2: Welcome to the mysterious Black Planet
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Where would you find these?
(1) Gorgon's head
(2) Fangtooth
(3) Pigbutt worm
(4) Black medusa
(5) Radiolarians
Possible answers: In outer space? On the Earth's surface? In a horror movie? On a farm? In an electronics store?
Correct answer: these are the names of creatures found in the abyss. (Technically, the abyss is a particular zone of the oceans extending 3000 to 6000 meters in depth. This term is also used to designate the deep oceans overall.)
You will find photographs of the five creatures indicated above and the pictures of many more deep ocean creatures in this stunningly beautiful book by Claire Nouvian, a journalist, producer, and film director who has travelled the world for more than a decade, filming wildlife for French and international television.
The book has photographs with captions (its main feature) interweaved with text. The contents of the book is divided into two parts:
(I) Life in the water column (meaning life in the water above the seafloor)
(II) Life at the bottom (meaning life on the seafloor or just above it).
The colour photographs are, in a word--astonishing. All the creatures (that look like they're not of this planet) imaged are marvels of evolution and adaptation. Rare and unidentified abyss-dwellers are even photographed.
Each photograph has a caption made up of several pieces of information: (1) the abyss-dweller's scientific name (2) its descriptive name (not all photographs have this) (3) its size (4) the depth at which it's found and (5) known information about the creature. As an example, I will give an actual example of such a caption for the creature found on the book's jacket cover (displayed above by Amazon):
(1) Teuthowenia pellucida
(2) Googly-eyed glass squid
(3) SIZE 20 centimeters
(4) DEPTH larvae and juveniles 0-900 meters, adults 1600-2500 meters
(5) Three sentences of known information about this abyss-dweller.
The number of pictures in this book is almost 210.
In the copy of the book I have, at the beginning the reader is alerted that there are "four computer-generated illustrations." When these illustrations are actually encountered, the caption for these illustrations states "computer-generated image."
The text that's interweaved with the photographs consists mainly of two-page essays that begins most chapters, factoids, and quotations.
There are a total of fifteen succinct essays indicated in the table of contents. Each is written by a researcher at a prominent research facility. Examples of such facilities include the USA's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, France's French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
There is also an excellent five page introductory essay (not indicated in the table of contents). Be sure to carefully read this so as to orient yourself to the rest of the book.
Quotations from prominent people permeate throughout. One of my favourites was uttered by Jacques Cousteau in 1976:
"Under the sea, it seems my every gaze is as stolen from some forbidden world; and it triggers an emotional shock that never flags, no matter how many times I dive."
Revealing factoids also abound throughout the book. Here's an interesting fact:
At 150 meters depth, 99% of sunlight has been absorbed by water. Below 1000 meters, it's total, inky blackness for all.
(It is from this factoid that I came up with the title of this review.)
Based on the photographs and text, this book deserves a solid 5-STAR RATING.
Unfortunately, there are some problems with the book. The majority are minor (for example, the first two pictures found at the very beginning of this book have their captions on the credits page--the very last page), but the major problems primarily deal with the table of contents and index. (Note also that the credits page is not indicated in the table of contents.)
The table of contents is incomplete. For example, why isn't the introductory essay's (see above) title not mentioned in the table of contents? This introductory essay has four sub-sections. Why weren't these sub-section titles not mentioned? I feel that a ground-breaking book of this type should have a detailed table of contents.
The index is also incomplete. All it does is give the scientific names of the known species in this book and what page to find them on. That's it!! Why wasn't, for example, all the important information found in the fifteen chapter essays and the introductory essay appropriately indexed? Again, a grounding-breaking book of this type should have, I feel, a detailed index.
What is Nouvian's function with respect to this book? If you look at the book's cover, it seems that she is the author. She is NOT. If you look at the credits page, she is in charge of "photographic research." Amazon thinks she is the editor, but according to the credits page, she is not. Very confusing.
Based on these major and minor problems, this book should perhaps be given a 3-STAR RATING.
Finally, my final rating is an average of the two RATINGS given above.
In conclusion, this is a mesmerizing book giving us a glimpse into an alien world--the abyss.
(published 2007; preface; introduction; 20 chapters; main narrative 245 pages; appendix; glossary; index; bibliography; acknowledgements; credits)
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