CROSSING THE CRATON

This audio truly enhances a brilliantly written scientific essay. Nelson Runger reads slowly, as one must for this material, but without losing the vital tempo. He excels in technical pronunciation. This sample is the last book of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series called Annals of the Former World. Here a gifted teacher and geologist provides a short course in the most important scientific discovery of the last forty years--plate tectonics. To really understand such geology, you'd need diagrams, but the audiobook paints a careful enough picture. Scientists who like to keep informed about the fields of others will enjoy an acceptable simplification without being patronized. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]