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inkylabyrinth's review against another edition
3.0
"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."
You know that quote of unknown origin floating around the internet that boasts: “we know more about outer space than our oceans”? Well, that’s actually kinda true. Especially if you whittle it down to just our solar system versus Earth’s mysterious salt waters. Even if you consider just the surface of the oceans, we as a species arestill not fully confident of our knowledge of every island, reef, shoal, and the like. There is much we have yet to discover.
Tallack’s The Un-Discovered Islands provides an examination of 24 islands once believed to be real, but have since been removed from modern maps, and most of humankind’s memories. Even as recently as a few decades ago, some islands have been “un-discovered”. While most of these were genuine human errors, there were countless islands made up by nothing else but mens’ egos and greed. (More on that below.)
Tallack describes the history and eventual undoing of islands large and small, all over the globe, in more or less in chronological order. I believe this to be one of the book’s biggest downfalls. We begin in the era of Plato and end up in 2012, but we travel back and forth in history so many times, I felt dizzy. The flow was choppy, and the chapter groupings made little sense to me.
The Un-Discovered Islandsreminded me vaguely of Lore, the podcast created by Aaron Mahnke in the way it is told, which I realize could appeal to many. However, to me, it gave me a similar impression in that it was a lot of random facts mashed together in a disorganized matter, that left me feeling pieces have been left out. Both a promised collection of mystery and wonder that fails to fully deliver.
The main lesson of this book ends up being that a man’s ego is so big, it can make up even masses piece of floating land: fake islands “discovered” in the name of some other rich man’s ego, remaining an error on maps for centuries. There’s nothing mysterious, new, or revolutionary about any of that, as Un-Discovered Islands tries to convince me otherwise with each chapter.
The art, by Katie Scott is fantastic, but annoyingly each piece is repeated twice (at the section introductions and again with each new island).There are full page color spreads of a tiny image blown up on one page. For one island, there is a beautiful narwhal embedded in the text, but there was no mention of narwhals anywhere.
I still learned a lot of interesting facts from this read, and consider it a great starting or jumping off point for further research or curiousity. Other than that, I would search elsewhere if you’re looking for a deep view into mythologies such as Atlantis, and possible mysterious islands of the past.
"For millennia, explorers had edges to reach and to go beyond. They had blanks to fill and terra incognita to discover. [...] There may be no more unknown islands to be found in the world, but perhaps there is another ex-isle still intact, a phantom waiting to be un-discovered. And perhaps we should leave it that way."
((2.5 stars out of 5, rounded up))
halfmanhalfbook's review against another edition
3.0
Deserts have been known for mirages for millennia; the oasis that appears in the distance offering shade and water that as approached vanishes. Strangely enough, the same happens at sea, islands are glimpsed through fog and rough seas, navigation errors mean that sailors find places that exist elsewhere and others are purely figments of imagination. In this high quality book, Tallack has bought together the myths and legends of two dozen islands that were thought to exist, and now no longer do.
There are sections on sunken islands, un-discovered islands and mythical islands. Some are well known, Atlantis probably and the Isles of the Blessed being the some of them. Others are obscure and unheard of, until now. There are two or three pages of stories and background on each island, with some speculation as to the why’s and wherefores of their appearance and disappearance. Throughout the book are the delightful and colourful illustrations by Katie Scott; they add so much to the narrative of the book.
It is ideal for map and geography lovers and is a beautiful produced book too. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be much depth to the stories. It is not the fault of Tallack, but it is understandable when you remember that these are places that have no basis in reality, the tangible facts are scarce.
There are sections on sunken islands, un-discovered islands and mythical islands. Some are well known, Atlantis probably and the Isles of the Blessed being the some of them. Others are obscure and unheard of, until now. There are two or three pages of stories and background on each island, with some speculation as to the why’s and wherefores of their appearance and disappearance. Throughout the book are the delightful and colourful illustrations by Katie Scott; they add so much to the narrative of the book.
It is ideal for map and geography lovers and is a beautiful produced book too. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be much depth to the stories. It is not the fault of Tallack, but it is understandable when you remember that these are places that have no basis in reality, the tangible facts are scarce.
cspiwak's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really engaging and interesting book. The stories of imaginary islands were my favorite as opposed to the sunken or simply misplaced ones. The accompanying illustrations are spectacular
halfmanhalfbook's review against another edition
3.0
Deserts have been known for mirages for millennia; the oasis that appears in the distance offering shade and water that as approached vanishes. Strangely enough, the same happens at sea, islands are glimpsed through fog and rough seas, navigation errors mean that sailors find places that exist elsewhere and others are purely figments of imagination. In this high quality book, Tallack has bought together the myths and legends of two dozen islands that were thought to exist, and now no longer do.
There are sections on sunken islands, un-discovered islands and mythical islands. Some are well known, Atlantis probably and the Isles of the Blessed being the some of them. Others are obscure and unheard of, until now. There are two or three pages of stories and background on each island, with some speculation as to the why’s and wherefores of their appearance and disappearance. Throughout the book are the delightful and colourful illustrations by Katie Scott; they add so much to the narrative of the book.
It is ideal for map and geography lovers and is a beautiful produced book too. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be much depth to the stories. It is not the fault of Tallack, but it is understandable when you remember that these are places that have no basis in reality, the tangible facts are scarce.
There are sections on sunken islands, un-discovered islands and mythical islands. Some are well known, Atlantis probably and the Isles of the Blessed being the some of them. Others are obscure and unheard of, until now. There are two or three pages of stories and background on each island, with some speculation as to the why’s and wherefores of their appearance and disappearance. Throughout the book are the delightful and colourful illustrations by Katie Scott; they add so much to the narrative of the book.
It is ideal for map and geography lovers and is a beautiful produced book too. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be much depth to the stories. It is not the fault of Tallack, but it is understandable when you remember that these are places that have no basis in reality, the tangible facts are scarce.
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