Customer Reviews

Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss

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

 

 

Richard Ellis likes writing about the oceans. He's quite good at it. Unfortunately, Deep Atlantic reads like a cross between a series of magazine articles and a wildlife guide. It's interesting in its own way, but the book is hamstrung by poor editing. The topics are organized into chapters, true, but there's very little attempt to link the chapters into a coherent whole. Too many chapters degenerate into a dull listing of creatures: "and then there's this squid, which is like that other squid, but different from the next squid..." I'd give the text two stars at best. The book is saved by the wonderful drawings - over 100 - also done by Mr. Ellis. In fact, Deep Atlantic probably would have been better as a coffee-table book, with large drawings accompanied by bite-sized bits of prose describing the weird and wonderful creatures of the deep. But who'd buy a coffee-table book about sea cucumbers and creepy fanged fish? Apart from me, that is...

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Ellis, and this is no exception. Like his other books, this one too seems to suffer from some mediocre editing, but the content more than makes up for it. The book is basically split into two sections, one describing the oceonography of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as a history of human exploration of the murky depths. The second section, which i found to be the more interesting of the two, is a broad survey of the animal life found in the deep areas of the Atlantic Ocean (and hence the title). I wish he was able to go into more detail about some of the bizarre and amazing animals that he discusses, and I wish that he could have included even more of his wonderful drawings, but despite those reservations, I still thought the book was great.

After spending time doing my own studies on the subject it was very nice to read a book by someone so respected in the field and get some new and wonderful info. This book is filled front to back with countless accounts and drawings of deep-sea beasts. However, his use of examples and the way in which he quotes some of his sources can easily draw you away from what the current topic is and blur the overall vision of the book. I would strongly suggest this book to anyone who is in the least bit intrested by this subject.

I've been fascinated by deep sea life ever since I was in Kindergarten, when my teacher showed me a picture of a Gulper Eel. This is also great book for sparking a similar interest in deep sea creatures, no matter what your age. The detailed illustrations draw you into the pitch-black world where these remarkable creatures reside. The text is precise and informative, however I found the author relied heavily on too many footnotes. This made reading seem "choppy," and took away from the overall flow. I found myself frequently getting lost referencing footnotes, and having to back up to re-read portions. But overall it's very informative, and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous! Definately a conversation starter if left on the coffee table!

This is a wonderfully illustrated book, except it is terribly written. Mr Ellis may have a good eye and hand, his writing is full of stock expressions and canned phrases. He seems unable to focus on any particular idea for more than a paragraph or so, and he meanders, but not in any reflective or thoughtful way. The text is full of paragraph length verbatim quotations from other books, even when there is no real need for it. He seems unable or unwilling to even attempt any sort of synthesis, even a personal one, of the themes that are supposedly the subjects of the book. He does have a good bibliography though, and it is probably more rewarding to skip his text and read the originals.

The real problem with the book though, is as a book of popular science, it is full of inaccuracies, mistakes, and contradictions. Among others, he writes red light has higher frequency than blue, when it is the other way around. There are many others like this, not really deep mistakes, but simples ones that should have been easily found. It seems the book was simply sloppily, superficially researched, and not carefully written and edited at all.

For a much better popular book, try William Broad's "The Universe Below".

This title has sparked intense curiosity in everyone I've shown it to. Its accessible text and elegant illustrations make it an ideal book for the general science reader. I've shown it to the most unlikely people - my four-year-olds, my teenaged nephew, my grandmother - and had them sit and read for an hour. (In the case of our twins, the illustrations sparked a whole set of heroes and villains this year at the beach.)

Richard Ellis has contributed a volume of books on the ocean environment, but his methodology is always a distraction. This book is very much like "Sea Dragons" in that it reviews specific species. For that value, I would give these books a couple of stars. Nowhere else, short of the primary literature, can you get a synopsis of deep-water organisms or Mesozoic marine "reptiles". There is no doubt that his research is quite thorough. Therein lies the problem. He spends a great deal of time getting the descriptions of the organism correct, I hope, that he loses sight of the simpler stuff, like referring to red as having the shortest wavelength of the spectrum. These books are full of mistakes like that.
However, my pet peeve is his use of incorrect taxonomy. He, alarmingly often, places an organism in an incorrect or antiquated group, ones that have not been revised since 1996. One has to wonder, "if he makes simple mistakes like this, how accurate is his other information?" Forget any sort of phylogenetic order in his descriptions!
Since this is one of the only popular accounts of the deep-sea wildlife, I would be willing to give it two-and-a-half stars. Since I can't do that, I have to round down to a two. As a taxonomist, I cannot forgive such easily researched errors in hierarchy and the lack of a logical phylogenetic progression. I can recognize these errors, but a layperson reading this is unlikely to pick up on them. Even then, I found myself pausing and consulting other databases while reading this book in order to verify or invalidate his statements. Not a pleasant read!

Richard Ellis does the world a favor by showing us all the mystery and magic our Earth still has to offer. The seemingly oblivious hordes scurrying across the wind-swept heights should stop and pause for a moment, and consider the strange reality of the cold ocean depths.

I would truly love to meet Richard Ellis, the author of this book. He has produced a very eclectic bibliography on life in the sea. I understand that he began his career as an artist and all of his books are beautifully illustrated. This one in particular makes liberal use of scratchboard art which does a fine job of bringing the creatures of the abyss to life. The first section deals with the history of deep ocean exploration. I found it particularly interesting. Proceeding sections deal with the myriad of ocean geology and biology topics. Ellis' treatment of these subjects is effective, particularly for the person with interest but a less than advanced background in science. I don't think you will find all the information here in another single source. Ellis, if not a marine scientist, shows a mastery of research and bringing his topic together. Some of the information is a bit disjointed but all in all a very good read.

I have read this book twice and it is alwayse fascinating. The drawings are wonderfull.