My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for an advance copy on the life, history and perils facing one of the most popular denizens of the sea, the humble shark and its large family.

Sharks are creatures that humans have a very primal fear of. Snakes and spiders maybe, but sharks, even the most landlocked of people, will still give a shiver. Maybe it is the fact that they are ubiquitous in media. There is a constant run of Shark Week. And just humming the theme from Jaws gets a reaction, even from people who have never seen the movie, a snicker, ah oh that movie scared me so much. One doesn't get that from the themes to Anaconda, or the movie Arachnophobia, both decent movies yet lacking that fear factor. Kids love sharks, adults like sharks, and teens still flock to shark movies. Sharks are cool. At least John Long, writer of this book thinks so. The Secret History of Sharks: The Rise of the Ocean's Most Fearsome Predators is a look at sharks, where, they came from, how they survived so long in the world, and what the future holds for them.

The book starts not under the sea but in Antarctica, in a place full of fossils, and where a younger John Long got his start and his interest in paleontology, and sharks. For a person who is interested in sharks, it is amazing how many times his life has been put in risk not from sharks, but by trying to get to their fossils. In Antarctica Long nearly fell into a crevasse, and later found he walked through a field of crevasse, either ones which would have swallowed him. Other times weather has stripped away tents, putting him more at risk. Onto the sharks. Sharks appeared almost 400 million years, how will probably remain a mystery. Using the fossil record Long discusses what made sharks to adaptable and durable, a superpower if one will. Long discusses different kinds of sharks, including the megaladon, star of two movies, and other forms of sharks who have adapted over the years. Long also discusses the science of paleontology and how much of the information we have on sharks is recent. Long looks at the groups investigating sharks, and more importantly protecting sharks from humans and environmental decay.

John Long has written quite a few books on science for kids and adults and it shows as Long can take very difficult science matters and make it not only interesting, but fun. Long is also very humourous, and uses the humor of certain situations to explain ideas, but not in an intrusive ha ha sense. I enjoyed the fact that I could explain things about sharks to my nephew, sounding like I knew what I was talking about, and answering my nephews questions. Which being my nephew were really good. One can't help but be caught up in the narrative, and as things progress fascinated with one is reading. The amount of new information is astonishing to me, and again Long's careful explanations make it easy to follow, and quick to understand.

Recommended for science readers, there is lot here and Long does a very good job explaining, and making one want to know more. Bright teens might enjoy this, or even better if one likes sharks read it together. This is the first book I have read by John Long, I am going to have to look for more by him, just so my nephew thinks I really am as smart as pretend to be.

Basically a book all about sharks. Literally. From the beginning of time (practically) to now. How they have evolved, their “super powers” (which are actually pretty awesome), how they are viewed today, and the struggles they have endured (and are still enduring).

I did not think I was going to enjoy this, especially over 300 pages of this, but this book held my attention the whole time. The author, John Long, does an excellent job making this book entertaining even to someone who didn’t really care about sharks one way or another. His passion for sharks leaps off the pages of this book. By the end of this book, even I thought sharks were cool!

Long uses simple, basic language, pictures and humor to make the entirety of this book interesting and engaging. It is a great talent to be able to make a non-fiction, scientific book as interesting as Long does in The Secret History of Sharks. He added some side stories of people he knew/knows which was a nice break here and there. And he regularly recapped to ensure that the reader was keeping up, because there was a lot of information in this book.

Overall, so much better than I expected and I would actually recommend this book. In fact, I’ll probably buy it for my kids when it comes out.

***Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and John Long for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***

I enjoy watching live-streamed deep-sea exploration dives, in which I see lots of sharks and rays and their egg cases. So, I was excited to read this book It is definitely a great read for anyone interested in sharks or deep sea ecology. It is amazing how much more we know about sharks now than in the last shark book I read from a couple decades ago. Folks without as much background in ecology might be using Google a bit in some sections, but I think anyone already interested in this subject at any level could find this book worth reading.

Okay, I’m that guy. You know the one I mean. The one who every year looks forward to Shark week, who watches every movie that features sharks. (Yes even most of those SyFy Chanels abominations. Yes, even Ghost Shark, lol.) I don’t know if it’s because I practically grew up by the ocean or because I saw Jaws when I was way too young, but I’ve always been fascinated by sea life and sharks in particular. So when I got the chance to read an advanced copy of The Secret History of Sharks, I jumped at it.

Let me tell you something, when John Long decided on this title he wasn’t kidding. He delivers on the history…nearly 500 millions years worth of shark history at that. Given the complexity of the subject matter, the history and evolution to modern day sharks and the many offshoots, I would say Long does a fantastic job of making the subject matter not only accessible but also very entertaining. This is an absolutely fascinating look at the ocean’s apex predator. And even though I was lucky enough to read an eArc of this one, I’m really looking forward to adding a hardcover copy to my ever-growing ‘shark shelf’. I’d like to thank Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Secret History of Sharks.

Sharks. A word that conjures fear, and brings the theme of "Jaws" immediately to mind. How did sharks arise? How did they succeed when so many species died during major extinction events? And why are they in danger now?

Australian paleontologist John Long takes the reader through 400+ million years of shark evolution. Proto-sharks, almost-sharks, and families of extinct sharks are described in this engaging book. He uses just the right amount of technical talk - enough to describe and explain the concepts, but not so much as to bog the reader down in detail. He takes us around the world, for fossil sharks and their kin are found everywhere, from Antarctica to Canada. He talks about how high-tech scanning technology has revolutionized paleontology. allowing today's scientists to see details that their predecessors could only dream of.

Many types of sharks and their prehistoric rivals and prey are described, too many to go into here. My favorite is the genus Helicoprion, the aptly named buzz-saw sharks. Their teeth whorls, which resemble a circular saw to modern eyes, puzzled scientists for over a century. Only the thorough study (including the use of CT scans) of a few particularly good fossils of this creature allowed the mystery to be solved.

The last section of the book is dedicated to today's sharks, and the threats they face. Unsurprisingly, the biggest threat to sharks' existence is human. Overfishing and pollution are a twin attacks that are killing sharks and other aquatic life forms at a staggering rate. Steps are being taken to mitigate these threats; whether they are in time or a case of too little, too late remains to be seen.

Studying fossil sharks can even lead to technical breakthroughs in a totally different field. German paleontologist Ernst-Wolf Reif studied fossil shark scales, and compared them to the scales on modern sharks. He teamed up with physicist Dietrich Bechert, performing experiments on how water flowed over scales. Their work would eventually lead to the development of AeroSHARK technology, a thin film that, when applied to the fuselage of an airplane, reduces drag, cuts fuel consumption and carbon emissions, and cuts costs.

Recommended for medium to large public libraries, or where interest in sharks is high.

I love sharks and love the science element to this book. John Long does a great job in writing this book and it was everything that I was hoping for. It was researched well and I was invested in what I was reading.

When it comes to non fiction books, I’m not the best at reviewing. However, I have a simple formula; was it easy to read and understand? Was it new and interesting? Did you learn anything? And my answer to all of these is yes. I thought the science and facts were presented very nicely and I had to remind myself that I was reading non fiction and not a novel and some points because some parts read like an adventure novel. Very enjoyable.

<i>The Secret History of Sharks</i> is an excellent popular science book. Its focus is the paleontology of the shark species, from the earliest protosharks up until today. Due to the age of the species, this becomes a walkthrough of Earth history from the Ordovician (465 million years ago) until today.

This ends up including the history of science as well, as the author usually ties in a short biography for the major scientific player on any given species or topic, though maybe 'history' is the wrong word in the later context and more character study, since many of the people are still alive and doing research.

That suggests what is particularly neat about the book, in how recent a lot of the discoveries are, driven both by technology (and particularly CT scans and other imaging becoming more common tools) and interest in the field as one of the "last great unsolved mysteries" of evolution. The impression is of a field that is big enough to be lively but also small enough to allow for close relationships between the wide variety of professional and amateur scientist players, with the author being in the mix.

In fact, I suspect that the negative points on this book will be people who read that sort of familiarity of the author, the fact that he's done work at the sites that he's discussing and knows the researchers he discusses on a social basis as well, as something that comes off as boasting. But it seems to me more reflective of the research itself. And even if proud it seems justifiable: the author establishes himself as a 'triple-threat' in writing, as well as including his own photography and art. (My complaint with the author, and this is non-material, <spoiler> is in the call to action at the close of the book he calls for less housing density as a means of protecting the environment. I don't think that the door swings that way, but in that it sets up the importance of working remotely, which no complaints there, and if anything represents the classic 'smart person gets in trouble making statements outside of their area of expertise' trope</spoiler>.)

The writing itself achieves that ideal balance of popular science writing where it is clear without being oversimplified, and where the author deals with moderately complex topics with understandable language and faith in the reader to deal with hard things, along with a helpful and through index. I did snicker whenever the term 'sharky shark' was used, but yeah, I don't know what else to use in its place, and the end of the book reveals it to be something of a joke about Linneaus. About the only time that the writing falters is when the formula does not work as well, like in the middle Cretaceous that turns into something of a mess biologically and biographically as the author tries to pack too much in to too short a time.

The narrative reconstructions were interesting, but more interesting that the author is much clearer than others over what is fact, what is speculation, and what is his own narrative license. That in particular is a welcome change. And it is neat how shark history itself allows for a kind of climax in the <i>megalodon</i>, though even there I think that some of the best chapters are on the shark offshoots and ways in which the evolutionary tree is thought to branch.

But overall a great book, and the sort of book that I had to ration out to myself because it was so fun to read. I did go in thinking that it would be more about sharks than the history of sharks, if the distinction makes sense, but I was the opposite of disappointed by this.

Thanks to the author, Professor John Long, and the publisher, Balantine Books, for making the ARC available to me.