There is plenty of information about the history of Antarctic exploration in Marilyn J. Landis's book, recounted in a reasonably entertaining way, and so the book is marginally recommendable - but it's got a lot of problems that keep me from rating it above three stars. First, it's clear that Landis has done no new archival research, so the actual necessity of the book is in question; there are plenty of other books that cover this subject-matter. Second, the material is very badly arranged. Landis's Chapters 8 through 12, comprising "Regional Explorations," should have been folded into her Chapters 1 through 7, "General Exploration," and the whole should have been put in strict chronological order - as it is, she keeps circling back to the same stories that she has told already! It's not apparent what Chapters 13 and 14, "Exploring Antarctica's Geography and Wildlife," are doing here at all; they seem to belong to a different book altogether. Finally, the use of photographs is inadequate, and the maps are outright bad. A book like this needs an excellent effort in both those departments. The endpaper map is very poorly cropped, and the half-page map on page x - the only map in the body of the book! - is difficult to use and lacking in essential information.

You hear all the time that the standards of book production are not what they used to be, and often, it is too true. ( )