Book Review: The Complete Ice Age by Brian M. Fagan, John F. Hoffecker, et al.

 

The ice age as a topic has been interesting me as of late...so let's read a non-fiction book about it!

As the title implies, this book takes a very expansive look at the ice age topic. It covers this huge period of times and delves into (among other things) climate factors, the creatures that lived around that time and the evolution of humans. It also takes a brief (and rather bleak) glimpse into current times and possibly the future with how global warming is affecting us.

This book gives us pretty much exactly what the title implies. I wasn't expecting the book to be this expansive going on, but it sure was and I was very glad. I don't think it really left any stone unturned when it came to the topic. 

I do have to admit that there's some chapters I enjoyed more than others, this being the fauna and human evolution chapters, simply because those topics interest me the most. And also because some of the earlier chapters, while definitely well-written and informative, were a little complicated for me to understand with all of the climate factors that came in to play during the ice age. That's probably just on me, I'm not very well-versed in geography and climate aspects beyond the basics. But these chapters were still overall really well-written and you can really tell that the authors know what they're talking about. And, of course, my favorite chapters about the animals and the evolution of prehistoric man were a joy to read both because they're my favorite subjects regarding the ice age, but also because of how thorough and well-written they were.

The final chapter being a look into the here and now and our possible future was also much needed to close off the subject, if you ask me. So I appreciate that they included it and didn't just end it in the past but also shows how global warming is affecting us nowadays and changing the climate. 

So overall: A very thorough and well-written non-fiction about the ice age! Some of it may be a little hard to follow in the early chapters (at least for me personally) but that doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the book at all!

Rating: 4/5