Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

Top positive review

So interesting and thought-provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2024

This is a very interesting, thought-provoking and humbling book. It looks at the senses of every creature from a different perspective, rather than just how they relate to ours. It’s written in a style that is easy to read, yet hugely informative and well researched. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in, or appreciation of, the natural world, or to any person with an enquiring mind.

4 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

markr

sometimes entertaining

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2023

I have rather mixed feelings about this book. I found the first chapter which imagines a range of different animals in the same room, and how each would perceive the world, fascinating. I never felt so engaged again in the subsequent chapters which look at each of the senses in turn from the ones we would expect; f touch, taste, smell and sight ,to those more particular to certain creatures including ultra sight and sound, and the use of echolocation and the earth's magnetic field in enabling movements - sometimes over thousands of miles.

There was a lot of interest to me in those pages - but I found my interest waning with detailed descriptions of what scientists know of numerous marine creatures, and insects, and how they know it. There are footnotes on many pages and I found that irritating - surely interesting anecdotes and supplementary information should be in the body of the text - it is so much easier and more enjoyable to read that way.

In short I am not sure who this book is for - it seems to me to be too detailed for the general reader, too general for the specialist. Still, sighing with relief to have reached the last page, I do realise I that have learned a lot and sometimes been entertained along the way.

17 people found this helpful

4,254 total ratings, 297 with reviews

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From United Kingdom

Katie Welsh

So interesting and thought-provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2024

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4 people found this helpful

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Michele

A wonderful book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 March 2024

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This is an amazing book, that lets you expire and develop a sense of wonder at the sensory world of animals

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

The most amazing book you will read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2024

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Real life (nature!) always manages to beat fiction. The most amazing tales of the incredible senses of animals and everything which is just around us but we can't perceive. Great prose. Fascinating, mind-blowing, exciting and funny stories, making science easy for all. You'll gain a brand new appreciation (and envy) for all the creatures that share the earth with us. A fantastic book. Couldn't recommend it more. A must read!

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Fascinating but a distracting style

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2024

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A fascinating and ambitious book. I loved "I contain multitudes" and while this book is not as good as that one in my opinion, it's still a really interesting read. I learned a huge amount from it. My main criticisms are that it was overlong on account of all of a lot of unnecessary detail. I found the proliferation of footnotes (often 3 or more per paragraph) very distracting and really affected the flow of the book, particularly since these are a mix of further high and often interesting but not necessary detail and irrelevant inanities (e.g. "one of the worst things that happened to our field was when radio shack went out of business, [Mr] Fortune tells me") which means you are reluctant to skip any but are frequently interrupted by something of no value.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Mind expanding read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 February 2024

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Once in a while you read a book that truly opens your eyes. Ed Yong does a brilliant job of weaving together decades of cutting edge sensory research to give us a glimpse outside of our ignorant and self centered lives. If only more people would read this and give consideration to the incredible complexity of ALL of the life that has evolved on planet earth.

4 people found this helpful

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Anthony James

Wonderful description of the perceptions of animals

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 January 2024

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I as overwhelmed by the detailed knowledge of the sensory systems of animal. You have to read a little at a time. Otherwise there is too much to take in. It has really opened my eyes to the wonders of the animal world.

2 people found this helpful

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markr

sometimes entertaining

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2023

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17 people found this helpful

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Dr Rhys Hamilton

riveting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2024

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Despite being interested in Biology, I just was amazed at the range of sensory abilities in the animal kingdom. I was equally dismayed at the way that humans are trashing the sensory as well as the natural environment.

4 people found this helpful

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Dr Roy A Summers

A fascinating journey through animal senses

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2023

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I read this book on holiday and found it a fascinating tour of animal senses. There are helpful insghts all along the way.

Most significantly - though it should be obvious - that no creature can sense the whole of the immense world of potential stimuli available because that would be far too much data for it to process. Instead, selective stimuli are chosen which enable the creature to live and communicte in its own particular environemnt. Second, that we still know so little about some of these remarkable senses - for example the ability of some creatures to detect the earth's magnetic field. We really don't know all that much!

Not wanting to find fault, but this comment may help the author, I did find the book very long! I personally would have preferred a shorter book which omitted some of the secondary material - for e.g. the conversations / visits with the relevant scientists. All interesting, but for me, I needed to wade through it, so to speak.

I have given this book 4 stars rather than 5 because - and this is a criticism of most sciency/biology books today - the author is often blinded (and sometimes confused) by the paradigm of evolutionary theory. Since everything must fit into this outdated paradigm, there is little recognition of the way these astonishing fully developed sense organs point much more reasonably to a Creator than some blind impersonal forces at work, and second, no attempt to compare the senses human beings have, as a whole, to those in the animal kingdom, to show how unique our collection is for conscious communicating life.

Of course, if human beings are also,like the animals, just the product of blind forces, why would you compare them with animals? I realize this wasn't the author's aim, and this paradigm blindness runs across all the sciences today, with notable exceptions such as Stephen Meyer and philosphers such as Thomas Nagel.

16 people found this helpful

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Farhan Sheikh

Human senses are limited. Animals are awesome

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 February 2024

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Wow! A real deep dive into animal senses but in a totally accessible and non academic way. I wish humans didn't have such a negative impact on the natural world!

One person found this helpful

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An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

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