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mattleesharp's review
3.0
I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for feedback and review.
This was a pretty interesting little book that was right up my alley. I have a tattoo of a rejected street map proposal for the city of New Orleans. I'm always eager to read up on interesting cartography quirks. And this book has all that. I learned a lot about the changing ways we've identified islands over the years. This book is a great survey of a niche subject.
And maybe my map love biased me a little here, but I did have one major issue here. In the version being sent out through NetGalley there aren't any maps! All the information is great. The writing is solid. But it seems borderline irresponsible to not provide copies of all the funky maps that are referenced in the book.
Illustrations of fish are great and all. They're super interesting to look at, but they're not a great substitute.
This was a pretty interesting little book that was right up my alley. I have a tattoo of a rejected street map proposal for the city of New Orleans. I'm always eager to read up on interesting cartography quirks. And this book has all that. I learned a lot about the changing ways we've identified islands over the years. This book is a great survey of a niche subject.
And maybe my map love biased me a little here, but I did have one major issue here. In the version being sent out through NetGalley there aren't any maps! All the information is great. The writing is solid. But it seems borderline irresponsible to not provide copies of all the funky maps that are referenced in the book.
Illustrations of fish are great and all. They're super interesting to look at, but they're not a great substitute.
ohnoflora's review
4.0
A really interesting and engaging potted history of islands that have never existed. A good companion book to [book:Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands|15131305], a potted history of islands that do exist but which you will never visit. Both books cover similar ground: the (Western) urge to explore, discover and claim new land; the desire for mystery, for there to be a corner of the map still a murky blank.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review
4.0
‘Faced with the sky we imagine gods; faced with the ocean we imagine islands. Absence is terrifying, and so we fill the gaps in our knowledge with invented things. These bring us comfort, but they conflict, too, with our desire for certainty and understanding. And sometimes that desire gives us back the absences we sought to fill.’
In this book, delightfully illustrated by Katie Scott, Malachy Tallack writes about twenty-four islands which were once believed to be real. These islands no longer appear on maps. Some of them were the result of human error, some were the products of imagination, while others were deliberately invented.
Some of the names may be familiar. I’ve heard of Atlantis, Thule, Frisland, The Isles of the Blessed, and Hawaiki. But I don’t remember reading about most of the others. I was intrigued to read about Hufaidh in the Southern Iraq marshes. This is a space which is both real, and mythological. This area, where the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers meet was the ancestral home of the Ma‘dān (the ‘Marsh Arabs’) and was known to European visitors including the explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who visited times during the 1950s, and the writer Gavin Maxwell who travelled there in 1956. It was from these marshes that Gavin Maxwell brought back the otter Mijbil, the subject of his book ‘Ring of Bright Water’. Sadly, most of the marshland has now been destroyed because of action taken by Saddam Hussein at the end of the first Gulf War.
‘Like many such islands, Hufaidh existed in a region bridged between life and death. It was part paradise and part hell, both of this world and of another.’
Atlantis may have been pure invention (thanks, Plato), but in this book Mr Tallack writes of other islands believed to have sunk. Sarah Ann Island in the Pacific (claimed by the USA for its guano deposits) is one such island.
I was amused to read that Bermeja, an island in the Gulf of Mexico, the subject of dispute between the USA and Mexico, was only proven not to exist in 2009. That’s one way to solve territorial disputes.
‘Today the era of new island discoveries is over, and the age of un-discovery is likewise coming to an end.’
I enjoyed reading about these islands, and I especially enjoyed Katie Scott’s marvellous illustrations. While it’s good that improvements in navigation have reduced the uncertainty about which islands exist and where, I liked how uncertainty provided fertile ground for the imagination of mystery.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In this book, delightfully illustrated by Katie Scott, Malachy Tallack writes about twenty-four islands which were once believed to be real. These islands no longer appear on maps. Some of them were the result of human error, some were the products of imagination, while others were deliberately invented.
Some of the names may be familiar. I’ve heard of Atlantis, Thule, Frisland, The Isles of the Blessed, and Hawaiki. But I don’t remember reading about most of the others. I was intrigued to read about Hufaidh in the Southern Iraq marshes. This is a space which is both real, and mythological. This area, where the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers meet was the ancestral home of the Ma‘dān (the ‘Marsh Arabs’) and was known to European visitors including the explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who visited times during the 1950s, and the writer Gavin Maxwell who travelled there in 1956. It was from these marshes that Gavin Maxwell brought back the otter Mijbil, the subject of his book ‘Ring of Bright Water’. Sadly, most of the marshland has now been destroyed because of action taken by Saddam Hussein at the end of the first Gulf War.
‘Like many such islands, Hufaidh existed in a region bridged between life and death. It was part paradise and part hell, both of this world and of another.’
Atlantis may have been pure invention (thanks, Plato), but in this book Mr Tallack writes of other islands believed to have sunk. Sarah Ann Island in the Pacific (claimed by the USA for its guano deposits) is one such island.
I was amused to read that Bermeja, an island in the Gulf of Mexico, the subject of dispute between the USA and Mexico, was only proven not to exist in 2009. That’s one way to solve territorial disputes.
‘Today the era of new island discoveries is over, and the age of un-discovery is likewise coming to an end.’
I enjoyed reading about these islands, and I especially enjoyed Katie Scott’s marvellous illustrations. While it’s good that improvements in navigation have reduced the uncertainty about which islands exist and where, I liked how uncertainty provided fertile ground for the imagination of mystery.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
geekylou's review
3.0
Really interesting Book on travelling the oceans and other places finding islands that were basically non existent. Amazing how much of the map we thought we knew is complete fabrication.
geekylou's review against another edition
3.0
Really interesting Book on travelling the oceans and other places finding islands that were basically non existent. Amazing how much of the map we thought we knew is complete fabrication.
dmbleighton's review against another edition
3.0
This title has been provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Tallack’s look at mythical isles in ‘The Un-Discovered Islands’ is oddly timely in the age of Google Maps and Fake News. The short volume explores islands throughout the age of exploration and beyond, paired with lovely illustrations by Katie Scott. I gained plenty of insight into the early practices of cartography and the common causes for such errors. Although the topic is compelling, the cases covered are quite short and I sometimes wished for more information on how the myths developed and continued rather than how they were debunked. That said, this is still a worthwhile and beautiful read for map nerds and travel lovers alike.
‘The Un-Discovered Islands’ is available now through booksellers and libraries large and small.
Tallack’s look at mythical isles in ‘The Un-Discovered Islands’ is oddly timely in the age of Google Maps and Fake News. The short volume explores islands throughout the age of exploration and beyond, paired with lovely illustrations by Katie Scott. I gained plenty of insight into the early practices of cartography and the common causes for such errors. Although the topic is compelling, the cases covered are quite short and I sometimes wished for more information on how the myths developed and continued rather than how they were debunked. That said, this is still a worthwhile and beautiful read for map nerds and travel lovers alike.
‘The Un-Discovered Islands’ is available now through booksellers and libraries large and small.
sarahalyse's review against another edition
5.0
Really interesting essays about different islands and their origins that is also well designed and has beautiful illustrations.
ryner's review against another edition
3.0
I was excited to read this new publication as it's such a neat premise: a history of islands that were once thought to exist, but whose origins have proven mythical, due to navigational or cartographic errors, or wishful thinking. Incredibly, some of these islands have been removed from maps only within the last decade. Though boasting an attractive cover and internal artwork, the book would have been further enhanced by images of some of the erroneous maps showing the islands in question. I also couldn't help but wonder: Many islands have become "un-discovered" with the advent of satellites, but has the reverse occurred? Has satellite technology discovered any islands in a remote part of the world that no humans had encountered previously?