Match BookThe Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
Nick Lane
2015 · 368 pages · Narrative nonfiction
How it reads
The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life is narrative nonfiction (popular science, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in no single period, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are nature, identity and survival. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 368 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something adventurous
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or melancholy
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- narrative nonfiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- adventurous
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, one viewpoint
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to SuperintelligenceSusan SchneiderShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in CyberspaceJanet H. MurrayShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of EvolutionRebecca StottShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through AsiaPaul TherouxShares: narrative nonfiction, adventurous mood, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- Cloud AtlasDavid MitchellShares: adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, ambiguous ending
- Cooked: A Natural History of TransformationMichael PollanShares: narrative nonfiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, set in multiple locations
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