There are a good number of competent Scuba Divers (and some that are not!) who seem to think they can write a book on whatever aspect of diving they have personally experienced. As a result, far too many Diving books of poor quality are available today. It is imperative, therefore, that any "review" is confined to the actual content of the final product and is both honest and accurate. This is a "Duty of Care" towards the prospective purchaser.

It is very sad to see an excellent piece of work by two Authors who, incidentally, are completely unknown to me, rubbished by an appalling review based on the simple fact that the reviewer preferred another book. That, is NOT a good reason for any review. Trying to compare a family saloon car to a tractor is simply not possible - because their roles are not interchangeable.

The Complete Diving Guide to the Caribbean (Vol. 1) is not about the "best" dive sites within the entire Caribbean (although those within the catchment area of this book are included), it is exactly what it claims to be - a complete diving guide to 7 Caribbean countries.

I am not familiar with "Best Dives of the Caribbean" so I have no comment to make. I do, however, posses an extensive library on the subject of Scuba Diving, Ships, the Sea and related topics and I have to say that any person giving The Complete Diving Guide to the Caribbean (Vol. 1) a "One Star" rating simply understands neither the product they seek to review nor their obligations in doing so.

In conclusion, may I suggest any prospective purchaser reads all the other "5 Star" ratings given to this book so as not to be influenced by a rogue review to which someone prefers not to add their name.

Sincerely

NM

- The book appears to have a drastic shortage of species to list - it is only half as thick as Simon and Schuster's Encyclopedia of Animals - despite the fact that on numerous occasions they list but one or two species from a thirty-species family;

- The art is severely degraded from the above mentioned encyclopedia of animals. While I can see the puzzlement concerning the colors of the creatures' hides, there is no excuse for the the sloppy drawings of several of the animals! If you make a conjecture, please, be sure to follow through! On several of the animals the hair cover fails to obey the laws of physics, and most of the amphibians look like a horrid joke.

- The information is sketchy at best - on numerous occasions special biological mechanisms are mentioned (like a new jaw bone arrangement for the fishes, and the skull structures of the early land animals), yet are never explained in function. Almost all species are captioned with the basics like weight and dimensions followed with senseless filler.

- The between-section class summarizations and the cladistic graphs are also very, very basic. While I understand that the book was not intended for specialists, even the basic layman will find the charts a bit "dumbed down".

This book is flashy and artful, but lacking, lacking a great lot.

This informative and well-illustrated book would be a useful adition to any nature- or science-lover's personal library, or an interesting coffee table book

I've only seen and read the 1988 edition so I don't know how many changes have been made in the new edition, but I assume the format's still the same. Basically this is a very good non-technical introduction to prehistoric vertebrates (animals with backbones - fish, amphbians, reptiles, birds & mammals). Although there are some pages that provide the basic background - how fossils form, continental drift, etc - by the far the most interesting, and indeed the bulk, of the book is the coverage it gives to a large number of individual genera, each of which is illustrated by a color painting. It is the sheer number and diversity of creatures covered here, rather than simply a few dozen types of dinosaurs, that makes this book so interesting. I find the realism of the art work tends to vary - some drawings seem more realistic than others, but I suppose that's just personal taste. The art work is still of good quality thoughout though. The accompanying text is brief but clear and informative, and gives a basic introduction to that type of animal. The best thing about this book is that it's not just about dinosaurs (although these are covered in detail) but also deals with many other types of vertebrate creatures as well. My only real criticism is that despite the title - "animals" - no invertebrate animals were included, no trilobites, eurypterids, nautiloids etc. Still, you can only cover so much in the space available, and this book does a pretty good job.