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A review by barnesstorming
The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps by Edward Brooke-Hitching
4.0
This was quite the antidote for the uber-heavy novels and biographies I read this summer. It's episodic in nature, with all the phantom lands, islands, seas, mountains, et al, organized alphabetically. I'm a sucker for old maps, and this book is a treasure trove of them, including several gorgeous gatefold or two-page spreads. I read the American edition (which was produced after the British one) and was very surprised to see one entry dead-stop at the bottom of a page, mid-sentence. I have no idea how much copy was left out — a word or two, or an entire page — but in the end, it's a small flaw.
If you enjoy either historic voyages of discovery or historic fraudulent claims of fame, this is the book you'll want to read.
If you enjoy either historic voyages of discovery or historic fraudulent claims of fame, this is the book you'll want to read.