304 ratings | 233 reviews | avg rating:3.94

Henry Gee’s Followers (191)

Henry’s Bookshelves

to-read (0)
currently-reading (0)
read (304)
did-not-finish (0)

Henry’s Friends (177)

Donna Foster

7,888 books | 5,001 friends

Alex Shvartsman

11 books | 227 friends

S.P. Moss

288 books | 83 friends

Kate

272 books | 81 friends

Mark

3,312 books | 2,021 friends

Xavier Bonilla

498 books | 51 friends

Pallab Ghosh

6 books | 3 friends

Ruth Linton

7 books | 3 friends

More friends…

Henry Gee

Goodreads Author

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.averyshorthistoryoflifeonearth.com

Twitter

@EndOfThePier

Genre

Science, Science Fiction, Horror

Influences

Jorge Luis Borges, JRR Tolkien, Beatrix Potter, Arthur C Clarke, J R R ...more

Member Since

January 2018

edit data

Henry Gee's next book The Wonder of Life on earth, illustrated by Raxenne Maniquiz, is out on 5 February 2026. His other books include The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth (winner of the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize) and The Science of Middle earth. His books have been translated into more than 25 languages. He is represented by Jill Grinberg Literary Management and lives in Cromer, England. ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Henry Gee questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Henry Gee’s books

Average rating: 3.96 · 4,914 ratings · 809 reviews · 66 distinct works • Similar authors

	A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters 4.06 avg rating — 3,338 ratings — published 2021 — 40 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution 3.90 avg rating — 501 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction 3.65 avg rating — 450 ratings — published 2025 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Futures from Nature 3.49 avg rating — 178 ratings — published 2005 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life (Comstock Books) 4.03 avg rating — 105 ratings — published 1999 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Science of Middle-Earth: Explaining The Science Behind The Greatest Fantasy Epic Ever Told! by Henry Gee (Goodreads Author), David Brin (Goodreads Author) (Foreword by) 3.55 avg rating — 96 ratings — published 2004 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Field Guide to Dinosaurs: The Essential Handbook for Travelers in the Mesozoic by Henry Gee (Goodreads Author), Luis V. Rey 4.28 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 2003 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jacob's Ladder: The History of the Human Genome 3.70 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 2004 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Siege of Stars: Book 1 of the Sigil Trilogy 3.16 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nature Futures 2: Science Fiction from the Leading Science Journal by Henry Gee (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Colin Sullivan (Editor), Gareth D. Jones (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Henry Gee…

146 posts
Henry Gee's Blog

What I Read In May

Featuring the struggle to reach the top of coming up to, notwithstanding inasmuch as which I just about manage to summarise the books I have read listened to consumed before the relevant month is out. The first two and the last were audiobooks, my regular accompaniment while walking dogs. The third was, you know, an actual book, a birthday gift from fellow bibliophile Offspring#2, and read while o

Series by Henry Gee

Nature Futures (2 books)
by

Henry Gee (Goodreads Author) (Editor),

Colin Sullivan (Editor),

Gareth D. Jones (Goodreads Author) (Contributor)

3.56 avg rating — 207 ratings

Sigil Trilogy (3 books)
by

Henry Gee (Goodreads Author)

3.21 avg rating — 68 ratings

rss
Henry’s Recent Updates

Henry Gee wrote a new blog post What I Read In May Featuring the struggle to reach the top of coming up to, notwithstanding inasmuch as which I just about manage to summarise the books I have read list Read more of this blog post »
May 31, 2026 06:26AM · like
Henry Gee answered Guillermo AyalaMartinez's question: Are we alone in the Universe? Opinion of the scientific community All the elements for life are fairly common in the Universe. Life began on Earth very soon after the Earth itself formed. There are trillions of other planets in the Universe. That our Earth is the only one with life is extremely unlikely. However, n See Full Answer
Sep 19, 2025 02:20PM · 1 like · like
Henry Gee rated a book it was amazing The Mars House by Natasha Pulley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Natasha Pulley wrote one of my favourite stories from an anthology called 'The Winter Spirits' so I pulled this one down off Audible for a listen. She's written many books -- her first novel was 'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street', a Victorian steamp ...more
Jan 28, 2025 11:02PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Mars House by Natasha Pulley. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Mars House by Natasha Pulley <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Henry Gee rated a book liked it The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The world has completely closed in around lonely, retired, twice-bereaved maths teacher Grace. Straitened by routine, sadness and crushing self-doubt, her world is turned upside down when she receives a letter from a lawyer saying she's been remember ...more
Jan 28, 2025 11:00PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Life Impossible by Matt Haig. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Life Impossible by Matt Haig <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Henry Gee rated a book it was amazing The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights by Bridget Collins (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
There's nothing like an anthology of short stories to introduce you to new authors and get you out of a reading rut. This was a festive gift and what a treat it was. It contains one creepy spiderwebb'd tale each from twelve authors. Each tale is an a ...more
Jan 28, 2025 10:57PM · 1 like · like · see review
Henry Gee rated a book it was amazing Ælfred’s Britain: War and Peace in the Viking Age by Max Adams (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Max Adams is an archaeologist and writer specialising in Early Medieval Britain (that is, between the departure of Rome in 410, to the Norman Conquest) . His other books include The First Kingdom (on the early English Settlements); The King in the No ...more
Jan 04, 2025 02:18PM · like · see review
Henry Gee rated a book really liked it The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Ashlyn Greer, child of uncaring parents, divorced from a philandering husband, sees herself as a victim of circumstances. She does, however, have a gift -- she can tune in to the emotional states of the owners of books that come into her rare book st ...more
Jan 04, 2025 02:14PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Henry Gee made a comment on My Top Reads Of 2024 " -- thank you very much! "
Jan 04, 2025 02:13PM · see blog post
Henry Gee rated a book really liked it Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Back in the day, I believe trainee typists were often assigned the task of typing the pangram 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'. Hence this charming novella, set on the fictional island nation of Nollop, just off the coast of the Carolina ...more
Dec 27, 2024 01:44AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Henry Gee rated a book really liked it Exodus: The Archimedes Engine (Archimedes Engine, #1) by Peter F. Hamilton (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Another day, another vast epic space opera from Peter F. Hamilton. When the Earth receives a signal from aliens known only as the Elohim of plentiful terraformed worlds to inhabit in the Centauri Cluster, millions of people set forth in giant ark shi ...more
Dec 27, 2024 01:43AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Exodus by Peter F. Hamilton. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Exodus by Peter F. Hamilton <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Henry's books…

Quotes by Henry Gee (?)

“No fossil is buried with its birth certificate. That, and the scarcity of fossils, means that it is effectively impossible to link fossils into chains of cause and effect in any valid way... To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story—amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific.”
― Henry Gee, In Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life

tags: biology, confessions-of-the-darwinists, darwin, darwinism, darwinist-confessions, evolution, fossil-record, fossils, macro-evolution, macroevolution, neo-darwinism, paleontology, science

8 likes

“Darwinism is dynamic. It is about change, not stasis; about process, not pattern; about tales, not tableaux; about becoming, not being.”
― Henry Gee, In Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life

tags: darwin, evolution

5 likes

“Natural selection is a blind and undirected consequence of the interaction between variation and the environment. Natural selection exists only in the continuous present of the natural world: it has no memory of its previous actions, no plans for the future, or underlying purpose.”
― Henry Gee, In Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life

tags: evolution

3 likes

See all Henry Gee's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Queereaders: Spring Reading Challenge - Official Record of Points	6	82	Jun 21, 2010 07:25AM
SciFi and Fantasy...: What Else Are You Reading in 2023?	1880	1349	Dec 31, 2023 05:15PM
Crazy Challenge C...: Joann's Trees Spell Out	16	10	Aug 30, 2025 01:11PM
Crazy Challenge C...: 2026 Randomizer	49	84	Apr 16, 2026 05:23PM
Crazy Challenge C...: The Metropolitan Museum of Art	100	53	Apr 22, 2026 07:32AM
Crazy Challenge C...: Remembering Them	57	58	Jun 02, 2026 05:57AM
Crazy Challenge C...: 2026 Potluck Challenge -- NEW!	59	85	Jun 05, 2026 10:22PM
Crazy Challenge C...: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble - New recurring 6-month challenge!	33	50	Jun 14, 2026 02:03PM
Crazy Challenge C...: Summer Bingo	54	61	Jun 17, 2026 05:39PM