Customer Reviews

DK Concise Atlas of the World

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As usual, DK has produced some of the most beautiful maps and graphics available. Unfortunately, someone forgot to leave gutters (inner margins) and the binding splits most of the maps. Information is often lost, and the maps become very difficult to use. This seems to be common problem with a lot of atlas publishers who should really know better after all these years. Here's hoping DK remembers that bindings must be taken into account when planning an atlas, and produces future layouts accordingly.

What's the purpose of an atlas? - Maps, maps, maps: readable maps, large-scale maps, thematic maps! - An atlas should not, in my view, try to replace geography books. Whoever wants detailed information about a single country should turn to a specialized book - and I think most people will. So the room available in an atlas should be given to the maps. Provided with good keys, the maps will speak for themselves. And it would be possible to reserve more room for maps in larger scale for other countries than the Americas (Europe, Caucasian countries, polar regions, and many more).

Maps, however, should be intelligible and easy to read. But this atlas very often fails to achieve this goal. Just look at the pages on Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and many others: you get maps in piecemeal, so that you can't really locate these islands in their proper context. Consider furthermore, how much text is given to nearly each small island, surrounding the maps at the right, the left, the bottom and the top - and you will have difficulty in finding out where this island is located in the context of the mapping of the Pacific Ocean unless you are keen on finding the exact position only by degrees of latitude and longitude.

You will not be able to find maps filling a complete page or double page without other maps or text inserted in it, so often vital information of the maps themselves get lost. If DK really wanted to give all this information, they would have done better in giving the map a complete page and the additional information relating to it another one, if possible: the two pages facing each other.

Trying to give much information of the physical features to the maps the colouring, especially of mountainous areas, is often rather unfortunate. Place names in such areas are hardly readable, especially in the vicinity of high peaks (Rocky Mountains, Andes, Himalayan regions etc). Another problem common to many other atlases, too, is also encountered in this atlas: in thematic maps the different shades of red, green, blue or yellow are often hard to distinguish,

Dorling Kinderley consider this atlas a "Superb Desktop Reference for Business, Home or School". This is indeed what an atlas should be. But: reference books are books consulted rather often compared to other books like novels etc. Thus, the binding of a reference work should be durable and resistent to frequent use. If you are looking for such an atlas - forget this one! The "Hardcover" is so durable that it could not even stand the shipment.

The Index is quite good although printed on paper of newspaper quality (more than 130 pages). So it is to be expected that in a few years' time it will be very difficult to read.

Even though the binding may cut off the inner notes and maps, which is somewhat annoying, this book is nevertheless indispensable. A unique feature, the photos and notes are fun, informative, and educational. They tell you geological, cultural, political, and other information. The maps are beautiful and colorful, just what you expect from the well-reputated Dorling Kindersley. Highly recommended!!

Maybe I have a different book than the other reviewers? I find the quality quite good for the price; the maps are very attractive with lots of detail; the explanations of world regions are really interesting. Just look at the pages for a region you don't know very well, in my case Kazakstan and the other central Asian republics. In twenty minutes I learned a good deal about these areas. Especially useful are the small side-maps with arrows and text showing the main geographical features. For areas I know a lot about (e.g. northern South America) the information seems quite accurate, given the scale. I compared many atlases of similar size and price in the store and this was by far and away the best.