Adventures in Volcanoland

Critics Review

• A powerful new voice erupts onto the scene of popular science. Mather is the perfect guide to take you on a journey through time and place to explore the fascinating science of volcanoes. Bubbling with a wonderful combination of personal insights and intriguing science

  Marcus du Sautoy, author of Around the World in 80 Games

• A collision of high adventure and vital science. You cannot find a more inspiring introduction to nature’s most awesome power. Written with beauty, wit and clarity by one of the world’s most brilliant Earth scientists, it puts volcanoes centre stage in the eternal drama of geology, climate and life

  Professor Clive Oppenheimer

• Adventures in Volcanoland is a real treasure, a fascinating, beautiful book on volcanology that is also the story of Mather’s fascination with volcanoes and her own globe-trotting career on the front lines of scientific enquiry. Reading it feels like an adventure; it moves fearlessly across scales that range from the molecular to the celestial, and spans both intellectual history and cutting-edge scientific enquiry. Danger, sublimity, devastation and rebirth course through its pages, and Mather is a glorious guide to this extraordinary subject. She shows us the joys and trials of fieldwork, teaches us to read the secret meanings of volcanic landscapes, and gifts us with new understanding of the power of volcanoes to shape both the physical world and the inner world of our imagination

  Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk

• Mather combines a personal story with an era-spanning scope, turning esoteric information into a colorful, engaging account

  Kirkus