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missfortune99's review against another edition
This is, without a doubt, the worst book I have ever had the displeasure of reading. It reads like a stream of conciousness, and there is no organization to be had. It's okay to write nonfiction books and include your own experiences with the subject, but the way the author connects ideas is just... they're not connected- that's the things. Ideas jump like hopscotch- here's the author trying to observe a sea horse, here's Aboriginal cave paintings of sea horses. Please, save yourself and do not read this.
bluestarfish's review against another edition
4.0
This book allows us to take a good look at an odd fish: the seahorse. It's a popular science book that treats us to a multidisciplinary approach in the different chapters considering such things as archeology, traditional Chinese medicine, conservation issues and climate change. Though at times this creature seems so thoroughly odd they are still sea dwellers and suffer along with everything else in the oceans with what we humans are doing. So that bit is as depressing as anything on the current state of our oceans, but the style is clear and easy to understand and I did learn a lot about seahorses too! There are some beautiful reproductions of woodcuts of seahorses throughout the book.
addison_reads's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Humans are bad MmKay.
That's pretty much the theme of this book that at first glance appears to be about seahorses, when in fact it's more about humans and their impact on the oceans.
Lots of stuff felt like rambling filler to make this already short book just a little bit longer.
While I appreciate scientists trying to bring awareness of sea creatures and the state of our oceans, those topics can be handled better than this book did.
That's pretty much the theme of this book that at first glance appears to be about seahorses, when in fact it's more about humans and their impact on the oceans.
Lots of stuff felt like rambling filler to make this already short book just a little bit longer.
While I appreciate scientists trying to bring awareness of sea creatures and the state of our oceans, those topics can be handled better than this book did.
graywacke's review against another edition
2.5
Well. Marks for enthusiasm and several interesting parts and climate/pollution highlighting. But this is a book that is structurally flawed and oddly misses capturing its topic, seahorses. We learn about the trend of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), the damage of trawl fishing, the history of fish tanks, sea-animal tourism and collecting, scuba and underwater photography, and on the impact of pollution and climate change on ocean life in general. And in all these, seahorses are involved in some way. But that's a lot of non-seahorse information to cover. The book just gets carried away on these other topics. And ultimately there isn't all that much here on seahorses. I could sum in a paragraph.
Scales is a marine biologist, so we expect an expert's take. But she doesn't mention any specialization in seahorses. She tells us that she's only rarely seen them in the wild. Maybe that's not relevant. But the book certainly has the feel of a journalist tracking down a bunch of stories about a topic she doesn't otherwise have expertise on and reporting on them. I don't really mind that in concept. But that's not easy to do well. Here the presentation feels careless. A lot of reporting what she learned, knows, and some background she worked out, which provides the reader with a collection of reports and data, a miscellany, but lacks overall coherence.
Scales is a marine biologist, so we expect an expert's take. But she doesn't mention any specialization in seahorses. She tells us that she's only rarely seen them in the wild. Maybe that's not relevant. But the book certainly has the feel of a journalist tracking down a bunch of stories about a topic she doesn't otherwise have expertise on and reporting on them. I don't really mind that in concept. But that's not easy to do well. Here the presentation feels careless. A lot of reporting what she learned, knows, and some background she worked out, which provides the reader with a collection of reports and data, a miscellany, but lacks overall coherence.
cazxxx's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.25