Ok, first thing to comment on is the amazing Amazon service. I pre-ordered the book and Amazon managed to deliver it several days before it's actual release date ~ fantastic. Now to the book itself, I've bought every volume of The Landscape Photographer of the Year since the competition started so I feel I can give an honest review.
Last year's book was my personal favourite, this year's is good but doesn't quite get to the standards of the previous year. The books often get criticised for people photographing the same places over and over again. And again this year there are the familiar locations being shot but there are more new places getting to grace its pages, so an improvement there. Also included are some fabulous shots of architecture which in my view are the best there has been of this type of genre over the years. The Network Rail pictures show an improvement over last year. But the reason why I'd rate the book as not quite as good as before is the actual landscape photographs aren't to the same standard as last year.
Congratulations to all those who made it into the book, as someone who has entered and failed to get in I know how high the standard is. If you are a budding landscape photographer you should buy this book as it will give you something to aim for. I've been on a number of workshops run by one of the winners, Doug Chinnery, and definitely feel my photography has improved as a result. Doug's winning image this year is in his own words a bit of marmite. You will either love it or hate it but there is no doubt as with the other photographers in the book he is very talented.