BOOK REVIEW: Big Pacific – An Incredible Journey of Exploration and Revelation

Edited by Rebecca Tansley

Beautifully photographed and produced, this is undoubtedly the ultimate “coffee table” book about the Pacific Ocean and its inhabitants. How the publisher, Australia’s CSIRO Publishing can produce it for less than AU$50 a copy is completely beyond this reviewer. It is amazing value.

The text, generally, is little more than lengthy captions but the photographs are both brilliant and very diverse. While many of the subjects have been shown elsewhere, there are some fascinating new ones and all are unusually brilliantly presented.

Covering much of the Pacific rim and many of the island groups and physical and historic features and creatures within it, the book’s scope is very wide. Incorporating the new subjects ensures that the book offers much more than previous efforts on the same overall subject. There is a lot to interest and intrigue the mariner here.

Available from CSIRO Publishing, Clayton South, Australia.

Web: www.publish.csiro.au