Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453311 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-10
• Formats: Abridged, Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Publishers Weekly
[Signature]Reviewed by John VaillantIn this radical departure from Preston's bestsellers on catastrophic diseases (The Demon in the Freezer, etc.), he journeys into the perpendicular universe of the world's tallest trees. Mostly California redwoods, they are the colossal remnants of a lost world, some predating the fall of Rome. Suspended in their crowns, hundreds of feet above the forest floor, is a primeval kingdom of plants and animals that only a handful of people have ever seen. Now, thanks to Preston and a custom-made tree-climbing apparatus called a "spider rig," we get to see it, too.According to Preston, it wasn't until the 1980s that humans made the first forays into the tops of "supertall" trees, in excess of 350 feet high. The people who pioneered their exploration are a rarefied bunch—equal parts acrobat, adventurer and scientist. The book revolves around botanist Steve Sillett, an exceptional athlete with a tormented soul who found his calling while making a borderline suicidal "free" climb to the top of an enormous redwood in 1987, where he discovered a world of startling complexity and richness. More than 30 stories above the ground, he found himself surrounded by a latticework of fused branches hung with gardens of ferns and trees bearing no relation to their host. In this Tolkienesque realm of sky and wind, lichens abound while voles and salamanders live and breed without awareness of the earth below. At almost the exact moment that Sillett was having his epiphany in the redwood canopy, Michael Taylor, the unfocused son of a wealthy real estate developer, had a revelation in another redwood forest 200 miles to the south. Taylor, who had a paralyzing fear of heights, decided to go in search of the world's tallest tree. Their obsessive quests led these young men into a potent friendship and the discovery of some of the most extraordinary creatures that have ever lived. Preston's tireless research, crystalline writing style and narrative gifts are well suited to the subject. Sillett, Taylor and their cohorts, who include a Canadian botanist named Marie Antoine, are fascinating, often deeply wounded characters. Their collective passion and intensity have illuminated one of the most vulnerable and poorly understood ecosystems on this continent. Preston adds a personal twist by mastering the arcane tree climber's art of "skywalking" and partnering with Sillett and Antoine on some of their most ambitious ascents. As impressive as this is, Preston's cameo appearance disrupts the flow of the main narrative and somewhat dilutes its considerable power.John Vaillant is the author of The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed (Norton) and winner of the Canadian Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction (2005).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Preston introduces listeners to the world of the giant redwoods of California. Interweaving the life stories of several scientists and tree enthusiasts, he provides a loose but compelling history of the last several decades of conservation, focusing on the preservation of these majestic trees. Listeners will be impressed with the way Preston makes trees such an intriguing topic. As narrator, he proves capable of maintaining an animated voice that shifts its tone for the dramatic elements of this book. He also does well in navigating the scientific explanations. Prestons awe of these behemoths permeates his descriptions. L.E. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Preston's previous galvanizing best-sellers, including The Hot Zone (1994) and The Demon in the Freezer (2002), deal with catastrophic viruses and biological weapons. Here he turns to a more uplifting subject, the world's tallest trees. Writing with his signature clarity and drama, Preston profiles a trio of champions of the coast redwood, "the blue whales of the plant kingdom." Botanist Steve Sillett developed acrobatic techniques for reaching the crowns of redwoods more than 300 feet tall. There he discovered an unknown world, the teeming temperate forest canopy, which Preston describes as "coral reefs in the air." Maverick Michael Taylor has discovered redwood giants in nearly impenetrable wilderness areas. So important are his finds, the locations of these redwood groves, some 3,000 years old, are kept secret. Marie Antoine also answered the call of redwoods and married fellow scientist Sillett in an arboreal ceremony. As for Preston, not content to merely watch from the ground, he underwent tree-climbing training and has assisted Sillett and Antoine in their invaluable, gravity-defying work. Preston's hands-on perspective, suspenseful chronicling of the adventures of these vividly portrayed redwood experts, and glorious descriptions of the tall trees' splendor and ecological significance make for a transfixing read. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Cavorting in the canopy
They're almost impossible to see properly. If you're near the base in a neck-cricking stance, the tops are lost in a maze of foliage. At at distance, its cousins and offspring surround the one you want to consider. One redwood in a grove becomes lost to view, while an individual obscures itself. They're impossible to climb, the first branches may not start for nearly twenty stories in the air - not your backyard beech or maple tree. The bark is difficult to grasp, and is held in place tenuously. It's little wonder that studying the canopy of the Coast Redwood defied not only attempts, but stifled interest until very recently. In this excellent account, Preston writes of the first Redwood explorers. They are worthy of his skill as a writer, and his subjects fit to stand with Columbus or Cook. Better, Aldo Leopold.

The pivotal character is one Steve Sillett, who followed an impulse to see what those canopies might reveal. He eschewed technology - no helicopter lift nor real climbing equipment in the beginning, Sillett "free-climbed" a "Sequoia sempervirens" just to see if he could do it. The event prompted a life-long love affair with these aged giants of the California mountains. His unending drive to learn more about how the trees grow and propagate, what other plants or creatures might occupy it and perhaps to discover mammoth trees surviving loggers' depredations, might lead some to brand him a "kook". Some already have. But Sillett's aboreal ventures are serious, particularly now as the climate on which these giants survive is seriously threatened.

Nobody, even somebody so dedicated as Sillett, climbs a redwood alone. Preston very deftly brings into our view those working with Sillett and with others. Michael Taylor, whose multi-faceted career deserves a book of its own, is introduced and followed through the twists and turns of his fascinating life. Marie Antoine, who was raised on an island in northwestern Ontario, ultimately becomes Sillett's wife. Their courtship at the top of a giant redwood is almost embarrassing reading, but their shared passions are more than merely physical. When her hips are strapped into a climbing harness, how does a woman relieve herself? At the top of a redwood you are clearly aware of the "redline" - the distance above which a fall is inevitably fatal. One of their group dropped fifty metres - yet fortuitously survived to climb again. Even so, Sillett and Antoine celebrated their marriage ceremony in the canopy - and the officiating minister was elevated with them. And he didn't have to shout.

The other quest, to find the tallest Redwood, is almost a separate story. Loggers have demolished much of the Redwood forest, but there are hidden enclaves where monster trees remain untouched - and unseen. Measuring their height is a two-step process, Preston explains. An estimate, immensely difficult to obtain and often done with crude equipment from hundreds of metres distance, must be verified. The only reliable verification is to - yes, climb the tree and drop a measuring tape. The quest seems endless, if only because access to the trees means exhausting forays through mazes of fallen giants. Their collapse is partly due to the strange root system. Unlike most trees, the Redwood has no taproot for resistance against winds. Since many factors, age among them, leads to giant trees with hollow cores, wind-toppled Redwoods are not uncommon. Over the lengthy life of a Redwood grove, many are felled. A particularly tragic case of this occurs when one of the measured giants, "Telperion", is toppled the year after its discovery. Preston provides general locations of some of the highest specimens, each given a name to certify its standing among the others. Such appellations as "Atlas", "Pig Snout", "Terex Titan" and "Hyperion" [the tallest yet measured] are now applied to trees - whose location remains a closely-guarded secret.

From California, Preston accompanies Sillett to Australia where "Eucalyptus regnans" competes with the Coast Redwood for aerial acclaim. Scaling them is no easier, as there are droves of land leeches to intercept the climbers even before they start aloft. They persevere to find a fresh wonderland in the Southern canopy. Preston, by this time, had undertaken climbing training and was fully prepared to meeting the challenges of climbing arboreal monsters. He is as infected by the tree-climbing virus as his subjects, relating his own and their feats with enthusiasm born of familiarity. Well illustrated with graphics by Andrew Joslin, this book is a landmark effort in describing a new breed of explorers and the wonders they revealed to us. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa]