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A review by safekeeper
Brilliant Maps: An Atlas for Curious Minds by Ian Wright
informative
3.5
I study geography and cartography, so this one instantly caught my eye in the bookstore, and after rifling through it in the shop I added it to my Christmas wishlist. Unfortunately, while it's an interesting concept with a wide variety of maps and topics, it also has its share of issues.
For starters, the maps are often laid out so that Europe ends up in the middle where the two pages meet, which with my paperback copy meant that part of the map was harder to read. A better idea would've been to lay out the maps so that either the empty Pacific Ocean, or Greenland and the Atlantic 'fell between the pages'.
Also, a fair few of the maps are hard to read as the colours are too similiar. Several of the maps also give the darkest colours to the lowest data values, even though map readers instinctively interpret the darkest colours as the highest values. Additionally, not all the colour sets are colour blind friendly.
Additionally, some of the maps should have better explanations than just their title. Particularly, there's a map that shows roads branching out from the city of Rome captioned "All roads lead to Rome" and no further explanation. As far as I've been able to figure out by Googling, this map is an art project that shows European roads that happen to lead to Rome, but the caption gives a misleading impression.
All in all, it's a great idea and an interesting book. A second edition with some editing would for readability and clarity would make it truly shine.
3.5.
For starters, the maps are often laid out so that Europe ends up in the middle where the two pages meet, which with my paperback copy meant that part of the map was harder to read. A better idea would've been to lay out the maps so that either the empty Pacific Ocean, or Greenland and the Atlantic 'fell between the pages'.
Also, a fair few of the maps are hard to read as the colours are too similiar. Several of the maps also give the darkest colours to the lowest data values, even though map readers instinctively interpret the darkest colours as the highest values. Additionally, not all the colour sets are colour blind friendly.
Additionally, some of the maps should have better explanations than just their title. Particularly, there's a map that shows roads branching out from the city of Rome captioned "All roads lead to Rome" and no further explanation. As far as I've been able to figure out by Googling, this map is an art project that shows European roads that happen to lead to Rome, but the caption gives a misleading impression.
All in all, it's a great idea and an interesting book. A second edition with some editing would for readability and clarity would make it truly shine.
3.5.