The Red Sea Dive Guide (Abbeville Diving Guides) [Paperback]

A very impressive book for diving visitors to the Red Sea. Plenty of sea life identification, detailed dive routes for selected sites, beautiful photographs, up to date information. I was very pleased to receive the book prior to our trip, and found it useful in all respects. As an Instructor, I recommend this book to beginner and experienced Red Sea visitors.

This is another book in the well-established format we have come to expect from parent publishers White Star Publishing of Italy. 27 dive-sites are covered and these include 3 from Israel, 16 from Egypt, 5 From Sudan and 3 from Eritrea. Each section commences with an introduction and each specific dive site with maps and an artistic impression of the entire site followed by a written description. The book is well supported throughout with good photographs. Sadly, however, the overall standard of artwork is not up any acceptable mark; both in terms of overall standard - some of the pictures look as though they might have been drawn by schoolchildren, and accuracy of detail.

The very first page is well laid out with the "Contents" on the left-hand side revealing 27 numbered dive sites. Opposite this is a full page map showing the approximate location of those sites. A good start maybe, but it is all downhill from here. This book does not contain any of the vital information so essential to the modern, discerning, travelling diver. There is no information about; travel agencies, airlines, airport tax, Tourist Board details, hotels, safari boats, available equipment, what to bring, what to wear, electricity, currency, language, time differences, photography, local traders - and if I missed anything, yet again, we have a book which missed everything.

A look at the diving content reveals difficulties with the English Language from the very beginning. This is because of the Publisher's own brand of "Italian-English" which makes you want to throw the book away. In addition, the Authors cannot make up their mind whether to use the spelling is Gobal or Gubal so they use both. Similarly, the correct spelling of the Egyptian shipwreck "Ghiannis D" is Giannis D and the Sudanese "Blue Bell" is actually the Blue Belt. It is high time this Publisher - with so many titles on the market, found someone to translate their works to "English-English" - or is it lack of research?

Sadly, one of the very few interesting things about this book is comparing how they have changed their depiction of the Thistlegorm over four books. This particular version shows an artist's impression of a ship that bears no resemblance to the Thistlegorm whatsoever and even includes Battle Tanks - complete with long barrels strewn over the seabed. For the record, there never were any Tanks on board the Thistlegorm! Similarly, the pictures of the Carnatic and Giannis D (I am using the correct spelling.) look nothing like the wrecks I have come to know so well. With further basic inaccuracies on other shipwrecks, any reader must be left wondering just how much of this book "is" factually correct?

Altogether, I find it a great pity that a format with such great potential is being misused in such a way. Another example is the way in which the maps are drawn. Wherever I have travelled all maps are shown with North being at the top of the page. On p. 71 of this book, however, the "North Pointer" is shown pointing south-east, on p.73 it is pointing north, but on p.77 it is pointing south - and that from 3 consecutive sites taken at random.

The book's one redeeming feature, however, is a very high standard of photography - for which the book retains it's one star rating. What a pity such excellent photography is wasted on such an abysmal product.

NM