Oceania Books

This is an attractive book which the scuba diver will want to order. It maps and describes 74 of Fiji's top dive sites and the color photography is excellent. Despite the title, however, those interested in beach-based snorkeling will find little of use here as almost all of the sites included are accessible by boat only. Even the new Waitabu Marine Park off Taveuni is mentioned only in passing. There's virtually no practical resort or restaurant information, and the first quarter of the book is devoted to brochure-style hype you can read on almost any Fiji website. Critical reviews of dive facilities are strikingly absent, so this book is of no help in selecting a specific scuba operator. Five pages of listings in the back of the book provide basic contact information, but even this is out of date as all Fiji telephone numbers have increased from six to seven digits since the book was published. Most of the email addresses are also wrong, so substitute @connect.com.fj whenever you see @is.com.fj. Nevertheless, when one considers the cost of a scuba tour to the South Pacific and the lack of any alternative Fiji dive guide, all of the above criticisms are mute and serious divers will click this title straight into their shopping carts.

Simple no-nonsense guide to diving in Fiji

"Ni sa bula vinaka", as it is said in Fiji. As a master diver who has dived since 1956, and has visited many of Fiji's dive sites, I can heartily recommend this book to anyone contemplating diving Fiji. The Mahaney - Witte team- authors, photographers and dive tour guides well-known and respected in the diving community- are knowledgeable and credible. Mind you, NO book can ever catalogue ALL of Fiji's diverse and innumerable dive sites... but this book is well planned, has a very good selection of sites- rated for conditions and experience levels- and information for the would-be Fiji diver. The book has some maps, and a visual feast of photos. In summary- going to Fiji to dive? Be prepared for stiff currents, and a kaleidoscope of colorful fishes and soft corals... and BUY THIS BOOK! Dive well and safely.

This book is seemingly a compilation of dive locations frequented by dive resorts, with little independent research or reviews of specific dive outfitters. The book lacks basic information on water temperatures, currents, winds and seasonal influences. The independent traveller primarily interested in snorkeling will also be disappointed in the lack of practical information on the best sections of the main islands for shoreline snorkeling.

I bought this book primarily because I am going to Fiji in two months and wanted info on snorkeling. Boy was I surprised to find only half a page devoted to snorkeling. The rest of the book is a brief description of various dive sites.

The book does have nice pictures and basic information regarding the more popular dive sites in Fiji. But as a snorkeling reference, it is worthless.

I became interested in the Cook Islands after recently readingTom Neale's book: An Island to Myself (also published as An Island to Oneself), in which he describes his solitary life on the tiny island of Suvarov (Suwarrow) in the South Pacific Cook Islands. More inspiritation came from Florence Frisbie's book, Miss Ulysses of Puka Puka, written about 1947 about her life in these islands. These books enchanted me and made me start considering a possible trip to the Cook Islands, so I picked up "Rarotonga & the Cook Islands". It's a very slender book, but has all the information I was looking for, in particular regarding lodging. Maps and descriptions of the different areas of Rarotonga are helpful in deciding what side of the island appeals to one's taste in beaches, privacy, and comfort. Rarotonga is the most featured island, with the most facilities for tourists. The other islands are more difficult to reach, but the book explains ways to get to the other islands, if so desired.

There doesn't seem to be a lot to do on these small islands other than biking, swimming, hiking, and eating, and this may be exactly what appeals to some. I wasn't convinced to go though, because I can do these same things more cheaply in lovely parts of Mexico; yet I would go if I could, if only to meet Florence (Johnnie) Frisbie, who I understand still lives there.

For the first timer, this guide is a great introduction to the Rarotonga and the Cook Islands. It is very thorough and has details about shopping, places to visit, popular tours, places to stay, and eat. Not only does the guide provide information about the main island of Rarotonga, but also include bits on the outer islands, which are very popular to visit. I really enjoyed reading up on Rarotonga and felt this book provided a good orientation of Rarotonga and things to see and do. However, some of the information is outdated. It was published in 1996. Because Rarotonga is such a popular tourists destination things are constantly changing, for example taking the boat (ferry) to Aitutaki was quoted as an inexpensive way to visit this tourist hot spot. However, this service is no longer provided. Many of the shops noted in the book, were no longer open or a detailed description of how to find them was not provided. Locals were very helpful in providing the most recent information. There was not a lot of detail about accomodations in summer homes. This proved to be a very economic way of staying inthe Cooks. it could be improved with more thorough contact information. Overall for the first time visitor,this guide was very useful as far as getting an overall "feeling" or what Rarotonga is like.

If you are headed out to the Cook Islands (absolutely fabulous, beautiful place to visit), you MUST bring this book with you. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

We just got back from a two week exploration of the Cooks and found this book VERY helpful. The Cooks will quickly convince you that if you've only been to Hawaii, you've only gone half way to Heaven!

Unfortunately, we required hospital services (because of tainted food), and this book over simplifies issues of needed medical care. (Details that should be included in EVERY travel guide!)

Naturally, most prices quoted are actually higher, but that's just dealing with reality.

We observed "newbies" arriving without this book, and therefore, without a clue of where to go or what to do.
FOUR Stars because this book was so valuable, but as with most, there is room for improvement.

Having recently returned from the Cook Islands, I cannot highly recommend this book. While the history and culture sections are interesting, the lodging and shopping/restaurants sections leave a lot to be desired. Most of the businesses mentioned have either gone out of business or changed hands. This is especially true on Aitutaki, where only one of the businesses recommended was still in its present form! As another reader recommended, the book does not sufficiently cover home rentals which are a great way to stay on these islands for a reasonable amount (and most can be viewed and reserved on the internet!). David Stanley's Moon Handbooks South Pacific guide is a much better choice--it is more up to date and covers all the major South Pacific islands for almost the same amount of money.

A story full of anecdotes and tales of the 'great figures' of British legend, like Raffles and Clive of India (not such a great guy after all), the book is full of interest; not for its religious content (though there's obviously a lot of that), but for the way that our two heroes view the cultures that they are trying to enlighten.
At one point we feel that they are almost ready to embrace Buddhism, they are so impressed with the simplicity of their creed and freedom from internal squabbling - unlike their Christian church.
We get insights into the way cultures are developed or destroyed, either by religion, commercial greed or both and how countries bend the rules in order to get a political or commercial advantage - here the British are at their worst in promoting the opium trade, precipitating the war with China.

The book is a nice marriage of the narrative of the two Envangelists and Mr Hiney's well-researched commentary, the two parts blending seamlessly into a very enjoyable read.

While the born again crowd will no doubt love this book, those who respect cultural and religious diversity will be appalled.

This is the story of one of the most remarkable journeys ever undertaken. In 1821, two pious Englishmen, George Tyerman and Daniel Bennet, departed England to visit the far flung missionary stations of the London Missionary Society. They were both in their 40s and neither had any previous foreign experience. Given the slowness of communication some of the LMS missionaries had literally been out of touch with their headquarters for years.

It wasn't a pleasure trip. It took them four and one half months by sail to reach their first port of call: Tahiti. Over the next eight years they journeyed on to visit missionaries on other Pacific islands, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Java, Singapore, China, India, Mauritius, Madagascar -- where Tyerman died -- and South Africa. Moreover, in addition to ship travel, they did some heavy-duty inland trekking, especially in India where they stayed for 18 months. They weren't explorers, or especially adventurous, and probably neither of them would have taken the job had they realized it would take them eight years.

This is a snapshot of their travels compiled from their joint diary and supplemented by background material on the people they ran into and the places they visited. Its quite a story and I developed of bit of admiration for the intrepid travelers and the missionaries they met.

The non-religious can enjoy this book. There is little theology here, beyond the judgements of Tyerman and Bennett about "pagan" religions and exotic customs. On the whole they seem level-hearded, ordinary men who undertook an extraordinary task.

Smallchief

Slave trading, Captain Cook, pirate ships, David Livingstone, cannibalism and human sacrifice, Captain Bligh and mutiny on the high seas -- it's all in here. Tom Hiney's book puts the pioneering missionary experience in historical perspective with this account of a two-man deputation sent out by the London Missionary Society in the early 1800s. Here is a factual record that refutes the popular perception of missionaries as namby-pamby, white-bread spoilsports. Instead, the reader meets hardy and fearless Christians who leap into unknown worlds propelled by a rock-solid faith that we comfy Christians today can only envy. I wouldn't call it an easy read -- the writing style is a little formal -- but the settings, the action and the writer's views on the broad social changes brought about by early missionary efforts make this a compelling book.

Picked up this book fairly randomly and found myself glued to it! A story in magnitude to Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" - where Lewis & Clark explored the newly discovered US, these two explorers mapped the new evangelical movement of Christianity. Their journey spanned the entire globe, making the travel log incredible and interesting, even for those not keen on religious history. The book includes fascinating descriptions of foreign lands; intriguing accounts of cannibalism, infanticide, drug addiction; and a portrayal of amazing spiritual courage in the attempt to complete this journey. I was also surprised by the honest portrayal of the inescapably political setting. I detected no agenda on the part of the author (either for against missionaries). In the end, some of the missionaries embodied the values of charity and giving, while others committed horrible acts. Both are portrayed in very human terms, so you can almost imagine being there. A great read and an incredible, if not important part of our history.

I bought this book on an impulse (the premise seemed intriguing) and I have to say I have not enjoyed it very much. I am on the last 20 pages now and it has been really hard going.

The problem is with how the book is structured. For some reason the author chose to combine various vignettes together and seemingly randomly group them in chapters. There is no flow of narrative, no characters to interest the reader, no feeling for the place where the author is at a particular moment, no context, no placement in time; most of the time we have no idea when is a particular scene taking place. Worse, at times I found myself not knowing where! The author would start a paragraph mentioning whatever fact about a place (say, Bali) then two sentences after that, in the same paragraph, he would mention something about a Carribbean island that had a thing in common with Bali, and for the rest of the chapter would keep talking about 'that' place; I found myself scratching my head wondering if he was in Bali or in the Carribbean, because it was not clear at all (to me). Also the people in his book are remarkably uni-dimensional, and there seems to be little difference between Melanesian John and American John, since no real descriptions or character studies are provided.

The author uses this gimmick to string paragraphs together repeatedly: he mentions something about some place, then the same thing about a different place, and this mechanism supposedly provides the passage from one place to another. While some may find this stream of conscioussness type of writing interesting, I quickly tired of it, and in hindsight it appears a 'cheap' way of connecting unrelated fragments and avoiding proper narrative. It does not give the book any kind of depth and I found myself not very interested in picking it up again because really there was nothing to return to.

It is too bad because there is a lot of material here. By comparison, Theroux's "Happy Isles of Oceania" is a masterpiece.

Take this one to the beach, leaf through it, but don't expect to be gripped.

The ellipical structure of the anecdotes will either enchant you or drive you batty trying to figure out when and where he is at any given moment. If you like Paul Theroux's travel books you may like this. It is more ephemeral, but in the end there is a linear tale with somewhat of an arc. I really enjoyed this book and hope to read more by him. You will want to visit most of the places when you put down the book. Just bring mosquito repellent and a wry sense of humor.

I am generally turned off by books with coconut palms featuring too prominently on their cover -- they tend to be full of self-congratulation for finding a perfect spot to relax, and reading about other people sitting on the beach drinking funny-colored drinks is even more awful than sitting there alongside them. But after a recent trip to Fiji, I wanted to learn more about it, and grabbed this book after learning the author had actually grown up in Melanesia.

This rarely happens, but maybe once every couple of years I find myself smiling after a few pages, delighted to find myself in the hands of a masterful narrator. I realized almost immediately that Frater, bouncing from topic to topic but never seeming abrupt, was going to keep me engaged for many happy hours. He's a sharp and skeptical observer of the present, a fiend for historical research, and manages to keep the story flowing, whether talking about the life cycle of a tsetse fly contagion or an audience with the King of Tonga.

This is a guy I'd happily have a beer with if I met him on the beach someplace.

My first reaction to Frater's "Tales" was mildly negative. He offers digressions within digressions, often jump cutting from place to place with only the mildest narrative logic. After a while, though, I adjusted to the pace and style and became thoroughly engrossed with his account of a life-long passion for the tropics. The book is filled with interesting detail, and thoughtful musings on a wide variety of subjects. I would love to travel with Frater, and reading this book is the next best thing.

Somehow this book simply didn't appeal to me. It meanders all over the place, with no dates so you're often left to guess the chronology. Occasional reminiscences about bygone missionaries, their wives, church bells and so on. Not a travel book by any means. Although to be fair, the parts about flying boats and tropical diseases were quite interesting. If you are interested in the South Pacific, I'd reccomend as light fare "The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific" by J. Maarten Troost and the best I've ever read "The Fatal Impact: The Invasion of the South Pacific, 1767-1840"

Another failure in my quest to find another book like Twilight. The description sounded promising:

All-American girl, Rowena - Ro - Maven, isn't completely excited when her Mother, Dr. Mold, informs her that the two of them will be heading to Sydney, Australia for a year, so that she can conduct a series of lectures in the great Down Under. However, Ro knows that she can try to make the best of it. After all, there are sure to be tons of hot guys with abs of steel, who surf daily along the beach in the bright sunshine. But boy is she wrong. In fact, everything in Aussie is completely boring - or gross, meaning the Roach Hotel she's forced to stay in - until she meets Patrick Carroll, who appears out of nowhere one day. Soon, Ro has her very own boyfriend, but there's something strange about Patrick. In the blink of an eye the two of them are transported to secluded areas where they exchange ethereal kisses. But the strangest fact is that no one but Ro can even see Patrick, and she can't tell anyone about him, making her think that she could be imagining his presence completely. Then she does the ultimate wrong-doing. She tells her best friend Hallie, and suddenly he's gone. Leaving her to do nothing more than guess about where he could possibly have gone.

Sadly, this story works better as a summary than an actual book. The writing is very poor and feels like a first effort. The romance between Ro and Partrick was really bizarre. Patrick comes across as creepy and stalker-ish. The real issue I had with this book was the explanation for Patrick; It was ridiculous and unsatisfying.

After being yanked from high school and all her friends when her mom takes an assignment in Australia, Rowena (Ro) is naturally lonely. Her heart's cry is heard by a strange young man who is literally beyond description and lands on her balcony. Although she can never remember what Patrick looks like and can't even say or write his name to tell anyone about him, Ro finds herself falling in love. It makes no sense at all, but he gives her all her dreams. When Patrick is around, time stands still and she can walk in the clouds. Is he a dream or an angel? Though he claims to be real, and even gives her roses that people can actually see, there is something mysterious about Patrick. Maybe he is not a ghost or angel, but he definitely is hiding something spooky.

**** I am almost reluctant to categorize this as young adult; it has a depth that you will only understand after reading it, but a magical quality that perhaps you must be at least a child at heart to grasp. Everyone needs a Patrick in there life, even if it's only in print. ****

All-American girl, Rowena - Ro - Maven, isn't completely excited when her Mother, Dr. Mold, informs her that the two of them will be heading to Sydney, Australia for a year, so that she can conduct a series of lectures in the great Down Under. However, Ro knows that she can try to make the best of it. After all, there are sure to be tons of hot guys with abs of steel, who surf daily along the beach in the bright sunshine. But boy is she wrong. In fact, everything in Aussie is completely boring - or gross, meaning the Roach Hotel she's forced to stay in - until she meets Patrick Carroll, who sppears out of nowhere one day. Soon, Ro has her very own boyfriend, but there's something strange about Patrick. In the blink of an eye the two of them are transported to secluded areas where they exchange ethereal kisses. But the strangest fact is that no one but Ro can even see Patrick, and she can't tell anyone about him, making her think that she could be imagining his presence completely. Then she does the ultimate wrong-doing. She tells her best friend Hallie, and suddenly he's gone. Leaving her to do nothing more than guess about where he could possibly have gone.

Sally Odgers is a wonderful new author to join the team of Smooch YA, as her vivid descriptions, and unique, yet magical situations and plotlines, are utterly unbelievable, and will draw readers in left and right. BOY DOWN UNDER is a lovely tale of first love, filled with a bit of paranormal phenomena, that will capture the hearts of romantics young and old within the first chapter. An absolute must-have for all.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

When Dr. Craig is hurt in a stateside car accident, his agent needs a viable substitute to provide the series of lectures in Down Under. He chooses another client Dr. Mold to provide the talks. Dr. Mold takes her teenage daughter Rowena "Ro" Maven with her.

In Sydney, Ro finds herself totally bored until a strange teen Patrick Carroll falls from the sky. He begins to take her places that she can only dream of, a departure from the Roach Hotel that is Ro's reality. With a blink they are alone on secluded beaches and though he seems ephemeral, his kisses are realistic. With her best friend too far away in the states to help her, Ro has her first boyfriend, who no one else can see or even mention him to anyone. When she finally does he vanishes leaving Ro to learn who is the enigmatic Patrick and where did he go for she does not want to be without him?

This young teen romantic fantasy provides readers with an intriguing tale as the audience will wonder if Patrick is just a figment of a lonely girl's imagination and if not who and what is he. Readers will enjoy the "dating" of Patrick and Ro as he escorts her to isolated places and never is seen by anyone but her. Teen readers will want to join Ro as she seeks to solve the mystery of the BOY DOWN UNDER that she cares about.

Harriet Klausner

Have you ever tried to explain something but you can't? Maybe you can't find the right words or maybe you don't really even know what happened. When Rowena (Ro) and her mother move to Sydney, Australia, Ro runs into a guy named Patrick Carroll. Actually, he jumps onto her balcony. Right away, Ro feels at ease around him, and she is having the time of her life. Everyday when she and Patrick go on a walk they end up in the most exotic places like, gorgeous gardens, outstretching deserts, and beautiful white sanded beaches. Wherever Ro goes, she sees Patrick. Ro is so excited about Patrick but scared at the same time. One day Hallie, Ro's friend from the United States, calls her. Hallie tells Ro she will be able to come to see her during Spring Break. Ro is ecstatic. She tries to tell Hallie about Patrick but her mouth won't let her. She is just not able to say his name to anyone. When Spring Break comes, Hallie goes to Australia to visit Ro. The first thing Hallie wants to do is meet Ro's unexplained boyfriend. While Hallie is in town, things begin to go wrong between Ro and Patrick.
I loved this book. It kept me wanting to turn the page and find the resolution to Ro's problem. The lesson is, if something is making you happy, other people won't necessarily share your happiness. This book takes you to the most exotic places while sitting your favorite chair.

This factual account of the first recorded south-north crossing of Australia, in Victorian times, is more amazing than any fictional adventure would dare be. A film of this book several years ago did surprising little raise awareness of the undertaking. The story recounts the key attempts and the elaborate expeditions involved. The crux of the story really revolves around a series of unfortunate & serious mishaps and incredible near misses. Tragedy was almost avoided numerous times but ultimately...well read the book; the story ultimately has a sad and a happy ending! The fact that the story is known and accurately recorded is in itself an incredible sub-plot. It is hard to believe sometimes that this is a true story -- yet this is a case of real life being more amazing than one would dare write as fiction! The story is quite detailed but hang in there, the threads all come together in an incredible finale.

When I was about 11 my uncle who had spent 40 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, handed me slender volume called Cooper's Creek. Since I had no idea where Cooper's Creek was at that age I left in on my shelf where it gathered dust for the next 25 years, and was lost in one of my many house moves.

Over the course of the years I kept coming across some of Alan Moorhead's books, on bookshelves in Canada, the UK, India, Hong Kong and Egypt and even the United States. I happened to read another book of his "Gallipoli." He is a superb writer.

Cooper's Creek is exactly the same. After reading more of Moorehead's work (including a history of the North Africa Campaign) I resolved to find this book and read it. But even in Australia it had been out of print. I found it in London, England and hand carried it to Canada. The tale of imperial adventure warmed me over a few long, cold Canadian nights.

In the 50s and 60s narrative history was at its pre-postmodern highpoint. Moorehead's narrative flows like a novel, there is plenty to get your teeth into and also interesting tidbits. Also, unlike a lot of 60s historians Moorehead is not afraid to pass judgment on anyone.

The folley and bravery of the Burke-Wills expedition is recouted for all those unfamiliar with Australian history. Attempting to map the interior of Australia was a dauting proceedure, and was the equivalent of travelling twice the distance Lewis and Clark covered overland in their American Odyssey.

Those unfamiliar with 60s narrative may find the contemporary account of the aborigines to be paternal and patronising, but that is projecting our values backward.

It is one of the greatest true tales of adventure written, and ranks alongside the Scott, Shackelton explorations in Antarctica and the first land traverse of the North American Continent by Alexander Mackenzie.

A ripping good read and well worth the effort to track it down.

Moorehead by the way was a very popular narrative historian of the 50s and 60s (a bit like a contemporary John Keegan). He was also one of the foremost war correspondents in WWII and worked for Newspapers in Australia, the UK and Canada. An autobiography of his life has just been re-published but I forget the title.

As a patient and understanding reader, this was a good story. However, I don't feel that the book was easy to read and was slightly boring. By saying this, I'm not saying I did not enjoy learning about the expedition of brave men traversing the Australian continent. In many ways, this is a devastating story. It's sad and true. Unless you are an avid Australian history researcher, it will be very difficult to utilize any of the information from this story. Keep that in mind before attempting to purchase this book.

In 1860 the Victorian Exploration Expedition, under the command of Robert O'Hara Burke, set out from Melbourne to cross Australia to the Gulf of Carpenteria and to explore the unknown centre of the continent. Burke, and his second-in-command William J. Wills, achieved their goal of crossing the continent, opening up a vast new area of Australia. But the expedition ended in disaster, with the death from starvation of both Burke and Wills at Cooper's Creek. This book tells the story of the expedition from the historical context and initial planning, to the events of the expedition itself, to the proceedings of the Royal Commission that investigated the expedition's disasterous end. A moving story well written.

The Burke-Wills expedition, which set out from Melbourne in 1860 to explore the still-unmapped interior of Australia, ended in catastrophe. Bad luck, bad planning, and bad decisions along the way led to terrible suffering for every man on the expedition, and death for many of them. As a piece of exploration, the Burke-Wills venture was an outright fiasco. As an example of bravery and endurance under horrific conditions, it's matched only by Robert Scott's fatal 1912 attempt to reach the South Pole.

Moorehead, Australian by birth, knows both the story and the setting well, and his writing does justice to both. His descriptions of the land are rich and detailed, while his descriptions of the explorers are spare and journalistic. The combination evokes, perfectly, the sense of ragged men trudging endlessly through an alien landscape, oblivious to everything but the need to go on.

Moorehead wrote _Cooper's Creek_ in 1963, and the book shows its age in two ways. It judges Burke's dubious decisions fairly mildly, where a later historian might have been more critical. More significantly, it treats the Aborigenes with an air of condecension that carries with it the distinctive stink of racism.

These are small flaws in an otherwise superb book, however. If true stories of impossible journeys appeal to you, take the trouble to seek it out.

I bought the second edition under the misleading impression that the contents will be updated, even though the conclusions may still stand. Instead, I have a book that's 95% same as before, plus some random afterthoughts on the main thesis that the Habsburg Monarchy self imploded because of losing the war, and not from the rampant nationalities conflict in an age of nationalism. If you want to read Sked's work on the Monarchy, just buy some second hand first edition.

And if you want a refreshing look at European history, look no further than Paul Schroeder's majestic The Transformation of European Politics.

First let me say that academically the book is both readable and factual in its content. But I found the book troubling for two reasons. First, Professor Sked writes like an English Lecture. He poses questions which he answers with his own opinions, many times taking other authors opinions to task. Those that he doesn't agree with he speaks of as liberal or extreme or having "missed the point". Secondly as this is a Second Edition,
it should have been brought up to date with information that has been developed over the last twelve years.

As an example of his inability to rewrite his own words (which he takes as sacrosanct) there is an aside that refers to the USSR and the eastern european satellites. He makes a referral to what would happen in eastern europe if the USSR were to go multi-party, hinting at chaos on the terms of Yugoslavia. Where has he been for the last ten years? No chaos, some nations in NATO and others being accepted into the EU.

Lastly, he shows a pronounced weakness in his understanding of military matters. In his discussion of the failure of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution, he dismisses the treatment of other nationalities in the Hungarian Crown Lands as being self-defeating but not disasterous. He especially discounts the Croats. Napoleon, not a bad general, described the Croat Cavalry
as the best in Europe, both for their bravery and ability to endure hardship. He used them as his scouts for his intelligence services and gave them credit for helping to secure many of his victories. They would not have won the was for the Hungarians, but they could have been a thorn in the side of both the Austrians and Russians. Instead the helped to defeat the Hungarians at every major battle.

Reading this book is informational, but you must be prepared to spend a lot of time searching around Professor Sked's opinions and biases to get to the facts.

If the book has a theme, it is that the Dynasty and the Empire were not in irreversible decline and the fall, brought about by defeat in WWI, was not inevitable. Why the title then? Well, towards the end of the book, in a couple of chapters added to the second edition, Sked admits that the title was chosen by his publishers and not by him.

My main reason for contributing this review is that I don't think it is clear from other reviews here that Sked's book is not a narrative or comprehensive history of the Habsburg Empire from the Congress of Vienna until its fall. It is rather a series of essays which reflect on other historians' treatment of some of the major themes in Habsburg historiography. These are interesting, challenging, occasionally repetitive, but are not, and do not pretend to be, a substitute for a general history of the period (such as C.A. Macartney's great work).

This text is truly invaluable for students of the Habsburg Monarchy. It's major strength has to be that it is analytical in style, providing explanations for the decline in fortunes of the Habsburg Monarchy. It is also innovative in that it provides a new perspective on the last century of Habsburg rule. Sked's book is an extremely readable text, which is accessible for all. An added bonus is that it provides a background to the historiography surrounding the Austrian Empire. Even if you do not agree with Sked's conclusions, it will certainly give you something new to think about, and is a useful antidote to the more traditional interpretaions of the Habsburg decline. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough!

What I am about to type concerning this book will be rather political, so I should make it clear at the outset that the author himself has no political axe to grind. He is simply examining and refuting some common misconceptions about the last century of the Habsburg Empire and the causes of it's fall. If that is what you are looking for, you could not do better than to read this book. This is *the best* book on the subject in English, bar none. If that is your interest, **buy it**, without reservation. Alan Sked's political opinions appear no where in it's pages, which are full of hard facts and strong historical thinking. It is in every way a model piece of historical scholarship.

The reason I see this as a very political text is that the history of the fall of the Habsburgs has been put to ideological use for a long time now. The Habsburg Empire was dismembered by that crusading moralist professor, Woodrow Wilson, in the name of "Democracy", "Progress", and other "enlightened" ideals for which he was willing to kill and send others to die.

It has been argued that the fall of the Habsburgs was a kind of bellwether, proving the inevitable progress of modernity and modern politics over the face of the whole Earth as a reactionary dionsaur of an empire finally died under the weight of it's own anachronism and decrepitude. The author of this book disproves that thesis totally. He demonstrates definitively that the Habsburg Empire was not weak or inept, and that in fact it faced it's worse crisis in 1848, and, having survived that, was viable as a political unit right up until the end of it's life. There was no mass longing for democracy, no mass discontent with the ancient Monarchy of the House of Habsburg, no demand for "national sovereignty" or "self-determination" on the part of the many nationalities of the Empire. They were fiercely loyal to the Monarchy right up until the end of it's existence. The Habsburgs fell, not because of the "turning of the tides of history" against them, but because they picked the wrong side in WWI. Period.

The fact that this is so undermines most of the cherished myths of the modern West. It proves that history has no inevitable current ending up with us, since it shows that the way history turned out was in fact the result of the individual choices of men, rather than the effect of some kind of powerful underlying trend that men could not have shaped. It proves that democratic gov't's are not the only ones capable of being seen as legitimate in the eyes of their people and that a nation of highly cultured and relatively wealthy people (the Austrians) could happily and freely choose to live under a radically different form of gov't, namely a hereditary monarchy. It proves that a powerful multi-ethinc state can be built, if ethnicity is carefully divorced from political power and protected (the Empire of the Habsburgs was virutally a microcosm of Europe in it's vast ethnic diversity). It proves that religion can be effectively joined to gov't - the Habsburg Empire was a confessional Catholic state until the end.

In short, it proves that the supposedly axiomatic modern truths about how politics just has to be are really just so many lies. There was, once upon a time, a strong, viable, multi-ethnic, confessional, hereditarily monarchical empire, that was a living force in world politics right up until the First World War, and that only ceased to be so after it was deliberately destoryed by the victors of that war, who sought to impose their ideology at all costs on the conquered, even if it meant destroying an ancient state and everything that was based on it. We know the results of this well: the wellspring of nationalisms this created has turned the Balkans into a killing field, and it left no strong power in the Germanic world that might have checked the Nazis after Germany itself was raped by the vitorious Allies; thus, the dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire cleared the way for Hitler and every horror to follow him in Central Europe. This was the price foreigners were made to pay so that professor Wilson could "Make the world safe for democracy". No amount of foreign blood is too much, apparently, for the ideals of a progressive intellectual.

This book was just what I needed for a cruise trip around the Hawaiian Islands. Good information in this book. On a "not a birding trip" I added 26 species to my life list at Hawaii.

Still the best field guide to the birds of the tropical Pacific, Pratt's book is now over 20 years old and in need of revision. The bird life of Hawaii is in a constant state of flux, with species arriving and becoming extinct every decade. One of the most common species today, the African Silverbill, was rare when Pratt's guide was published, so is completely missing from the book. Nesting information, feeding habits, and other aspects of natural history are given very little attention. So, while the serious birder will want to own the book and carry it in the field, it is now necessary to purchase a second book to fill in all the missing information that has come to light in the last two decades. For the birder visiting Hawaii, I recommend also carrying the Hawaii Audubon Society's Hawaii's Birds. It is a lightweight supplement that includes all the new species that one is likely to encounter as well as much more information regarding the habits of each bird.

If ou go to Hawaii and you want to go birding, I can recommend this book. It is a comprehensive guide, with clear and accurate drawings, and checklists for each island. The only thing missing is a list of buirding sites.

Pratt, Bruner, and Dickinson have produced a superb field guide completely covering all the islands of the tropical Pacific from Hawai'i west through Micronesia. This is a true field guide: it gives the field marks of every species, notes problems in identification with special emphasis on distinguishing similar species, and wastes no space on matters not related to identification. (The exception is that Pratt, a significant ornithologist as well as an expert in identification, summarizes controversies in classification whre appropriate.)

The text is organized by order and family, not by region, so the flycatchers of Tahiti appear next to the flycatchers of Palau rather than near other Tahitian birds. But the illustrations are grouped by region: Samoan land birds appear together, regardless of relationships. This greatly facilitates use in the field.

The illustrations are paintings, not photographs, which allows the authors to show similar birds in identical poses as well as eliminating the accidental marks which appear in even the best photographs and can confuse the user.

The authors have chosen to include the extinct birds of the region as well as the living ones. This puts a certain amount of "deadwood" on the illustration pages, which may be detrimental. But, considering that more than one "extinct" bird has been found after being missing for nearly a hundred years, it is probably worth the minor inconvenience.

I have used the book extensively in Hawai'i and believe it to be the best guide Hawai'i's birds. I would not consider being without it anywhere in its area of coverage.

This field guide has excellent sketches of birds but the layout is quite awkward. This guide like most if not all guides breaks down the birds by family groups. This works well for most areas but not Hawaii. As an example, on the first page for Crows and Honeycreepers there are six birds listed, three are extinct, the other three birds all exist on seperate islands, so if I am birding on Kauai and I look on this particular page there is only one bird I would have any chance of seeing but I still have five other birds on the page as a distraction. On the other pages there are on average 8-10 birds per page but once again some are extinct (and not boldly labled as such) while there may only be one or two birds from each island on the pages. My recommendation to make it easier to ID birds in the field would be to put all the extinct Hawai'ian endemic birds on two or more pages (since there are so many of them) for emphasis and then have seperate pages for each island. Since there are so few birds to be found on each of the Hawaiian islands versus say the tropical forests of Costa Rica, I beleive my recommended format would be much less frustrating than the current format of the book to use in the field.

Very informative book. Appears to have been well-researched. Lots of specific information.

Looking forward to following this guide to New Zealand.

Full of great information! The one thing it lacks is detailed maps of areas covered in the chapters. Considering that, it is still a great buy!

I am already planning my trip based at the book and it is does a pretty good on job at describing the places and best sites to see..

I'm used to the Fodor's Guides, so this should be another great trip I am planning and will revert back with the comments after the trip. But like I mentioned, I used it before and that is the main reason of why I keep going with Fodor's again...

You will be please with the level of information needed to plan your trip and help you out during the journey..

Way to go...

i used this book on a recent trip to new zealand, and for the most part it was great. my one complaint was with a restaurant recommended by the book in auckland that turned out to cater to large tour groups and served expensive sub-standard food. but on the otherhand, another restaurant recommended (joe's garage in queenstown) turned out to be a highlight of the trip. so, as with all guidebooks, i think the information has to be taken with a grain of salt and it's better to get a second local opinion. the maps and general local information were very helpful for navigation and for deciding what to do each day. worth it overall.

Better than most, but less informative and readable than the Eyewitness Guides. (The one on New Zealand is being updated now for an August release.) I think more guidebooks should start incorporating that format into their titles---sacrifice a few details for more showcasing of locations worth noting. Still, this is a sound source for information and it's one to keep with you when you travel. In one or two instances, I found information in Fodor's that was ONLY in Fodor's and nowhere else, so the research is obviously extensive.

Before I describe what this book is, I should describe what it is NOT, because I feel that it is definitely (and perhaps deliberately) mistitled, and if I had known was it was, I probably would never have chosen to read it.

I bought this book without bothering to riffle through it, being under the impression that it was an investigation into whatever facts lay behind the Moby Dick legend upon which Melville based his well-known novel. Although Severin partially covers this angle in the last (and definitely most engrossing) chapter, this is certainly NOT what this book is about on the whole.

Severin himself touches on this [p. 52]: "The animal Melville had in mind was probably inspired by reading a short story in an American magazine, The Knickerbocker, in 1839. The piece was called `Mocha Dick or the White Whale of the Pacific' and it was a yarn about a big bull sperm whale regularly encountered off the coat of Chile. The animal was said to be `as white as wool', though whether because it was an albino or from old age was not known."

But this is virtually the only mention Severin makes of this mysterious beast.

So what is it about? For a period of about a year and a half the author roamed through Oceania staying and talking with various whale-hunting communities, for the most part learning about their lifestyles but occasionally exploring the subject of a white sperm whale, which, as Severin is eager to demonstrate, is not limited to Western literature, but makes an appearance in the myths and legends of societies far different from our own.

Unfortunately, the lifestyles of these primitive whaling communities, for the most part, do not make for interesting reading (the section on Lamalera is especially yawn-inducing), and several times during my reading I wondered why I was even bothering to finish it.

Other sections leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, such as when Severin digs up and exposes Melville's many exaggerations. Every author's worst nightmare! Here's a sample:

"[In Typee], Melville describes how the natives of Taipivai were very keen to tattoo their sailor visitor. They point out that his white skin would make such a perfect canvas for their art. Mehevi also wants him to be tattooed, and suggests suitable patterns. The tattooer-in-chief pursues Melville about the village waving his instruments, the sharp-toothed combs and tapping mallet. Yet somehow Melville avoids the operation, and he does not explicitly state how. It is another example of Melville building up suitably colourful ordeals while `living among the cannibals', but then sidling away from any clear explanation of how he emerged intact. Certainly Melville had no tattoos to display when he returned to new England and told an intrigued audience about his `four months' on the Marquesas, though tattoos were already common enough among Western sailors of his day."

Just what every writer needs. A good deal of the book consists of ill-spirited detective work of this kind, most of which is not even germane to Severin's stated purposes.

Conclusion: if you are looking for extra information on the facts behind white whale legends of the mid 1800's, don't look here. The closest book I know of that addresses the question of whether a white whale actually existed (an actual white whale, not just an ordinary black, though perhaps unusually aggressive, sperm whale-like the one that famously smashed up the Essex) would be Norton's "Moby Dick as Doubloon," and even that book only touches on the matter.

Having said that, the book is far from awful. The writing style is brisk and deft, and what Severin has learned on his travels/studies can on occasion be absorbing. It's just that you should know what you're getting into.

Moreover, the soft cover edition is handsomely printed, though it could really have used some maps.

I should also note that this book can boast a top-notch first paragraph. Don't let that fool you, though.

Herman Melville based his gigantic masterpiece _Moby Dick_ on fact. This is one of the most fascinating parts of that magnificent book. As mystical and symbolic as the parts and the whole may be, they are all firmly grounded in fact, in the world of nineteenth century whaling as it was. Facts crowd into the chapters, even the most novelistic ones. Tim Severin has made a career of replicating historic vessels, using them to trace the supposed routes of their historic sailors, and then writing about the results. In _In Search of Moby Dick: The Quest for the White Whale_ (Basic Books), he does not plunder Melville's great work, but actually expands it. Using _Moby Dick_ and other Melville texts, he has gone on an adventure to find the white sperm whale, and although he never brings home the fabulous creature, he does indeed find it in ways that demonstrate that even a century and a half after the white whale entered literature, he still exists as fact as well as fable.

Severin's curious quest takes him first to the island Melville described in his bestseller _Typee_, and then to islands where Melville never visited, but where there are still whalemen who still harpoon whales. The descriptions of the dangers of the hunts on which Severin accompanied the islanders are vivid and memorable. He finds, intriguingly, that the island legends of the white whale are in many ways the same as those of Melville's whalemen. He conveys vividly the excitement of the hunt, both of physical prey by contemporary whalemen and his own search for Moby Dick. The islanders know there is a white whale out there. Ahab was not able to destroy him, and the islanders revere and respect him. Severin's vibrant book shows that the whale hunters will surely pass away before Moby Dick, secure in legend and literature, is ever finally caught, or finally known.

Severin's varied accounts of South Pacific whaling compliment Melville's novel wonderfully. His book provides excellent supplemental reading to support Melville's classic AND add to the lore of the sea. Like the novel, Severin concludes his searching by recording a whale hunt that has incredible action and danger.
What fascinated me in this short book was his description of the whiteness of the whale. Nature allows white for only a few examples of whiteness and they are esteemed highly; their significance has spiritual and metaphysical associations. Severin states that whiteness and the sea are common, but in the whale, the shark, the manta ray and in other species, the contrast in seeing a white member "contradicts" our assumptions. I endorse this book for several reasons: Severin's anthropological recording is astute; he carefully respects Melville's accounts; and he is an excellent writer in his own right.

I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it. It has been well reviewed by others here on this page.

I was disappointed to find that the still pictures the author took and the drawings by Patturson mentioned in the credits were not found in the paperback De Capo Press book. I guess one has to buy the hardback. I found it a bit odd that the author often referred to Melville's copying (plagurizing) passages of other texts in the production of his book Moby Dick, but did not mention that in the times of its publication it was not uncommon to plagurize other books. Maybe he just didn't know.

Tim Severin has a gift for creating wonderfully colorful reasons for writing a book -- he sailed in a skin-covered coracle to establish the background to the fable of St. Brendan, and navigated a dhow to recreate the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, in just two of his odysseys. In this one, he searches for the mythic roots of the great white whale that provided the theme and tumultuous climax of Melville's classic, Moby-Dick. In a journey that spans the vast reaches of the Pacific, he first of all explores the island in the Marquesas where Melville deserted the whaleship Acushnet, travels to Tonga in search of the tattooed harpooner, Queequeg, and then moves on to the Timor Straits and the Flores Sea,in particularly haunting passages that describe his encounters with primitive whale-shark and sperm whale hunters, where harvesting great animals from the teeming tropical waters can mean the difference, for clans and families living on the edge of want, between survival and death.

This book is a page-turner. I sat down after breakfast on a lazy weekend morning, and could not put it down until supper time, when every page had been read. His quest rings with a sense of sincerity. Nothing here is contrived. Tim Severin shares with us the difficulties -- and great blessings -- of discerning the links between truth and myth.