This handsome companion volume to the author's "A Guide to the Moon" should supply readers and writers alike with a compact and particularly an up-to-date portrait-gallery of the solar family. The color plates by L. F. Ball aren't Bonestells by any means, but they are a striking and handsome addition to an excellent book.
Let me make my criticisms first: the author, one of Britain's leading young astronomers, is oddly vehement in denouncing the meteor theory of the origin of the craters of the Moon—and similar structures elsewhere—quite at odds with his tolerance and fair explanation of other disputed ideas. And the editors have in many cases hopelessly tangled the cross-references between the text and the illustrations, presumably by rearranging and renumbering the plates without changing the copy from the British edition.
Most impressive is the amount of work now being done on planetary problems, as revealed by the differences between this account and even the latest astronomy texts. We've heard about some of it in R. S. Richardson's occasional articles, here and in other magazines, but much of the rest will be new to you as it was to me. (Did you know that "Callistos" was originally Homer's name for Venus? Did you know that the Martian vegetation turns from green to brown in the summer? Have you ever seen a map of the markings on Ganymede?)
I think you'll want this on your science shelf. If you don't, go around and recommend it to your public library: one for reference, two or three copies to circulate, and more for the branches.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:
Donald B. Day, whose "Index to the Science Fiction Magazines: 1926-1950" we described here a while back, reports that he is now ready to supply correction sheets without charge to anyone who has his book. Mostly the errors are matters of spelling and similar typographical slips—which mighty few professionally published bibliographies bother to correct—but Don has added the contents of a complete issue of Fantastic Adventures (December '45) which he had managed to overlook.
If you ordered your copy of the "Index" directly from Don, he's sent you the errata sheets. You can cut out the corrections and paste 'em over the faulty lines. If you ordered through a dealer, write to Perri Press, Box 5007, Portland 13, Oregon and ask for the errata sheets.
And if you have any magazine collection at all, or want to track down old stories, Don says that there are still a few copies of the "Index" left at the original $6.50 price. Same address.
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Astounding Science-Fiction
