[.uk] The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring

awful writing, editing:
This should have been a fascinating book, but it's frustrating and laughable. A competent writing/editing team - combined with a photographer instead of a B & W illustrator - would have made all the difference. Skip it.

On the Crowns of Giants:
This book approaches the fate of Earth's disappearing giant forests from two angles - describing the poorly understood ecosystems in the canopies of giant tress, and covering the recreational and scientific climbers who have first explored these unknown realms. In a forest of redwoods, or other types of very tall trees, the uppermost branches weave together to form not just a shady canopy but also a complete off-the-ground ecosystem, and these unique natural wonders are under threat from logging and climate change and may disappear before they are even explored. A small clique of extreme tree climbers has mastered the art of climbing into these canopy ecosystems, assisted by enthusiasts searching systematically for the world's tallest unheralded trees, particularly in the shrinking redwood forests of Northern California and Oregon. Preston includes a lot of fascinating coverage of these wondrous and previously unknown canopy ecosystems, which can only be reached via quite dangerous extreme climbing techniques. But the book is held back from greatness by Preston's attempts to add drama by diving in to the private lives of these groundbreaking (treebreaking?) climbers and enthusiasts. Excellent descriptions of natural discovery are constantly interrupted by detours into love lives and dubious personal biographies. I'm not sure why it matters that one of the young explorers was a knife salesman in college, and the personal travails of these folks are hardly unique just because they're now in a unique profession. Preston's attempted "nonfiction narrative" (in the words of the jacket blurb) is unfocused and makes a sizable portion of the book very tiresome. Fortunately, the rest of the book will resonate strongly with adventurous readers looking for the thrill of discovery, as there really are still worlds up there that have not been explored by humans. \o~doomsdayer520~\c

Skip this one:
Unless you really really really love botany and tree climbing, I'd skip this one. Instead I recommend 'The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed' by John Vaillant.

Mythical and mystical account of Coastal Tall Redwoods:
This is a fabulous account of the search for the tallest trees and the resulting studies of the canopy ecosystems. This may sound dry but it is so beautifully written that it is a book you cannot stop reading.

I can't tell a redwood from a dogwood and I still loved it:
I got this book as a gift and was non-plussed. A whole book about people climbing trees? But once I started I couldn't put it down. Terrific writing, great characters and a really compelling story to tell. It was almost enough to make me want to go climb a tree myself. The only complaint I have is that I would have loved to see a few more sketches, or a few pictures, or something to really make plain just how large the trees are for those of us who can't just head off to California to see for ourselves.