Reviews
I absolutely loved this book--it's so full of passion, wonderment, philosophy, anthropology and most of all volcanoes! It ignited my mind and delighted my imagination. I loved the deep and poignant connections between history, meaning and people, but it's Clive Oppenheimer's dazzling charisma and thrilling experiences that infuse this book with an energy befitting our planet's most powerful force., Witty, precise, evocative--Clive Oppenheimer is a beautiful writer and spectacular scholar. He guides us safely through the smelly, noisy blast furnaces of volcanic craters and lava flows. Mountains of Fire tells the story of a volcano doctor who measures the temperature and chemical compounds in volcanic 'breath' while recounting the history, adventures, and spirituality surrounding these wonders of the world., Breathtaking. Weaving together geology, history, culture with dramatic personal adventure, Clive Oppenheimer takes us deep into the beating heart of our planet., Being a volcanologist demands a quiverful of skills. You need to be in command of multiple branches of science, including geophysics, geochemistry, and seismology. But you must also understand people living near volcanoes, for whom they are sacred places, homes to ancestors, sites of miracles, mountains where God's intervention in human affairs is made manifest in ash, fumes, and flame. . . . Perhaps one final attribute of a volcanologist is that he should be a good storyteller. Oppenheimer is better than good. This is terrific., A billion people live within 50 miles of [an active volcano], and our chances of surviving eruptions depend on others risking their lives to understand them. It's an excellent thing that scientists like Oppenheimer exist to pursue such a noble cause., University of Cambridge geologist Oppenheimer weaves together the history of volcanology with tales from his own work. . . The fervent prose captures the force and excitement of Oppenheimer's subject, and the enlightening science is bolstered by fascinating insights into volcanoes' role in myth. . . This will blow readers away., Readers will marvel at Oppenheimer's close calls, risky research, and elegant writing style that delightfully weaves his perilous excursions with exacting science and rich ethnography., Through a global tour of some of the world's most fascinating volcanoes, Oppenheimer highlights the scientific insights from, and social impacts of, various eruptions. From North Korea to Antarctica to the Caribbean, he brings the reader along with extraordinary access onto the very flanks of volcanoes. Oppenheimer's deep knowledge of these mountains of fire, combined with his eye for detail and his deep respect for those living alongside volcanoes, yields a thoroughly delightful and accessible exploration of these geological wonders., An engrossing, richly detailed journey into the mysterious world of volcanos and volcano enthusiasts. Clive Oppenheimer's passion for his subject begins in the realm of science and ends with the human soul., Beautiful. Mountains of Fire is bursting with poetry, with storytelling. Clive is one of the rarest of men driven by nomadism, courage, and curiosity. What he studies, volcanic eruptions, are in the rank of things that are mighty, grave, and great. Like a magma eruption, his wonderful prose even spills over into footnotes at the end. Normally, such notes are tucked away, because they are boring and pedantic, but here they are as readable and exciting as the book itself., Oppenheimer has spent 13 seasons--cumulatively an entire year of his life--living near the summit of Mount Erebus. In Mountains of Fire he regales readers with gripping stories of his travels, as well as those of adventurers past. He does not just describe what the volcanoes look like, but how they feel and what they mean to the people who encounter them. . . . Mountains of Fire is a love letter to volcanoes and an investigation into all the ways that they have and continue to sustain humanity--spiritually and scientifically., A fantastic account of the power and importance of volcanoes to history. Clive Oppenheimer takes us on a wonderful tour of some of the world's best and least known volcanoes in a book that will make all readers want to become volcanologists., What the French adventurer Jacques Cousteau was to the hidden world under our seas, Oppenheimer is to the hidden, molten world bubbling under our feet. Werner Herzog, the German art-house documentary maker, has even suggested he should be the BBC's successor to David Attenborough., Beautiful. Mountains of Fire is bursting with poetry, with storytelling. Clive is one of the rarest of men driven by nomadism, courage, and curiosity. What he studies, volcanic eruptions, are in the rank of things that are mighty, grave, and great., Thrilling! An explosive account of the inner lives of volcanoes, and how they have touched our lives through history. Adventurous, gripping science writing at its very best., We can't all travel the globe to risk our lives at the crater's edge, but we have Oppenheimer's prose to get us nearly there., I have to thank God on my knees that Oppenheimer's book did not exist at the time I made my decision to become a filmmaker. I might have become a volcanologist instead.
