of honestly just wading though paragraphs upon paragraphs about ethics, morality, etc. It didn't help the story is out of order. Just to let you readers know, the book plot is not written chronologically which made it hard to follow. I had to hunt to to look for who was speaking and what year it was at all times which was jarring. For example, Hannah is in whatever year. I can't tell you. At one point it just says Hannah no year so I assume that's present day? Roban is in year 2103, Kenzie and Andrew are in year 2071.

Hannah's chapters/perspectives were easier to wade into than Roban/Andrew/Kenzie. Each character perspective is told first person point of view and yet they all sound the same. And honestly that is what really did me in. I would assume these people in different points of time would "sound different" and they did not. At the 40 percent mark I gave up.

This is a really interesting plot and premise centering around the climate crisis, social politics, and time travel. Do those three things go together?! They do! Despite the slow pace of this book, I really enjoyed how thoughtful it was presenting the ideas and characters perspectives. It will really make you think and I love that in a book. I do think sometimes it meandered a little *too* much but overall very enjoyable!

Terrestrial History is a beautiful, reflective, layered story that travels back and forth in time as it examines the end of the world. Or maybe it's an end to a world, as time unravels and the characters frantically work to rectify mistakes of the past, the slow march to extinction seems inevitable, seems deeply human. Joe Mungo Reed's books explores the path of human selfishness, the decisions that have created a world bent on it's own destruction, and while this might feel like a cynical take this tenderness towards his characters doesn't feel angry or cruel but something more realistic- that we are all just doing the best we can and sometimes that isn't good enough.

I enjoyed reading this book, it felt prescient to our current moment in history, a time when the goal posts keep getting moved and our governments are controlled by despots and rank billionaires. The story asks us as readers, what choice would we make in the end? To leave if we had the opportunity (which is frankly unlikely that any of us would even be on the ship) or would we stick it out, try to build a life in a world that has reverted to subsistence living and violent self-sufficiency?

This is a book I would read again, looking forward to seeing it in print.

Terrestrial History was pretty solid and had a interesting concept, along with some good writing, but it didn’t completely blow me away. It had some really thoughtful themes, and I appreciated the blend of science and philosophy, but at times, I just found myself putting it down. Overall, it was a good read, just not something that totally hooked me, which was surprising with how short it was. I can most definitely see the talent and the time that Mungo Reed put into this story. Maybe I just wasn't totally in the mood for another-worldly crisis.

This is a deeply solemn, contemplative multigenerational look at the human side of the climate crisis, and what it will do to relationships if we try to abandon the planet as a solution. It doesn't have an agenda, but uses time travel as a means of exploring how familial relationships change over time and generations. It does drag a bit in the middle, and Roban's section in particular can be confusing in its nonlinearity, but it's still a very good book.

Terrestrial History is a fascinating book that spans multigenerations of a family from the recent past to the future experiencing the declining climate on Earth and how different individuals deal with the current and impending changes. Hannah is a scientist and while out on the beach with her dog she encounters a man from the future. Her son Andrew becomes an advocate for the environment, while his daughter Kenzie is a scientist that looks to the future possibilities outside of Earth, and her son Roban grows up in space. This is really a family story but explores the push and pull of trying to preserve Earth versus giving up and exploring other options out in the universe. This book really has a lot to chew on and I think would be great for a book club discussion. It's really a good mix of sci-fi (speculative fiction?) which is quite believable and environmental criticism.

Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

This novel traces 100 years of a family, starting with Hannah, who is trying to perfect a design for a fusion reactor. She is visited by a man from space (from the future) who helps accelerate her research, aiming to save human civilization from an impending collapse. The story then follows her son Andrew, who wants to make a difference in the world and hold on to life on Earth even as the planet faces a gradual collapse. Next, the narrative shifts to Andrew’s daughter, Kinzie, one of the select few chosen to inhabit a colony on Mars due to Earth no longer being safe or sustainable. Her contributions to the design of the reactor make life on Mars possible. Finally, the story shifts to her son Roban, a “First-Gen”, who has never known life on Earth and has grown up entirely on the colony.

As is evident, the novel shifts back and forth in time, changing perspectives seamlessly without being jarring. In a story of such vast ambition, it’s the small, humane moments that stand out—particularly the relationships between characters and the moral dilemmas surrounding Andrew. His daughter’s decision to leave Earth, against everything he stands for, causes him great anguish as he continues to live out his last years on Earth. Kinzie’s ambivalence about leaving Earth and her grief at abandoning her home is another poignant aspect of the novel. The grief and longing of the characters are explored beautifully, especially in the way they nearly lose their homes and their loved ones. The book also interestingly explores how technology, while playing a crucial role in preventing the collapse of Earth, can simultaneously contribute to its downfall.

I also appreciated how Reed masterfully reveals the slow deterioration of Earth. The novel highlights that cataclysmic events don't always come suddenly but are often the result of a long, drawn-out series of events that slowly push the planet toward its destruction. Moreover, I loved how Reed depicts a generation that knows nothing of life on Earth except through pictures, videos, and the stories of their parents. The characters on Mars often find that words and phrases from Earth no longer make sense to them, as they lack the context surrounding them. They must develop their own versions of these phrases, adapting them to their new life on Mars.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the longing for things from Earth—rain, grass, crops, watches, candles, and church music. These seemingly mundane things, which one might overlook while surrounded by them in abundance, take on a deeper significance for the characters.

My only minor gripe with the novel was its frequent use of both real and made-up scientific terms and names. These terms often come without explanation, and understanding them requires inferring their meaning from the context. However, despite this, there is so much to love about the book. As someone who doesn’t typically read a lot of sci-fi, I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author (Joe Mungo Reed), and the publisher (W. W. Norton & Company) for an advanced copy. Thoughts and review are completely my own.

This was a short but sweet read! Reed brilliantly encapsulates the two divergent emotions that often overwhelm people when it comes to climate change--the insistent hope to do better and the defeatist dread that we're too late. I found that there was a good balance of the science jargon that's usually packed in sci-fi titles; it didn't bother to dumb down any of the plot in favor of explaining the science, but it also didn't feel too much like a technical manual. It took me a bit to connect to the characters and understand their motivations/perspectives, but once I did I felt like I empathized with Roban the most (despite his story being the most fantastical and different than my own). I also appreciated the subtle differences in prose between the four different perspectives, though I wish we saw a bit more from certain characters (Kenzie, specifically on the Colony). Overall, this is a thought-provoking tale of human hubris and a (maybe not so distant) future.

Terrestrial History is an ambitious sci-fi novel that brings together time travel, multigenerational stories, and political tensions with an interesting exploration of space colonization (Who gets to leave Earth? Who gets left behind?) in the context of worsening climate change. Joe Mungo Reed writes a diverse and well-developed cast, including strong LGBT characters, and finds the perfect balance between personal struggles and larger societal issues.
However, some aspects of this book didn’t fully work for me. The writing leaned a bit too much toward literary fiction at times, and away from the "classic" science-fiction I was hoping for. The ending also felt rushed, and could have - in my opinion - used a few more pages to really wrap-up all plotlines. I don't want to give away spoilers, but I was especially frustrated by the book’s handling of time travel : while one character clung to the hope that the future could be changed, the story ultimately (in my opinion) suggested otherwise, making that hope feel futile rather than meaningful.

Still, overall, Terrestrial History is a great character-driven sci-fi novel with a definitive literary touch. If you've liked Station Eleven, or Sea of Tranquility, I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

a haunting and powerful story about how one family experiences the impacts of a changing political and ecological landscape, spanning 85 years and four generations. i loved the multigenerational story, jumping POVs and timelines, how each voice was undoubtedly distinct and how their stories ultimately weaved together in a beautiful, cryptic, haunting way. there is a hopefulness and sorrow that co-exist in these pages that i haven't found in any other book. i will be thinking about this story for a long, long time.

Thank you Joe Mungo Reed and W.W. Norton & Company for the ARC!

There’s a certain experience I think all readers chase - that feeling of wonder, that gravitational pull of an incredible book. There’s no recipe to achieve that rare feeling, one I remember from my childhood and only experience sparingly in adulthood. Terrestrial History reminded me of this feeling, and I will be telling everyone I love about this book for a long time.

Terrestrial History grapples with the complexity of the role of technology in climate change. It tells the story of four generations of one family, split far across time, as they adjust and react to the changing landscape of their reality. The novel opens with Hannah in the summer of 2025, living in a small cottage on the coast of Scotland, and working hard, if not obsessively, with fusion technology. Hannah’s grown son, Andrew, takes a different tact, becoming involved at the political level to effect change. Andrew’s daughter, Kenzie, is much more practical and less emotionally driven than her father. She and her son, Roban, are pioneers in a new and unknown landscape.

Family dynamics, the effects of climate change and the work trying to mitigate the damage of it, and the power of technology are faced head-on from multiple perspectives at different times. The chapters alternated between different characters and different times, giving the novel a sense of tension as the storyline changed. There was something about this book that I couldn’t put my finger on, that will make it stick with me long after I have finished. It evoked all sorts of feelings. I have this sense of impending doom deep in me and this novel basically confirmed that sense. As I read further, the feeling in the out of my stomach grew more intense. However, this wasn’t a depressing read at all. It was powerful, and made me think. I will be taking my time thinking about this one in the days to come.

Spanning across four generations and two planets, Terrestrial History explores the complexities of familial relationships, climate politics, and the cost of survival. By using multiple POVs and jumping back and forth between the near present and distance future, the interconnectedness between the characters and their moments in time create an almost circular narrative where you can't help but hope that something changes even when you know how the story will end -- one version of it at least.

I would like to thank W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the chance to review an advanced copy of this remarkable book.

In what felt like one of those moments where the universe likes to laugh and show you that it’s paying attention, I started reading Joe Mungo Reed’s Terrestrial History on the same day that a friend of mine sent me a video showing that the current administration in the United States was going to be implementing an executive order that would promote the usage of plastic straws.

No matter where you fall on whatever limp debate exists about plastic straw usage and their overall impact on the environment, it has been impossible to ignore the effect that humanity and industry have had on our planet as we’ve all experienced a seismic shift in how the place that we call home is reacting to our ever-expanding presence.

Because of this shift, a significant chunk of fiction writing has emerged that imagines possible futures, possible solutions and, of course, possible endings to our current predicament. Lydia Millet released A Children’s Bible in 2020 right at the cusp of a worldwide pandemic and Joy Williams released Harrow as we moved into what we were hoping was a post-pandemic world. To me, both of these novels represent a high mark in what has often been made reference to as climate fiction or “cli-fi”. With Terrestrial History, Joe Mungo Reed has created a document that deserves to stand not just among the absolute best of this hyper-specific genre tag, but also as one of the best works of this young year.

Terrestrial History follows four narrators, each from a different generation over a period of 85 years beginning in our present day of 2025. Hannah is a meticulous and unparalleled expert in the study of fusion science whose unique ideas have branded her a near-pariah among her peers. Andrew follows a strict moral code and believes in the inherent goodness of people to the point that he runs for office in an attempt to help shape and fix a world that is mired in climate panic for his daughter. Kenzie has spent her life wrestling with balancing her own ambitions and pragmatic beliefs with that of her more dreamy father and working to find a common ground that allows both of their goals to be realized without compromise. Roban is inquisitive and determined and part of the first group of children that were born on Earth’s first colony on Mars whose fascination with what those in the colony refer to as “Home” leads him to make shocking discoveries about the universe and about his family history.

The story begins at a home on the edge of the coast in Scotland as Hannah glances out to the ocean and notices a strange man walking towards the beach unbothered by the tides that surround him. Hannah’s reaction to this man explaining that he has arrived here from a colony on a distant planet and from the future is to accept this reality with wonder and with open arms. From here, Terrestrial History charts a path that spans four generations and two planets, dipping in and out of disparate time periods to weave a story not just of what ultimately happened to Earth, but how the events that led to part of humanity exiting the planet was shaped by the family at the heart of the story and how it affected them.

Joe Mungo Reed’s characters feel real and lived-in to a point of feeling like you have met all of them or have been aware of them at some point in your life. As you take in each chapter and each separate voice, the distinct differences in their tones and mannerisms are evident as it is always clear who is speaking to you. Through these scattered stories that jump around these eighty-five years, there is a realization that the actions of each individual generation - the little hesitations, the bold statements and actions taken, the unspoken thoughts - all have ramifications on the future…and the past. Terrestrial History both exists in a reality that feels all-too-possible and one that feels just enough outside the realm of possibility that it will make you wonder, hope and dream about what we still have left to discover about our universe and about ourselves.