Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Traveller's Guide to Mars, 29 Sep 2003
A TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO MARS is a mine of information, with a 'history' of observing Mars, images from all the missions, interpretations, comparisons with Earth, lots and lots of photos, and a few (sadly small) paintings by the author and at least one by Ron Miller ( a lovely 'digital' Martian city -- 3D, presumably). It's very readable, but also a book that you'll want to dip into time and again. For anyone who doesn't know, the author is not only the astronomer and planetary scientist who came up with the currently most widely-accepted hypothesis of Moon formation (an impact on Earth by a Mars-sized body), but is also a space artist and a Fellow of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA) -- as is Ron Miller, whose own 'Worlds Beyond' series of books on the planets of our Solar System, with his own excellent artwork, is also available on this site. Highly recommended.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book and a wonderful resource, 7 April 2005
This fascinating book is the work of scientist, author and artist, William K. Hartmann. What this item is, really, is a travelogue about the planet Mars! Going interesting location by interesting location, the book takes the reader across the face of Mars, and through Martian history. Along the way, the reader is treated to *many* colorful pictures and maps. This is a great book, probably the best one that I have seen on the planet Mars! I loved the way that the book is organized; somehow the author succeeds in taking his narrative location by location, and yet having it form a coherent and very informative explanation of what Mars is like now, and how it came to be that way. Also, the fact that it was published in 2003 means that it is entirely up-to-date, with information gathered by the Viking probes, the Hubble space telescope, and the Mars Global Surveyor. Overall, I found this to be a great book and a wonderful resource. If you are interested in the planet Mars, then you really must get this book! I give it my highest recommendations.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Interested in Mars? Buy this book!, 11 May 2006
This might be the best book about Mars at present. Hartmann tells us all that was known before the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on the planet. And he tells us how we know this, by refering to a lot of observations and detailed pictures, explaining how they support some theories and reject others. By describing different parts of the planet, beautifully illustrated by highly interesting pictures, he shows how they tell tales of different eras and events in the planets changing history. We have to wait until the journey of the two rovers has come to and end, and the results of their missions have been thoroughly investigated, before we might have a book that can match this one. In the meantime this is the book that makes it a lot more fun to follow the discoveries of the rovers, and to understand their significance.
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