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Krakatoa
- The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
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Publisher's summary
The best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano - Krakatoa.
The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa - the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster - was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly 40,000 people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, DC, went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all - in view of today's new political climate - the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere.
Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.
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Critic reviews
"Thrilling, comprehensive, literate, meticulously researched and scientifically accurate....It is one of the best books ever written about the history and significance of a natural disaster." (The New York Times Book Review)
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- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Falling Upwards tells the story of the enigmatic group of men and women who first risked their lives to take to the air and so discovered a new dimension of human experience. Why they did it, what their contemporaries thought of them, and how their flights revealed the secrets of our planet in wholly unexpected ways is its subject.
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A Significant Factual-Interpretative Error
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The Smoky God or A Voyage to the Inner World
- Esoteric Classics: Occult Fiction
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- Narrated by: Shea Taylor
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
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The Smoky God is a classic tale from the genre of hollow Earth or subterranean literature. A once-favorite tale of Amazing Stories publisher Ray Palmer, The Smoky God is the (purportedly true) tale of two Norwegian fishermen Jens and Olaf Jansen, who sailed their fishing vessel into the inner Earth in the year 1829. While in the center of the Earth, they find an entire society and meet a race and of advanced giants.
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great story
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The Great Quake
- How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
- By: Henry Fountain
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
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Story
A riveting narrative about the biggest earthquake in North American recorded history - the 1964 Alaska earthquake that demolished the city of Valdez and swept away the island village of Chenega - and the geologist who hunted for clues to explain how and why it took place.
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Fascinating to hear the full story
- By Debby A Davis on 08-18-17
By: Henry Fountain
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Rain
- A Natural and Cultural History
- By: Cynthia Barnett
- Narrated by: Christina Traister
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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It is elemental, mysterious, precious, destructive. It is the subject of countless poems and paintings; the top of the weather report; the source of all the world's water. Yet this is the first audiobook to tell the story of rain.
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Mostly a cultural history
- By serine on 02-10-16
By: Cynthia Barnett
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Brilliant Beacons
- A History of the American Lighthouse
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America's lighthouse system, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation's hardscrabble coastlines.
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Great book about Lighthouses
- By Anastasia on 04-25-21
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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Jungle of Stone
- The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya
- By: William Carlsen
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1839 rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world's most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood sailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. What they found would rewrite the West's understanding of human history.
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Unsung Explorers at the Heart of History
- By thomas on 01-10-17
By: William Carlsen
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Chasing Venus
- The Race to Measure the Heavens
- By: Andrea Wulf
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous occasion: the first transit of Venus between the earth and the sun in more than a century. Through that observation, astronomers could calculate the size of the solar system - but only if they could compile data from many different points of the globe, all recorded during the short period of the transit. Fortunately, transits of Venus occur in pairs: eight years later, the scientists would have another opportunity to succeed.
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Fascinating history, beautifully told
- By GC1 on 04-26-16
By: Andrea Wulf
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Tambora
- The Eruption That Changed the World
- By: Gillen D'Arcy Wood
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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When Indonesia's Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, it unleashed the most destructive wave of extreme weather the world has witnessed in thousands of years. The volcano's massive sulfate dust cloud enveloped the Earth, cooling temperatures and disrupting major weather systems for more than three years. Amid devastating storms, drought, and floods, communities worldwide endured famine, disease, and civil unrest on a catastrophic scale.
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An unexpected pleasure
- By Anonymous User on 09-04-16
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Last Train to Paradise
- Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Del Roy
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The paths of the great American robber barons were paved with riches, and though ordinary citizens paid for them, they also profited. Les Standiford, author of the John Deal thrillers, tells how the man who turned Florida's swamps into the playgrounds of the rich performed the almost superhuman feat of building a railroad from the mainland to Key West at the turn of the century.
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A Pleasant Surprise
- By Roy on 04-05-09
By: Les Standiford
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn't know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world's leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant.
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The Only Book I reread imediatley after reading
- By Andrew on 11-09-09
By: Bill Bryson
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The Lost Empire of Atlantis
- History's Greatest Mystery Revealed
- By: Gavin Menzies
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times bestselling historian Gavin Menzies presents newly uncovered evidence revealing, conclusively, that “the lost city of Atlantis” was not only real but also at the heart of a highly advanced global empire that reached the shores of America before being violently wiped from the earth. For three millennia, the legend of Atlantis has gripped the imaginations of explorers, philosophers, occultists, treasure hunters, historians, and archaeologists. Until now, it has remained shrouded in myth. Yet, like ancient Troy, is it possible that this fabled city actually existed?
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Absolutely abominable!
- By Magdalene on 03-05-18
By: Gavin Menzies
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Erebus
- One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Michael Palin brings the fascinating story of the Erebus and its occupants to life, from its construction as a bomb vessel in 1826 through the flagship years of James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition and finally to Sir John Franklin’s quest for the holy grail of navigation - a route through the Northwest Passage, where the ship disappeared into the depths of the sea for more than 150 years. It was rediscovered under the arctic waters in 2014.
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Engrossing story
- By Anonymous User on 10-01-24
By: Michael Palin
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Meet Me in Atlantis
- My Quest to Find the 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City
- By: Mark Adams
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A few years ago, Mark Adams made a strange discovery: Everything we know about the lost city of Atlantis comes from the work of one man, the Greek philosopher Plato. Then he made a second, stranger discovery: Amateur explorers are still actively searching for this sunken city all around the world, based entirely on the clues Plato left behind.
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A Bryson-esque tour of people, myth, & archaeology
- By A reader on 05-14-15
By: Mark Adams
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1816 was a remarkable year - mostly for the fact that there was no summer. As a result of a volcanic eruption at Mount Tambora in Indonesia, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months, allowing for excessive rain, frost, and snowfall through much of the Northeastern US and Europe in the summer of 1816.
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Super Volcanoes
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Super Volcanoes revels in the incomparable power of volcanic eruptions past and present, Earth-bound and otherwise, and explores how these eruptions reveal secrets about the worlds to which they belong. Science journalist and volcanologist Robin George Andrews describes the stunning ways in which volcanoes can sculpt the sea, land, and sky, and even influence the machinery that makes or breaks the existence of life.
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When Humans Nearly Vanished
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Some 73,000 years ago, the Mount Toba supervolcano in toda's Indonesia erupted, releasing the energy of a million tons of explosives. So much ash and debris was injected into the stratosphere that it partially blocked the sun's radiation and caused global temperatures to drop for a decade. In this book, Donald R. Prothero presents the controversial argument that the Toba catastrophe nearly wiped out the human race, leaving only about a thousand to ten thousand breeding pairs of humans worldwide.
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A very special book
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The Day the World Ended
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In late April 1902, Mount Pelee, a volcano on the Caribbean island Martinique, began to wake up. It emitted clouds of ash and smoke for two weeks until violently erupting on May 8. Over 30,000 residents of St. Pierre were killed; they burned to death under rivers of hot lava and suffocated under pounds of hot ash. Only three people managed to survive: a prisoner trapped in a dungeon-like jail cell, a man on the outskirts of town, and a young girl found floating unconscious in a boat days later.
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Thrilling Account of a Sadly Preventable Disaster
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What listeners say about Krakatoa
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- VEH
- 08-20-24
Another gem from Winchester
Winchester never disappoints. As in previous books, like The Fracture Zone, or The Professor and The Madman, he takes a simple-seeming topic and expands on it in a way that shows the reader levels of meaning, and makes even a relatively distant event relevant and relatable. He never bores or lectures. Highly recommended.
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Overall
- rwise
- 01-26-04
Great subject, great writing, great voice
About a month ago I requested this title from audible and was very excited to find it available now. The author is a geologist and writes in a very pleasant style, easy to follow and very unique. Interesting facts about the catastrophe itself but also about the world, the technology and the people of 1883 are connected and very well projected. I admire the author for his reading skills. Often I find that authors should not read their own books and leave that task to the professional actors, in this case though, I enjoyed it very much. He has an excellent voice, and since he describes a few personal encounters, it is very delightful that he reads those to the listener himself. If people don't like this book, they may expect something else than this first class science report. It is not a love story, nor an imaginary tale. If you read scientific american, enjoy good writing and a new voice to read to you, you will enjoy this book.
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45 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amy
- 02-03-04
Depends on what you're looking for...
If you love books full of details and in-depth history, as well as anecdotal tales and evidence, this book is for you! If you've read the Publisher's Summary and are expecting a book that's, well, "lively", you should probably look elsewhere. Case-in-point: It took nearly five hours to get to the explosion of Krakatoa! I'd seen this book in the book store and was beside myself with excitement when I saw it on Audible.com. Having just finished "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams, I was looking for something a bit more serious and dramatic. Unfortunately, "Krakatoa" wasn't what I was expecting, explaining everything from the political and economical history of the area to plate tectonics and Darwinism. Obviously, the author is very knowledgable on the subject, and a tremendous amount of research must have gone into this book -- and on the subject of Krakatoa, I personally found the latter half of the book, following the explosion, much more interesting...especially the discussion about Islam. I just depends what you're looking for.
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- A reader
- 08-18-14
Almost great, but more smoke than heat
Krakatoa is almost amazing, but ends up merely good. All the elements of an excellent book are there: Simon Winchester is funny and engaging; the science is interesting; the period of history is fascinating; and Krakatoa has important implications for today's world. Further, Winchester covers all of this - the science, the history, and the modern implications. So, the problem isn't the facts, or the underlying material, instead it is in the way that he weaves them together.
The book aims for Bill Bryson, using Krakatoa to discuss various fascinating issues, but, unlike Bryson, Winchester can't seem to bring them all together very well. Many interesting points are raised, but never truly connect, making most of the book feel disjointed. For example, the history of Batavia is a major story early in Krakatoa, but Batavia itself is undamaged by the volcano, and there is little follow-up to help us understand why the author spent so much time on the city. Or take the intellectual history of plate tectonics, which is introduced through some plummy personal anecdotes, but then mostly abandoned later in the story. A stronger narrative might have concentrated on a few people or institutions, and how they were effected by Krakatoa, but instead we are taken on a whirlwind tour where little sticks in the memory.
It certainly isn't bad, and I did learn a lot about a fascinating period, but between the somewhat disjointed story and the occasional over-reach (Krakatoa lead to the rise of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism?), I often found my attention wandering while listening.
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- Catherine
- 07-02-04
Paid by the word or was the editor on strike?
Being a historian, I dismissed the comments of earlier reviewers, thinking that they just probably didn't like details. But in this case, the criticisms are more than justified. While each detail might be interesting, a good editor needed to tear Winchester away from his notes. The book made me so impatient in places (I was stuck with it on a long fight) that I imagined the author being paid by the word or in love with the sound of his own voice. I only read unabridged books, but an abridged version might have earned Winchester the literary prize worthy of the book's fascinating subject matter.
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- Gabriel
- 03-01-09
Superb and entertaining
Krakatoa is a superb book that goes into great depth to set the stage for why one of the biggest volcanic explosions in the history of man was so important. Winchester reads his own book in an excellent voice. He is a bit too quick, but it is a long book and so it is easy to understand why he sets such a brisk pace. The book goes into wonderful depth about the cultural, historical, and geological history and impact of the eruption, but it is all at a "dinner party" level - one does not need an advanced degree to understand all of it.
Highly recommended.
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- Judith
- 11-07-05
Wonderful book
There is not a single boring paragraph in the entire book. The author covers a myriad of subjects, directly and indirectly related to the Krakatoa eruption. Each chapter is fascinating. The reader is so in tune with the spirit of the book that he seemed to have written it himself. And, after checking with the book information, I see that he did! I'm glad I didn't miss this one.
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- DMgraphicGlass
- 02-28-15
Though not his best seller I say it's his best
Simon Windchester is my favorite non-fiction author. And this must be my favorite book. This is my second listen (to go with two hardcover readings) and I rarely go through anything more than once. Geology must be harder to explain than rocket science, let alone actually making it interesting (which he does). But, as Mr. Windchester demonstrates, it can have a profound effect in all spheres of the natural world and human endeavors.
This book is brilliantly researched and wonderfully written and narrated. Most
of the scientific terms have failed to stay in my memory but the descriptions of each of those terms - what they mean and the processes they entail - have been permanently etched there.
If you want to listen to something that you probably know little about with high drama, intriguing stories and wonderful examples and explanations, I definitely recommend this. Don M of Queen Creek, AZ
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- James
- 03-04-05
Dynamite!
Winchester lights the fuse with great background and historical preamble to the event, from the first westerners to view the subject, through the cataclysm. He describes with all possible detail the blast as witnessed by contemporary observers worldwide, and examines the fallout both obvious and obscure with the perspective of a modern historian. It requires some intellectual energy on the part of the reader to keep it all together, but the insight gained into the history of the event itself and the times in which that history unfolds is well worth the effort.
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- Fine Arts Dad
- 09-17-12
A Thriller where you already know the end...
What made the experience of listening to Krakatoa the most enjoyable?
All the different stories threading up to the event.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Krakatoa?
You can probably guess this one yourself...the knowing doesn't lessen the reaction.
Which scene was your favorite?
Too intertwined they build on each other.
If you could give Krakatoa a new subtitle, what would it be?
Climate Change through Geophysics
Any additional comments?
The included science adds to the story and our understanding of how one natural event can effect so many lives around the globe.
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