Oceania Books

This book had excellent maps to use while in the country. It was also very useful when planning because it had phone numbers for everything so I was able to book in advance. It had very good advice when it came to planning itineraries. I especially liked that it had all the main tourist attractions as well as numerous off-the-beat-and-track (and wonderful!) suggestions. Use THIS book to plan in advance and to guide you while you're there. It covers EVERYTHING.

The new 11th edition (May 2002)of this Lonely Planet Guide is excellent. I grew up in Australia and travel back frequently. The publisher is based in Melbourne, so this book has unique "at the source" information and tips. This updated edition solves most of the problems of previous editions. Yes, things change -- so always refer to the most recent edition available. Australia is a fascinating island continent.

Having recently returned from Australia I must heartily recommend this title for the excellent advice on all the areas I visited.

One word of warning, however. When visiting Mission Beach, avoid Mackays motel on Porter Promenade. The grubby rooms and surly service spolied what was otherwise a highly enjoyable visit to Queensland. All the other Lonely Planet reccommendations were top notch!

This edition is a very poor effort by the Lonely Planet series. Year after year they get a lot of information completely wrong and no one seems to update it with the correct information. For example this edition lists Surfers Paradise, Coolangatta, Burleigh and practically every other suburb of the Australia's sixth largest city Gold Coast as towns. Obviously they are getting confused with the region north of Brisbane which is known as the Sunshine Coast which is made up of a lot of individual towns. Obviously the editor has never travelled to southern Queensland or this error would be corrected. The misleading thing then about this book is that it implies it is written by backpackers who have visited these places when clearly with such obvious mistakes someone just read a mistake somewhere while researching and reprinted it.

This book also does not contain the majority of hostel listings in Australia which is the main reason most people purchase these books. There are many free backpacker publications in nearly every Australian hostel so I would recommend not purchasing this book.

It does have some background information (although not entirely accurate) and some colour photographs. There are better books to buy to do research on Australia if planning a trip here then this mistake riddled thing.

This is the crown jewel of the Lonely Planet series. It's no wonder since Lonely Planet is based in Australia. This guide is much more comprehensive than any of the other Lonely Planet guides I have used. To get an idea, the Lonely Planet Australia guide is about the same thickness as the Lonely Planet Western Europe guide. Is there really as much to see in Australia as in Western Europe? I don't think so, but I'm not complaining. I just wish the other guidebooks were as complete as this one. This guide goes into great detail for every region of Australia. There even listings for minor towns with populations of 200 or 300. I don't think anything is left out.

As is usual with Lonely Planet guidebooks, this give great listings for reasonably priced hotels and restaurants. Also it gives you great information on how to reach each location. Oh, and it covers all the main sights, and a lot of the minor ones as well. Basically, if you're going to go to Australia, you should pick this up. You won't regret it.

this is the most useful and necessary guidebook not only for indonesia but for any destination you may have!

This is a good book, but an updated edition is supposed to come out December 2006 so wait until then if you want this book.

This is currently the best overall guide to Indonesia for independent travellers. It covers enough attractions to keep people occupied for months, and is more than enough for those with an average interest in the country.
As usual with this series, it is strong on practical details like prices, public transport and city maps, though one should never forget that prices in particular will have changed by the time one gets there - this 7th edition was researched in 2002, and reflects the situation as it was then.
There is also more than enough background information about culture and history for most readers.
Note however that coverage of remoter, less-visited regions is poorer - the chapter on Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) is nearly useless, and the one on Papua (Indonesian New Guinea) is little better.
Those with a deeper interest in Indonesia, or with an interest in a particular region, might want more detailed guides to those areas - Lonely Planet has great guides to Java and Nusa Tenggara, while Periplus has eight separate ones to all parts of the country, though the Periplus ones are best backed up with this book for practical details.

This book is great for giving you ideas as to which places to visit. But seeing now that it's 3 years out of date it has a lot of errors. I just used it in august of 2003 and all the prices are way off. Expect to pay about 2-3 times (sometimes 5-6 times) what the guide says because Indonesia's economy has picked up since the book has been released. For example: Borobudur is listed as 10,000Rp (~$1.80CDN) for entrance in the guidebook, now it's 58,000Rp (~$10CDN). They should be putting out a new one soon so if you can, wait for the next one to come out.

This is a good guidebook and fairly accurate. In a country like Indonesia, however, things change quickly so use this book as a reference not as a bible. Do you own research and talk to other travellers. Since LP Indo is the default travellers' guide to this region, most of the restaurants and hotels are not the best values. Many get a steady stream of customers just because of a good review and never bother to maintain the facilities. The best deals require a lot of footwork and bargaining! Also, bus/boat schedules always change. So don't plan a rigid itinerary based on the data in this book. I know a couple that lost a week because they planned a trip around a ferry described in this book but didn't actually exist! Be prepared to wait if you're going off the beaten path. Some boat services are infrequent between the islands.

Learning some bahasa indonesia always helps bargaining. The language section is adequate but the phrasebook is much better.

This book has a 2006 copyright date in it so don't count on all the prices for hotels, dining, etc. to be up to date. We generally buy Frommer's books more for learning about the area and signts to see than for hotels and dining.Web sites we have researched don't contain a lot of great information as they are loaded with items to sell you. We have visited this area one other tiem and this is the place to go to relax and really take life easy. The book gives you some very good insight into the area and what to visit and where to spend you time. This book has some items and locations that appear in another Frommer book, Tahiti and French Polynesia. Areas in this book include Fiji, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Rarotonga and Cook Islands, Samoa and the Kingdom of Tonga. Even if you are visiting only a couple of those islands you will find the book worth while.We first looked at major book stores in Dallas and locating copies of South Pacific books was next to impossible. Every store though did offer to order a copy for us. That meant paying full retail price and having to make another trip to the bookstore. You spend less time and money by ordering as we did through Amazon.

If you are looking for information to help you decide where to go in the South Pacific this is a great place to start. If you know you are going to a specific Island you may want to consider a book on just that Island but this is a great overview and a resource for travelling between the islands.

Bill Goodwin has continually updated and improved this book since the 6th and 7th editions. Why does Amazon.com retain such outdated reviews from two years ago and more? So much has been changed since the edition one of these early reviews refer to. For example Goodwin points out the best snorkeling and other outdoor activities, and tells exactly where to go to rent bicycles. Goodwin's professional advice is highly relevant to travelers of all price ranges, including backpackers (he began as one after all), and all advice is given with an eye to making the most of your money. No travel guide can possibly be up to the, minute (the time need to print the book causes this), but Goodwin provides frequent updates on his own website, [...].
This guide is entertaining as well as useful. It is indispensable for all of us who have outgrown Lonely Planet. Please remove the out of date reviews of this excellent book.

Having been a resident of French Polynesia and Tahiti for over 35 years, the author-in my opinion-has produced an accurate, objective and encompassing report and guide for the American traveling public.The subject matter to review and relay is quite extensive--and this requires a fine tuned view of each island. Although I have not visited as many islands as the writer, I find the ones I know in the edition to be correct and concise--in fact, I learned details I was not aware of.

It is important to remember this guide was presented by an American-with an American viewpoint and cultural value-for the American market.

In closing, before coming to these islands, I highly suggest you extend your credit card limits and/or bring lots of cash as most of it probably won't be returning with you. French Polynesia is expensive--yet the lagoon colors, vibrant mountains and handsome people make it a memorable experience.

It is very obvious that the author of this book has actually been to the South Pacific - he is very enthusiastic about the area - and sincerely wants his readers to love it too! We have followed the book's on two trips and have found the advise to be 100% accurate. I highly recommend this book - it can be trusted.

Sometimes I don't realize I have a pet peeve until I read a book like Kangaroo Dreaming. In this case, I can't stand Kanze's decision to repeatedly and painfully compare his trip around Australia to the Odyssey. It is something that would have been fine to use once, but even with all the adventures and difficulties that he and his wife face are nothing like what Odysseus faces in his 10 year journey form Troy to Greece. Kanze didn't seem to trust the story of his trip to see as much Australian wildlife and wilderness as possible, which at least to American and even one that spend several months in Australia is much for interesting then being retold a fairly well known Greek Myth. He also includes much Emerson, but thankfully not to the point that it becomes distracting. I also felt that compared to other travel books, I didn't get much of a sense of himself and sometimes don't get much about his wife save when they argue or chase down another bird.
Otherwise Kanze has obviously read what previous writers and explorers have written about Australia, which he includes where useful, as well as facts about the unique wildlife he and his wife encounters. So don't read it for a great travel book, read it as a piece of nature writing that happens to involve travel. I agree with other reviewers, why weren't a few photos included with this book? I would have loved even just a few to refer to as he describes a particular encounter.

For one who has not been to Australia yet, reading about this wildlife journey has been great fun. The author gives his readers a real sense of the joy of discovery and excitement of the search. Along the way, he imparts a great amount of fascinating information about the countryside and the people encountered during their travels.

I highly recommend Kanze's book for armchair travelers who have an interest in wildlife, or those who may be contemplating such an adventure for themselves. The view of Australia, its people, and its wildlife is extraordinary!

Great armchair rideabout through the land down under! Witty and intelligent, Kanze has a knack for making one feel as if he and his wife were sitting in rockers in your den telling these tales. He is able to balance intelligence and knowledge with humor and candor of his own foibles. I want to go to Australia!

I read this book just after having finished Bill Bryson's travel book on Australia, "In A Sunburned Country," and the contrast could not be more vivid. Bryson focused mainly on the cities, towns, and people of Australia, and I believe he only saw a few kangaroos in his entire sojourn there. Though he did cover some natural history, most of his work was focused on the human history and culture of Australia. Kanze on the other hand on his massive journey around Australia with his wife Debbie spent very little time in cities, trying to avoid urban areas for the most part, and saw a great deal of wildlife, including probably hundreds of kangaroos. In fact, the principal reason they flew to Australia, bought a car, and spent the better part of a year driving around the continent/country (including Tasmania) was to see a bewildering array of plants, animals, and natural landscapes in the "bush."

The author introduces the reader to a many animals, some familiar, many not. We meet a wide variety of kangaroos, including the "big four," the common wallaroo (known as the "euro" in Western Australia), the red kangaroo, the eastern grey, and the western grey, as well as the musky rat-kangaroo, most "primitive" of kangaroos, smaller than a housecat, distinct in that hops on four feet rather than two, carries nest material with its tail, and is the only kangaroo that raises two young at a time rather than the usual one . They encounter the sugar glider, a marsupial that is strikingly similar to the flying squirrel of North America, one that feeds on the excretions of sap-feeing insects and eucalyptus resin, something few marsupials can digest. A wide variety of parrots (the continent possesses fifty-six species) also amazes the Kanzes when they encountered them in virtually any setting, from rain forest to desert to the middle of large cities. They meet koalas several times, a strange animal that Kanze informs us actually for a time grew more common after English settlement, as Aborigine hunting of them declined as their own populations retreated before the Europeans, only to suffer in turn when koalas caught the fancy of London furriers. They run into the ubiquitous termite mounds of Queensland, thousands of which tower over the landscape up to eight feet in height, vital to the local ecology as they serve the function of earthworms, which are unable to survive the monsoonal inundations of the local landscape. Interestingly, we learn that at least some termite species build their mounds with their broad fronts parallel to the earth's magnetic poles, one end pointing to magnetic south, the other magnetic north, with the mounds thus situated to soak up morning and afternoon sunshine but only present a thin edge to the blistering midday sun. They meet the potentially dangerous cassowary, a huge flightless bird able to run thirty miles an hour, jump five feet into the air, and disembowel a man with the slash of a talon. Advised to hide and freeze should they encounter one in the forest, the Kanzes run into an overcurious youngster and its protective parent at one point, a situation that could have ended in disaster. Told that if one froze they might be missed, as their eyesight is poor, a comment that to me brought to mind "Jurassic Park," a thought the author apparently shared. Kanze roots around underwater with a snorkel and mask for the elusive Arafura file snake, not formerly described until 1980, a snake with unusually loose but rough skin that uses to grip slippery fish, a water snake that hunts, sleeps, breeds, and gives birth without leaving the water. Among the many other animals they meet and describe for the reader are the manatee-like dugong, honey possums (the only terrestrial mammal to subsist entirely on pollen and nectar), Tasmanian devils, the hated alien cane toad, a wide variety of native frogs, bowerbirds, bandicoots, platypuses, flying foxes, dingoes, echidnas (also know as spiny anteaters), lyrebirds, sunbirds, and a wide variety of reptiles including sea turtles, pythons, many poisonous snakes, goannas (among the largest lizards alive today, goanna being the Australian name for a monitor lizard, the name probably a corruption of "iguana"), and crocodiles (both freshwater and saltwater varieties).

I learned a lot about Australian wildlife and landscapes and some about Australian history and culture and really enjoyed the book, but do offer a few small complaints. Kanze repeatedly compares his journey throughout Australia to that of Odysseus and his trials that were described in "The Odyssey." While sometimes the comparisons were apt and even mildly humorous, sometimes they seemed a bit forced and even slightly tedious, with occasional asides into Greek mythology that seemed out of place. Second, many times Kanze mentions taking pictures of a variety of animals throughout his journey, yet there is only the cover picture; nowhere are there are photographs in the book. I would have liked to have seen a few pictures at least of landscapes.

Having said that though, this is a very good Australian travel and natural history book, one I would recommend.

Ed Kanze's Kangaroo Dreaming should provide a healthy counterbalance to "Survivor II" with its kitschy evocation of aboriginal ceremony and the Australian landscape. In the popular show, the only genuine elements were the landscape of the outback itself and the glimpses of wildlife. In Kanze's clear-eyed view of the same landscape, the aborigines, like our Native Americans, displaying the "ugly and all-too-universal result of western mercantile culture mixing with a tribal society." The aborigines encountered near Alice Springs - unsmiling, clutching whiskey bottles - provide one of the human portraits that truly makes Kanze's book stand out among travelogues of natural history. But as always, Kanze's eye for flora and fauna predominates and his descriptive powers are masterful: "Suddenly, bubbles appeared in the water before me. I cocked my camera, switched on the flash, and held my breath. There - there -there - I was struck dumb by my good fortune. A black, rubbery bill wider than a duck's pushed through the surface immediately before me. It was followed by webbed feet, a hairy face with beady black eyes, and a furry brown body about the size of a muskrat's. I fiddled with the camera. The platypus was so close that my lens could not focus." The frame of Kanze's story is a nine-month, 25,000-mile odyssey he and his wife Debbie took around the rim of, and to the center of, Australia. (In fact, the author has used the sections of The Odyssey itself to parallel their journey.) Along the way they meet friendly and helpful nature enthusiasts - as well as characters they'd as soon never see again. For those of us who will visit "the America on the other side of the world" (Melville's phrase) only via the armchair, the Kanzes make irresistible, funny and erudite traveling companions.

Chris Duff's humility is one of the many striking attributes of a finely-written account of an often nerve-wracking and dangerous journey around New Zealand's South Island by sea kayak. Duff reminds us of the power and beauty of nature that so many of us have forgotten, lulled by the comforts of city life, and introduces the characters living around the coast whose goodness and moral support helped him get through the ordeal.

You don't have to be a kayaker to enjoy this book, but if you are, then you can empathise much more with the many challenges he faced. I was out there on the water with him, edging into the waves, fearing the surf, dwarfed by the Fiordland's cliffs. Well done, and thanks for sharing the experience!

I took this book with me on a trip to New Zealand, and enjoyed reading it as I learned first hand the island's crazy seas, and the many interesting facts about the country. At times the author can be a little long winded, but I thought it was well written for a trip that inherently has so much repetition. If you like sea kayaking, nature, and adventure stories, I would recommend this book. If you get to a slightly boring part about being with one with the boat and sea, just keep reading, and more adventure is sure to follow.

Unfortunately, I do not quite share the enthusiasm expressed by the other reviewers. Although Duff is an excellent descriptive writer, the numerous descriptions and philosophical musings in this book tend to go on and on needlessly; I do not need to read three pages about what it was like to find two apples in the ocean and eat them, or read description after description of the joys and epiphanies one experiences while paddling in a remote area. A little of that goes a long way.

I guess the upshot is that I was looking for an exciting adventure story, and what I got was perhaps the most thorough description of the New Zealand South Island's coastline, coastal waters, and weather patterns ever written. If you are looking for an "Into Thin Air"-type battle against the odds, keep looking. Although the journey required considerable paddling skills and Duff faced a few close calls, overall the book records little actual adversity aside from large waves and days of waiting out storms -- often in homes of hospitable New Zealanders rather than on his own.

I also agree with other reviewers that the photos are mediocre and certainly are not "stunning," as the back of the book claims.

A couple of years ago I saw Chris Duff speak at Canoecopia - a worldwide paddling expo held in Madison WI. One of his talks was about his solo circumnavigation of New Zealand's south island - the same topic as this book.
I, and I think the rest of the audience, was mesmerized as he told his tale. Even though he probably has talked about his trip many times it felt as if he was reliving it for the first time. His ecitement was contagious. The audience could almost feel the ocean swells and smell the salty air.
Chris Duff is as good of a writer as he is a public speaker. He vividly describes the scenery of his voyage, the people he encounters and his own personal thoughts. While, his adventures are WAY beyond my personal abilities I could actually feel what it would be like in his shoes (or in this case fast drying sandals) due to his excellent writing ability.

By Bill Marsano. Chris Duff's photos, which are bundled together and whacked a little perfunctorily into the middle of this book, limp under the heading of 'snaps.' Duff belongs to the old school of kayakin' shutterbugs: compose any old how, so long as the bow of the boat is in the frame; shoot in any old light; and shoot, sometimes, any old subject. There's a darn nice snap of a Hooker seal here but what I really wanted was more pix of the damage (and later repairs) to his boat from the surf landing that nearly killed him. I'm just saying. (And the maps are even worse--clear, but seldom helpful.)

Never mind: This is a book of writing. Duff seems to have had no specific reason to try a 1700-mile circumnavigation of New Zealand's South Island (it's not even a first) but he is no virgin. He's looped the British Isles and then Ireland; he's paddled 8000 miles along the east coast of Canada and the U.S.; even now he may be paddling round Iceland.

He, too, gets into a little gauzy mysticism about the Eternal Why and his place in the universe, but most of the time he's a little too busy for that stuff. South Island's coast is a place that goes from bad to worse, and it's instructive to listen in as Duff relates his tactics and strategies for dealing with bad weather and dangerous, even life-threatening situations: You can learn from this stuff as well as be staggered by it. And just for lagniappe there are those occasional moments of perfect weather and following seas that surf him along in solitary joy. These usually come along just after the notoriously perverse Tasman Sea has, as they say south of here, "prit-near" beaten him to a pulp.

A particular pleasure of this book is the human aspect. Despite the solitary aspect of his circumnavigations, Duff is a sociable man who enjoys and appreciates the people he meets--and appears to bring out the best in them. Add that to the fact that Kiwis are notably kind and generous anyway and you are not surprised that Duff makes friends everywhere he goes and they bend over backwards to help him in every way they can.

Judging from the indications in the text, it's clear that Duff prepared extremely well for this voyage, and readers should pay close attention as they go along, because--probably because this stuff is bred into his bones by now--Duff spends very little time discussing equipment at the end. In fact, he's done with the subject in a single page.

There's one incident in this book that commands my admiration and will yours. I don't want to give anything away but at one point Duff receives some help of a rather expensive kind, and his response is to pull out his credit card. "No worries, mate," he's told, officialdom is budgeted for that. All very well, but Duff insists on paying his own way. He is well aware of the fact that a well-behaved guest doesn't batten on his hosts.--Bill Marsano is an award-winning editor and writer whose own kayaking voyages fill only pages, not books.

i would like to order a book that is telling all old samoan stories and customs and the faasamoa in the samoan language..

David Stanley says he always travels incognito and never takes any "freebies" from any travel purveyors, so he doesn't get any special treatment that you wouldn't get and he doesn't "owe" anyone a good review. And you can sure tell. He is not afraid to give his opinion on anything and everything. Isn't that what you really need from a guidebook? If I want a sanitized version, I can get that for free from the tourist bureau. I like to know if a company is dispreputable or if a hotel is unsafe--especially for a woman traveler. I also especially liked the introductory sections that give you a good background of the culture of the peoples and info on the unusual flora and fauna.

As president of Sea for Yourself snorkeling tours, I'm obligated on behalf of my clients, to stay informed about the destinations we visit. Although we've been operating programs in Tonga for many years that allow snorkelers to actually swim with humpback whales, we keep a copy of David's Tonga/Samoa Handbook in the office in order to answer questions from clients about areas other than Tonga. In addition to Tonga, this book has extensive coverage of Samoa, American Samoa, and Niue.

In this book, the reader will find all the practical info (that continues to distinguish all of David's books) including travel tips, accommodations, meals, etc. I also appreciate the special attention given to cultural background, political and economic elements, and particular vignettes (such as the explanations of coral reef ecology and the palolo worm). However, the sections I personally find most useful include the pages on Internet sites, email addresses, and the bibliography.

I started using David's books (South Pacific Handbook) in 1982, and they have always been valuable and trusted travel companions. We always take this book with us on our programs to Tonga because it makes a useful reference for both staff and participants. Plus, since this book is easily available, I'm always happy to refer our clients to David's Tonga/Samoa Handbook when they are seeking to purchase a single accurate source of both practical and background information about this section of the Pacific.

I used the Moon guidebook to Tonga and Samoa during a 3 1/2 week trip to the South Pacific in early 2001. I found the book very useful because it covers Tonga and Samoa in one condensed book. There are enough details to travel on both island groups for a couple of weeks and not missing information in this great guidebook. The book is still quite accurate there is enough details for each spot you will visit on your trip. In general this book has helped me a lot to find my way around the islands with detailed maps and a wide range of unbiased information.

I used the Moon guide while in Samoa and was glad I had a source which dealt with matters not covered in the brochures on the airport counter. Some of the writers of the other guidebooks I saw seem to have been chaperoned by the Samoa Visitors Bureau. If you want more than an Alice in Wonderland view of paradise, this is the book.

I have sailed a few times in S.F. Bay being from the Bay area and I truely related to this story and since the Snark was being built by Jack London right before the 1906 quake. It amazed me and invariably he got taken advantage of by the various builders which led to some precarious sailing manuevers since they measured wrong on one side. Which Jack London didn't find out until out at sea. I could picture all the island stops and so enjoyed the old photos that were put into the Snark truly an interesting journey. It was interesting to me hearing of the staph infections were attacking the individuals when the crew would cut themselves and then end up with these sores they knew nothing about and how they had to heal themselves with virtually no medicines on board. This book is a captain's log which he wrote in daily. If your a sailor you'll love it or even if you've been exposed as I have you'll enjoy it, especially if you happen to be from the Bay area. I recommend it as an interesting and enjoyable read though at times I did feel he was just writing to keep his checks coming in to pay for his journey.

Sebastopolian Reader

Even though I consider myself a London fan (starting when I read "The Call of the Wild" and "The Cruise of the Dazzler" as a boy), I have never felt the urge to read "The Cruise of the Snark"...until now. I must admit that is one easy, enjoyable read yet there are a couple of chapters which in my opinion seem to be "filler" material, possibly created when Jack was sick and do not seem to fit the adventure billing (Beche De Mer English for example). Regardless, most of this book is very enjoyable and you get a few chuckles when Jack interjects some of his dry, sarcastic humor into the reading (when he mentioned that the Snark was actually shorter than expected and suggested that "the builder was not on speaking terms with the tape-line"). Jack's life was an adventure and this was the culmination of an adventurous soul. It's a wonderful story and a prime example of Murphy's Law.

It has been said that the best story Jack London ever conceived is the one he lived. You need look no further than THE CRUISE OF THE SNARK to confirm that. In this book, all of London's passions come together: action, experience, sailing, foreign travel, writing and reading. It is a "real adventure" tale, a travelogue and above all a well-crafted book full of London's personal voice and vibrant outlook on life. One may say it is also full of his ego, but he earns the self-satisfaction by putting action and hard work behind his beliefs and words. He is fearless. He is the first to get the irony in a situation and the first to laugh, especially at himself.

In 1908, London and six others, including his wife Charmian, sailed out of the San Francisco Bay into the open waters of the Pacific on what was to be a lengthy circumnavigation of the world. They were leaving over a year later than originally planned due to hold-ups in the construction of London's "perfect" boat, "The Snark," which ate $30,000 dollars before they left harbor. It isn't long before leaks, sea-sickness and other banana peels come their way, and it takes 27 days to make Hawaii. In due course, London learns to surf, they visit the top of a volcano, hang out at a leper colony, and then head further south to the land of Melville's "Typee" and the scary Solomon Islands. The various captains hired for the trip all seem to lack the navigation gene, so London teaches himself and gets it down to a science. London, first by necessity and then overtaken by the intoxication of success, becomes a self-taught dentist, and thus his crew's savior and worst nightmare. He and the crew suffer a nasty list of maladies, as well. It is a testimony of the man's indefatigable spirit, that even when his own health puts an end to the "round the world" scheme, that he never characterizes the voyage and anything that did not go as planned as a crushing failure or disappointment. He just heads straight to Plan B.

London's voice is wholly engaging, his profiles of crewmates and people encountered are delightful. One only wishes that some of his perceptions of other cultures were more enlightened, though they were liberal for their time. The Penguin Classics critical edition is an excellent balance of original text, a non-spoiling critical introduction, and a selection of 4 other short pieces, including accounts of the voyage by crewmate Martin Johnson and wife Charmian, and two unrelated maritime essays by London that enrich the overall experience of the book.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about this book. I thought his book "Call of the Wild" was one of the best ever works by an American writer. That novel was the peak of the Jack London's career.

Just so we are clear, this is not a novel. It is a collection of related short stories. London wrote everyday for a few hours each morning during a two year sea voyage. He did this to make money to pay for the boat trip. He wrote and sent off a number of different short stories during the trip to different magazines and each chapter was published separately. Then later, he took some of the stories and simply arranged them in chronological order to make the present book.

The book and the trip grew out of London's romance with yachting, and his idea that he wanted to sail around the world in a boat that he made himself. He wanted a large boat - about 50' - that he could sail himself helped by a small crew including his second wife. There is a lot of optimism here, and less practical experience than what one might consider to be wise, and London made a number of errors. London did not actually make the boat. He hired contractors. In any case, we hear how London made the boat and then sailed it across the Pacific, finally stopping near Australia. His motivation was based on dreams from his youth plus the romantic inspiration from prior writers such as Melville, Rudyard Kipling, Frank Norris, and Joseph Conrad, to name a few.

We read what we assume to be is a non-fiction account of how he built the boat, and then the trip itself in pieces along with trips to various islands.

Overall, the writing is good, but some parts are a lot more interesting than others so the book has a slightly uneven feel. I found a few of the chapeters to be boring.

Interesting read, but not as good as I had hoped: 4 stars.

I've recently arrived back in the USA from Suva and Nadi in Fiji, one of Jack's stopping points.

However, what he describes about the South Pacific is no more.

London's South Pacific was affected by European trade and commerce. For one thing, disease, in an era when its prevention was primitive, was rife and the inhabitants of the islands he visited were dropping like flies. Today, of course, the very same network has brought modern medicine and the major health threat to natives in the South Pacific is obesity: the only restaurant on Victoria Parade in Suva, allowed Sunday hours, was McDonald's, while Singh's Curry Shop had to close (I recommend the latter, around the corner from McDonald's on Gordon Street: try the goat curry).

London's natives were partly pagan. Today, ordinary people in Oceania are mostly fundamentalist Christian, and, in Suva, there is also a streak of Islam, petering out far to the west of Indonesia but echoing in the afternoon call of the Muezzin in Suva.

The fundamentalism means that the yachtsman is well-advised on shore to dress modestly. Of course, London and his wife did this naturally, long ago. I actually saw an Australian man warn a woman in shorts in Suva to put knickers on lest one of the local Methodists or Moslems be offended.

But any myth of escape has been so commodified in the South Pacific by tavern owners and tourist companies as to be sour and bitter to the taste.

London, while asserting his property rights thoughtlessly at Oakland's wharf, and while assuming he had the right to hire men to work on his boat and judge their hard work in print, also assumed, in the South Pacific, his right to wander at will.

Today, as the Rough Guide to Fiji advises the tourist, 85% of the land in Fiji is owned fee simple by chiefs. Sir Arthur Gordon decided not to repeat America's dispossession of the Indians and covenanted with the lads in Fiji in such a way that today, the natives form a land-owning aristocracy.

Their fair-mindedness (as on display from Steve Rabuka who backed down from being a military dictator) means that other lads from other mobs have rough civic equality.

London was the prototype, however, of the colonialist as rugged individual whose humanity is based on the unconscious deprivation of others' humanity.

London was the prototype of the soured Yank who when a lad thought the best of people, without a dime to his name, who now has everything, and thinks the worst of people.

London with a grin repeats texts from the hundreds of letters he received from individuals who wanted to sign on to the Snark and so escape their own lives of quiet desparation in an America already unbearable for the average city-dweller. Like him they yearned for a clean-limbed life but unlike London they lacked cash.

London essentially uses their texts to pad out a book that was obviously written not from the heart but to raise cash for a silly boat.

Any yachtsman knows in his heart of hearts that if the landlubber wants his experience, he has only to stand in a cold shower tearing up 100 dollar bills. The Snark was an expensive lark and, like modern yachts, unconsciously offensive at both its sharp end (where were the natives, giving London gifts and dying like flies) and its blunt end (where were the American laborers whose work London disrespects because it was not finished on his schedule).

The South Seas are overrun, today, by people who really ought to be paying more taxes back home. I traveled out there to work at global rates and learned much more about the REAL South Seas than any tourist might, and I'm afraid that Joe Conrad, who also worked for a living, in The Heart of Darkness is more reliable on the tropics than old Jack London.

I'm afraid that London saw, what he wanted to see: the Gilded Age struggle of man against man. However, as Hannah Arendt points out in The Origins of Totalitarianism, this defines rather a culture of hatred out of which were form racialist identities. London was for the most part free of any special form of racism but he did believe that Socialism was impossible because Alpha males (like Wolf Larsen) would take what they need.

Well, they might, and they do. Nonetheless, in the South Seas and elsewhere, Beta males and women continue some how to achieve more, and of more lasting value, by working in groups. Sir Arthur Gordon is forgotten save in Suva, because unlike Cecil Rhodes he failed to mind his own press-agentry but it appears he did lasting good with his land-tenure scheme.

London never learned the limits of his world view and his darkest book, Alcoholic Memories, is a testament to London's limitations.

My favorite yachtsman remains good old Tristan Jones, a British sailor who was trained in the Royal Navy and who paid his dues. Tristan would like me arrive back, from the back of beyond, without a dime and go willingly to work while living willingly in a doss-house. Tristan dragged his own boat across the Mato Grosso and talked back to tinpot Fascists in Stroessner's Paraguay.

In my experience it is relatively easy to learn the mechanics of a sailing boat but what is hard is endurance, not only of Nature but the Other. London endured Nature but has a tendency to be impatient in print with others, as shown by his insenstive near-mockery of applicants for service on his boat. Jones, on the other hand, mocks only people who deserve it, like customs agents in Paraguay.

We lack Tristan Jones' spirit in America with the result that the Third World is overrun with the worst of us, whining yachtsmen and CIA agents and their trophy wives. London I fear was despite his genuine greatness of soul a prototype for the worse that came later.

This book has given me many great ideas as we are redoing our outdoor area in Perth, Western Australia & we love the Balinese gardens & building styles.

Australian-born landscape designer and architect Made Wijaya (ne Michael White), resident on Bali since 1973, takes us on a private, guided color photo tour of twenty-four exquisite dream dwellings of the rich and famous. This lush pictorial essay displays the diversity, romance, and mystery of Balinese architecture: gorgeous bamboo and coconut wood barn houses, traditional rice storage bungalows, sumptuous estate grounds, water buffalo hide canopies, extravagant plunge pools, modern beachfront compounds hidden away in pandanus thickets, and royal water palaces. The reader's memory fills in the exotic, background atmosphere of dimly lit, shadowy courtyards; languid open-air pavilions; lava stone shrine silhouettes; the night time tinkle of village gamelan music through the thick foliage--and the sweet Asian smell of heat, flowers, and fire.
The concept of "home" in Bali is the "buana alit," a "small world," or microcosm of the greater world outside: lavish photo after photo transports us inside houses set like precious jewels in sculpted rice fields, rural villages, and isolated mountain eyries. This is where lucky strangers in paradise (painters, anthropologists, celebrities, rock stars, socialites, film makers, architects) have selectively carved out their own individual piece of an island paradise. Wijaya reminds us that the foreigners who came to Bali and fell in love with it designed these magnificent retreats as an extension of and as "an homage to that love." Photographer Ginanneschi uses a crisp, telling juxtaposition of interspliced color and black and white imagery to depict the contrasting spheres of east and west, and of native-born Balinese and their adopted, reborn-as-Balinese neighbors. The exceptional residences of the expatriates are recorded in brilliant splashy color while the everyday lives of the local people are shot in hazy, almost sepia-tone black and white. These muted snapshots capture the busy communal essence of Balinese life: readers are left to marvel at the sea of faces, families, and communities, and the elaborate pageantry of village markets, rituals, and religious ceremonies. For all their splendor and opulence, the glossy Architectural Digest showplaces appear deserted and surreal--compellingly isolated from the vibrant, teeming life swirling all around them. At Home in Bali has great appeal for devotees of fine homes and gardens and architecture buffs (note the Javanese, South Indian, Chinese, Dutch, and Portuguese styles and influences). Tourists to Bali will treasure this book as a special keepsake of the natural (and manmade) beauty they have savored during their eye-opening sojourn to the center of the archipelago.

I would like to comment on a previous review, on this fine book, as a photographer i am happy to see Isabella Giananneschi work as different from the usual "sharp" "crispy" and predictable images, hers is very expressive and for someone who lives for 6 months in a year in Bali, she was able to capture the mood of the place beautifully. I also believed that she should be credited for bringing her work to a higher level of sophistication.this book is a must buy and 5 stars to the photographer and the author for thier efforts!

First my complaints.

For what I consider to be a coffee table book, the quality of the photographs (on average 1-2 per page), was incredibly poor. They were simply very blurry and not sharp at all.

The book also doesn't quite know whether it wants to be a book on architecture, interior design or Bali society gossip column. I especially hated the constant name dropping on "so and so" used to be the life of the Bali party scene and how extravagant the parties were (well, I guess that has gone away definitely since the Bali bombings). I don't mind a short blurbs on the owners, but enough is enough.

Now to the good points.

The author is a well known and accomplished landscape architect in Bali, so he obviosly knows what he is talking about and what the owner was trying to accomplish in creating these wonderful houses.

But I think you can get the same thing from other recent books by the same author, which has much sharper and clearer photos.

I agree with Mr. Chiu in one of the previous reviews. I was expecting great photography in this type of book, but instead the book is filled with small, grainy, blury pictures. A much better 'Coffee Table' book is 'Tropical Asian Style', in my opinion.

One of the most popular science-fiction writers in the early 1900s, Merritt had the reputation of the Lord of Fantasy. "The Moon Pool" evidences the "baroque complexities that Merritt introduced into his fairly standard plots through his use of elaborately contrived creatures, technologies, and settings," as the editor Levy remarks in his Introduction. The Dweller reawakened on the island of Ponape where an ancient civilization once existed by a Dr. David Throckmartin and his group of scientist explorers is a vampire seeking new souls to devour. Merritt's fantasy about the Manichean struggle between good and evil is colored by his interest in the mystic Madame Blavatsky. Looked on unfavorably by some leading critics of the time, Merritt never gained much notice outside of the field of science fiction. For later generations, his ornate style limited his appeal. But he holds considerable historical interest in this genre of popular literature for opening it up to diverse elements such as developments in the sciences of physics and biology, figures from folk literature, literary references of all types (e. g., Celtic literature), and philosophical and religious ideas and themes like Blavatsky's mysticism which were all a part of his eclectic erudition. One sees such effects not only in today's fantasy literature, but also the popular fantasy movies.

A. Merritt's masterful first novel, "The Moon Pool," originally appeared in the magazine "All-Story Weekly," as a short story entitled "The Moon Pool," in 1918. Its full-length sequel, "The Conquest of the Moon Pool," followed in that pub the following year. The first book publication, later in 1919, combined these two works into a unified whole, and the result is an astonishing piece of fantastic fiction. And it would seem that Orson Welles' radio rendition of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" on 10/30/38 was not the first piece of fantasy to dupe the public, either. Readers of "The Moon Pool" in 1918 were so convinced of the book's veracity that they wrote to "All-Story Weekly" wanting more information. I can easily understand their confusion, as this novel is told in a very realistic style, purportedly from notes that the famous botanist Dr. Walter Goodwin had submitted to the International Association of Science. Goodwin had been en route from Port Moresby, New Guinea to Melbourne when he encountered an old associate, Dr. Throckmartin, who told him a remarkable story. It seems that Throckmartin's entire scientific party had been abducted by a being of light, while they were exploring the (actual) Nan-Matal ruins off Panape, in the Caroline Islands. Throckmartin himself is abducted before Goodwin's eyes, leading to Goodwin's exploration of those same ruins. Throckmartin's tale is eerie and quite suspenseful; indeed, those first 30 pages of the book are so very intense that the reader will be amazed to realize that there's another 250 pages in this novel yet to go! En route to Panape to effect his investigation, Goodwin, through a series of somewhat forced coincidences, encounters a Norwegian captain whose family had been abducted by the strange light entity; a visionary, somewhat fey, Irish fighter pilot; and a duplicitous Russian (German in the original magazine version!) scientist, all of whom accompany him on his adventures. And this is just the introductory setup in what turns out to be a long, involving, at times hallucinatory, and all in all quite remarkable tale. Underground civilizations, invisibility cloaks, giant jellyfish, disintegrating beams, good and evil priestesses, battles involving thousands, frogmen, shell-shaped flying cars...Merritt's imagination seems to be bursting loose in this, his first work. Much has been said regarding the fact that Merritt, a newspaperman for the most part (for many years on "The American Weekly"), could switch so easily from dry journalese to the florid, purple prose that soon became his trademark. This book would not be what it is without his dense, adjective-heavy, hyperimaginative prose, with its wide range of reference and yearning lyricism. Just take this example, in which the author describes the flora of the underground world that Goodwin & Co. discover:
"...moss veils like banners of a marching host of Titans; pennons and bannerets of the sunset; gonfalons of the Jinn; webs of faery; oriflammes of elfland! Springing up through that polychromatic flood myriads of pedicles--slender and straight as spears, or soaring in spirals, or curving with undulations gracile as the white serpents of Tanit in ancient Carthaginian groves--and all surmounted by a fantasy of spore cases in shapes of minaret and turret, domes and spires and cones, caps of Phrygia and bishops' mitres, shapes grotesque and unnameable--shapes delicate and lovely! They hung high poised, nodding and swaying--like goblins hovering over Titania's court; cacophony of Cathay accenting the "Flower Maiden" music of "Parsifal"; bizarrerie of the angled, fantastic beings that people the Javan pantheon watching a bacchanal of houris in Mohammed's paradise!"
Despite the reader's desire to flip through the pages breathlessly to see what happens next, prose such as this almost demands a more leisurely pace. I found myself rereading many such passages, just reveling in Merritt's ability to conjure up dreamlike word pictures. But strangely enough, although he is extraordinarily good with these descriptions, sometimes Merritt overreaches himself, and then his attempts to picture things fall flat. I defy any reader to fully visualize Goodwin & Co.'s means of descent into the Murian underworld, for instance, or the geography of the bridge leading to the Portal. But for the most part, Merritt's prose is extremely effective at conveying a sense of alien wonder, and "The Moon Pool" does indeed live up to its reputation as a fantasy classic. I recommend it wholeheartedly to all amazon.com readers.

I gave this five stars because it deserved it. It's still a classic and still a lot of fun to read. However, readers be warned. You must remember it was written in 1919. Stereotypes abound. Women are voluptous, wear very little clothing and are either totally good or totally evil. If you can make allowances for all that, then it's a thoroughly enjoyable romp and the author's imagination is stunning. Today, he would place his adventure on an alien planet. In 1919, the vast uncharted regions of the Pacific were vast and alien enough to contain lost races, lost civilizations, unimaginable science, etc. My recommendation is to suspend all disbelief and critical judgment and simply enjoy.

This novel sags in the middle with what appears to be padded material to lengthen it out, but the beginning and ending chapters are breathtaking fantasy in a beautiful style. Merritt was a genius and one should simply ignore the padding and enjoy the brilliant parts.

This is a fascinating novel. Merritt has a gift for setting. You actually feel like you are in a South Pacific ocean, or standing in front of the moon pool. This book grabs you and suck you into the setting. You have the feeling of gloom and wonder as you enter the Moon Pool for yourself.

However, Merritt's gift for setting is also the books main drawback. His prose gets wordy and adjective-heavy to the point of being absolutely unreadable. I kept rung back to Strunk and White: "Omit needless words," "Be clear," "Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place," and "Avoid the use of qualifiers."

I cant tell you how many times I read "coruscations," a word that refers to metallic sparkles and glitters. It is also the noun form of "Coruscant," of George Lucas fame.

It is an obscure word, but it blunts the prose's effectiveness and story-flow if you have to stop reading and get a dictionary to figure out what's going on.

Once again, Strunk and White:

"Avoid fancy words. Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able. Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo Saxon words."

Amen!

*

Aside from being thoroughly unreadable, this novel fascinates me. The setting is supernal, and I felt something move in the dept of my soul as I read it. To be sure, it is pure pulp, but pulp is just a corruption of true myth. It seemed to be a return to the underwater cave of Grendel's mother in "Beowulf."

Pits strike fear in the core of our being. That is why Luca uses them so much in his films for the death of villain. This same archetype works in this novel. Once you get past the awkward prose, you find a very interesting story.

I hope someday they adapt this to film.

We are yet to take our trip to New Zealand, however, I'm sure we'll feel more comfortable with our decisions on where to go, what to see, where to stay, and what to do from using this Book. The book gives general price ranges for hotels, activites, and in some cases restaurants. I think the greatest resource has been the website listings within each section. The websites cover everything from airlines, to tour groups, to just general information about the country. Needless to say, We're very excited to take our trip and I know this book will be coming along with us!

I planned our entire trip using a good road map and the 4th addition of the Rough Guide. Everything regarding the locations we visited was amazingly accurate. There are good maps of all the cities as well as the areas of interest. I did not find particularly useful the recommendations for accommodations, which featured either places for backpackers or those at the higher end, with not much in between. I also did not agree with some of the restaurant recommendations. Nevertheless if you are looking for a great guide book for everything else, this one is a winner.

This book was awesome. I am going to NZ on my own, and this book provided all the information I would ever need to know about locations to visit, the people, and lodging. Great value.

After trying another guidebook, we purchased The Rough Guide shortly before we left for New Zealand. It was an invaluable companion during our travels. The reviews were spot-on, leading us to a number of excellent restaurants and good campgrounds. We even appreciated knowing that a restaurant was "somewhat overpriced but adequate" before we went in--and that description was completely accurate.

The Rough Guide covers a range of restaurants and accommodations, which is useful. Even budget travelers sometimes like to splurge (and know that the splurge is worth the money). Their evaluation of activities was also accurate.

This guide is well worth the price--and worth it's weight when traveling.

I had Rough Guides recommended to me but I am disappointed in the size of the print, I would have rather the book been larger that having to strain my eyesight to read. I'm sure the book is very informative & we will ready ourselves hopefully for a trip to NZ in late 2008.