Super Natural, Alex Riley
Super Natural, Alex Riley
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Super Natural
How Life Thrives in Impossible Places

Author: Alex Riley

Narrator: Alex Riley

Unabridged: 8 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/23/2025

Synopsis

Journey through Earth’s most extreme, seemingly hostile environments—and marvel at the remarkable creatures that call them home.From scorching deserts to frozen seabeds, from the highest peaks of the Himalaya to the hadal depths of the oceans, there are habitats on this Earth that appear inimical to life—yet in which it flourishes nevertheless. During the midday heat of the Sahara, silvery ants sprint from their nests to feed. In North American forests, wood frogs awaken each spring from solid blocks of ice. At the site of the Chernobyl disaster, fungi harness radiation to thrive.Transporting readers to far-flung environments we could never call home, Super Natural paints an awe-inspiring portrait of life’s resilience and ingenuity under the harshest circumstances. We meet creatures exquisitely adapted to endure unimaginable deprivations: of water, oxygen, food, sunlight. Alex Riley shows how, at nature’s extremes, the rules of life as we know them are rewritten—and how, here, we can find hope for the future of life on Earth, and beyond.

About Alex Riley

Alex Riley is an award-winning science writer living in Bristol, UK. His work has been published by Aeon Magazine, the BBC, The Guardian, PBS’s NOVA Next, and New Scientist, among others. In 2019, he received a best feature award from the Association of British Science Writers for his reporting on The Friendship Bench, a project that provides mental healthcare to low-income communities in Zimbabwe and has been adopted in countries around the world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Susan on October 11, 2025

Writing about the extraordinary qualities of living beings can easily turn into a sort of gee-whiz litany of astonishments akin to an 18th-Century cabinet of curiosities, a collection of marvels displayed without the context that gives them meaning. Science writer Alex Riley neatly avoids this probl......more

Goodreads review by Steph on July 12, 2025

Reading this book evoked in me a sense of wonder and curiosity that has strong echoes of the many hours I spent poring over colourful Dorling Kindersley volumes in my childhood. Riley does a great job of making his subject-matter interesting and insightful, and as each chapter essentially stands alon......more

Goodreads review by Ben on December 04, 2025

Had the honor of blurbing this one for the jacket; here's what I wrote: "SUPER NATURAL is a mind-expanding romp through Earth’s most extreme environments and the astonishing creatures who flourish in them. With awe and curiosity, Alex Riley plumbs the abyssal plains, the polar ice caps, and every hab......more

Goodreads review by The Inquisitive Biologist on June 18, 2025

An entertaining romp through life's outliers, Super Natural explores the extreme conditions under which some organisms not only survive, but often thrive. Read the full review at [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Rhinnan on November 23, 2025

3.5 stars.......more

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