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An absorbing account of how geologists come to understand the workings of the world. The New York Times An absorbing account of the many years Lamb has spent exploring and pondering the Andes. But the book is not simply about a particular place or one scientific career. Lamb gives his readers a wonderful feel for how geology works- how geologists gather clues, test hypotheses and ultimately come to understand the workings of the world... [The book] make[s] us so familiar with the history of the Andes that they become living things. -- Carl Zimmer New York Times Book Review Simon Lamb's book is an enticing blend of personal adventure and scientific explanation. It is an unusual scientist who manages to describe the world vividly but also explain the science clearly... Lamb takes us painlessly through the workings of the great engine of the earth--and what could be more important than understanding how our planet is put together... His descriptions of flogging through the jungle-clad eastern foothills of the Andes leave one relieved to be able to experience it all from the comfort of an armchair. -- Richard A. Fortey Times Literary Supplement [An] engrossing and well-written book... Lamb's writing is engaging and clear... Even when he tackles esoteric areas of geophysics and dynamical modeling far from his own field of expertise, Lamb exhibits an enviable facility for simplifying complex and, in some cases, quite controversial ideas. He has keen insight into Bolivian geology and a sympathetic eye for local culture... Devil in the Mountain makes compelling reading. Lamb has done a masterful job in piecing together the Andean puzzle in a way that seems to make perfect sense. -- David E. James Nature [Lamb's] prose is lively and for the most part free of jargon. His tales of adventures during individual field campaigns engage readers in a way that a straight science text could not. Most important, he describes particularly well the process by which a field geologist interprets the Earth. -- Richard W. Allmendinger American Scientist This book describes physical quests as well as a scientific one. The history of mountains can only be told in millennia, but in America the history of people's attempts to make mountains their own can be told in a few centuries. Washington Post Book World