Roberts’s memoir is a rich and loving ode to the sea, to coral reefs and to science itself ... he not only describes with great beauty the reefs he visited and studied, he also lets readers see his evolution as a scientist ... He frequently tells us that science requires patience and that strides in knowledge are incremental and slow. There’s an honesty to this. He admits that even in places of great splendor, there is repetition and banality ... You don’t have to appreciate his science or his suffering to appreciate Roberts, though. When he describes life below, you are truly swept away ... Roberts’s rich language will call to you.
Reef Life is a vibrant memoir of the joys, as well as the grind, of a research career beginning in the 1980s that has spanned a golden age of coral reef science. It is also a fine introduction to the ecology of reefs and the existential threats they now face ... Roberts revels in the details of life on a coral reef ... Roberts is a humorous, determined expert ... It is poignant to read this ... Roberts, with his irrepressible warmth and passion, concludes: 'Now is the time for action, not mourning. There is everything to play for.'
... it is the many passages that celebrate the profound beauty and biodiversity of coral reefs that make the most compelling argument for change ... Roberts has a gift for capturing the personalities and characteristics of the creatures he encounters ... Roberts writes beautifully of the experience of descending into the depths ... Reef Life is the account of a career, but at times it also feels like a love letter—or a farewell—to an ecosystem that is vanishing fast.
Reef Life is a richly impressionistic personal tour of the coral reef world before it’s gone forever ... The 'memoir' part of 'an underwater memoir' can occasionally become grating or boring or both. Readers wanting to learn all about coral reefs from one of the world’s leading experts will be a bit frustrated by how often Callum’s novelistic tendencies draw them into petty office politics instead ... folksy digression might be inexcusable unless it was done as effectively as Rachel Carson could often do it, but memoirs are notoriously more permissive creatures. Instead, here the element serves to underscore what readers will have known but might have forgotten: it’s real flesh-and-blood people who are out there in the far fishy outposts of the wild world, trying to preserve something old and beautiful from the rising tides.
The book succeeds as both a memoir of a scientist's research career and passions and an accessible narrative of the science of coral reefs, making its appeal for a broad audience. Roberts also deftly addresses the decline of coral reefs, persisting threats, and complexities of conservation ... Balancing a sense of urgency with hope and humor that will inspire action, the text is complemented by stunning photos from underwater photographer Mustard ... A vivid, lyrical science memoir for readers curious about coral reefs, and fans of environmental nonfiction.
Roberts conveys the majesty of the underwater world, and the often rough conditions for setting up research stations on inhospitable shores. In enthusiastic prose he describes corals, the fish, and other animals that live amongst the coral colonies, and the dangers these fragile worlds face in an age of global climate change. Spectacular color and black-and-white photographs entice us into a world most of us will never see but will grow to care about.
... a vital account ...Throughout, Roberts shows a gift for vivid descriptions of the creatures he encounters ... Roberts enables his audience to marvel at the miracle of natural engineering which coral reefs represent ... Natural history buffs and conservationists will cherish this vivid aquatic odyssey.
