Book Reviews
I’ve reviewed more than 200 books over the past quarter-century, from fantasy novels to reptile field guides to GIS design manuals. Here is a selection of them. These include reviews that were published in other venues, along with some reviews I originally posted to my blog that aren’t too short, haven’t become too dated and are still something I’m reasonably proud of having written.
For information on sending me review copies, see below.
2021–2025
- Telling Stories with Maps by Allen Carroll (The Map Room, 29 Jul 2025)
- Mapmatics by Paulina Rowińska (The Map Room, 22 Nov 2024)
- Atlas of Iowa by Robert C. Shepard et al. (The Map Room, 20 Sep 2024)
- Atlas of Design Vol. 6 (The Map Room, 12 May 2023)
- The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd (Strange Horizons, 22 Jul 2022)
- Putting the Fact in Fantasy ed. by Dan Koboldt (21 May 2022)
- Undiscovered Territories by Robert Freeman Wexler (Strange Horizons, 25 Mar 2022)
- Clock and Compass by Mark Monmonier (The Map Room, 12 Apr 2022)
- North American Maps for Curious Minds by Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek (The Map Room, 31 Mar 2022)
- Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes (Strange Horizons, 12 Jan 2022)
- Elsewhere (The Age of Islands) by Alastair Bonnett (The Map Room, 13 Oct 2021)
- Rabbit Island by Elvira Navarro (Strange Horizons, 26 Jul 2021)
- The Eternal History by Jessica Maier (The Map Room, 30 Mar 2021)
- Driftwood by Marie Brennan (Strange Horizons, 8 Feb 2021)
2016–2020
- Underground Cities by Mark Ovenden (The Map Room, 30 Sep 2020)
- Snake by Erica Wright (3 Sep 2020)
Secrets of Snakes by David A. Steen (6 Jul 2020)- American Snakes by Sean P. Graham (29 Jun 2020)
- Instances of Head-Switching by Teresa Milbrodt (Strange Horizons, 3 Jun 2020)
- Star Maps, 3rd ed., by Nick Kanas (Calafia, Mar 2020)
- In Search of Lost Islands (The Map Room, 14 Feb 2020)
- Cartography: The Ideal and Its History by Matthew Edney (The Map Room, 1 Oct 2019)
- An Exercise in Telling: Sylvain Neuvel’s Themis Files (AE, 10 Jul 2019)
- The Art of Illustrated Maps by John Roman (The Map Room, 25 Jul 2019)
- The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn (30 Mar 2019)
- All Over the Map by Betsy Mason and Greg Miller (The Map Room, 20 Dec 2018)
- The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, 15th ed. (The Map Room, 14 Dec 2018)
- A Literary Love Letter to Maps: The Writer’s Map (Tor.com, now Reactor, 26 Nov 2018)
- A History of America in 100 Maps by Susan Schulten (The Map Room, 15 Nov 2018)
- Atlas by Tom Harper (The Map Room, 13 Nov 2018)
- Soundings by Hali Felt (The Map Room, 6 Nov 2018)
- The Lost Art of Finding Our Way by John Edward Huth (The Map Room, 17 Oct 2018)
- Head On by John Scalzi (12 Oct 2018)
- How to Lie with Maps, 3rd ed., by Mark Monmonier (The Map Room, 10 Jul 2018)
The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell (30 Apr 2018)- All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault by James Alan Gardner (27 Apr 2018)
- The Art of Map Illustration by James Gulliver Hancock et al. (The Map Room, 6 Apr 2018)
- The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer (22 Feb 2018)
- Navigation: A Very Short Introduction by Jim Bennett (The Map Room, 12 Jan 2018)
- Autonomous by Annalee Newitz (27 Dec 2017)
- The Red Atlas by John Davies and Alexander J. Kent (The Map Room, 20 Nov 2017)
- Picturing America by Stephen J. Hornsby (The Map Room, 16 Nov 2017)
- Artemis by Andy Weir (14 Nov 2017)
- Venera Dreams and the Art of the Mosaic Novel (10 Nov 2017)
- You Are Here: NYC by Katharine Harmon (The Map Room, 24 Oct 2017)
- Infinity Wars ed. by Jonathan Strahan (12 Oct 2017)
- A History of Canada in Ten Maps by Adam Shoalts (The Map Room, 10 Oct 2017)
- The Territory Is Not the Map (The Map Room, 27 Sep 2017)
- Amatka by Karin Tidbeck (29 Aug 2017)
- The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross (26 Jul 2017)
- Snakes of the Eastern United States by Whit Gibbons (15 Jun 2017)
- The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard (4 Apr 2017)
- All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (23 Mar 2017)
Weird Dinosaurs by John Pickrell (25 Feb 2017)- The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel (29 Dec 2016)
- Treasures from the Map Room ed. by Debbie Hall (The Map Room, 6 Dec 2016)
- Pirate Utopia by Bruce Sterling (1 Dec 2016)
- Bridging Infinity ed. Jonathan Strahan (23 Nov 2016)
- Invisible Planets ed. by Ken Liu (1 Nov 2016)
- Shoot the Moon by Nicolas Dupont-Bloch (28 Sep 2016)
- Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer et al. (The Map Room, 19 Sep 2016)
- Not So Much, Said the Cat by Michael Swanwick (9 Sep 2016)
- Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal (29 Aug 2016)
- Necessity by Jo Walton (AE, 23 Aug 2016)
- Company Town by Madeline Ashby (AE, 6 Jun 2016)
- Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (26 Apr 2016)
- Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer (AE, 14 Mar 2016)
- Snakes of the Southeast, rev. ed., by Whit Gibbons and Mike Dorcas (9 Mar 2016)
- China at the Center ed. by Natasha Reichle (The Map Room, 2 Mar 2016)
- The Semi-Secret Life of Andrew J. Offutt (11 Feb 2016)
- Adventures in Academic Cartography by Mark Monmonier (The Map Room, 26 Jan 2016)
- Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente (14 Jan 2016)
2011–2015
- Echopraxia by Peter Watts (AE, 14 Dec 2015)
- Atlas of Cursed Places by Oliver Le Carrer (The Map Room,* 11 Oct 2015)
- Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson (AE, 28 Sep 2015)
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (AE, 17 Aug 2015)
- The Just City and The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton (AE, 20 Jul 2015)
- Child of a Hidden Sea by A. M. Dellamonica (8 Jul 2015)
- God and the Machines: The Short Fiction of Peter Watts (AE, 25 May 2015)
- My Real Children by Jo Walton (AE, 27 Apr 2015)
- Elements by Suzanne Church (AE, 23 Mar 2015)
- Unruly Places (Off the Map) by Alastair Bonnett (The Map Room,* 17 Feb 2015)
- Irregular Verbs and Other Stories by Matthew Johnson (AE, 26 Jan 2015)
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (AE, 24 Nov 2014)
- The Map Thief by Michael Blanding (The Map Room,* 29 May 2014)
- Lockstep by Karl Schroeder (31 Mar 2014)
- A History of the World in Twelve Maps by Jerry Brotton (The Map Room*, 29 Dec 2013)
- Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps by Chet Van Duzer (The Map Room,* 18 Jun 2013)
- Here Be Dragons by Stefan Ekman (The Map Room,* 9 Jun 2013)
- The Art of the Map by Dennis Reinhartz (The Map Room,* 28 May 2013)
- On the Map by Simon Garfield (The Map Room,* 15 Jan 2013)
- Antony Swithin’s Rockall (12 Dec 2012)
- Map of a Nation by Rachel Hewitt (The Map Room,* 23 May 2012)
The Islanders by Christopher Priest (6 Apr 2012)- Atlas of the Galilean Satellites by Paul Schenk (The Map Room,* 5 Mar 2012)
- Personal Geographies by Jill K. Berry (The Map Room*, 10 Dec 2011)
- Historical Atlas of Washington and Oregon by Derek Hayes (The Map Room,* 27 Nov 2011)
- Maphead by Ken Jennings (The Map Room,* 16 Nov 2011)
- Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Venomous Snakes by Lenny Flank (25 Jul 2011)
- When the Great Days Come by Gardner Dozois (24 Jul 2011)
- OpenStreetMap by Frederik Ramm et al. (The Map Room, 1 Jun 2011)
- Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas by Rebecca Solnit (The Map Room, 28 Apr 2011)
- In Maps and Legends by Michael Jasper and Niki Smith (The Map Room, 15 Feb 2011)
- Among Others: A Fairy Tale About Science Fiction (18 Jan 2011)
* The Map Room was on hiatus between July 2011 and December 2015. During that time I posted reviews of map books to my personal blog. After The Map Room resumed in 2016, I moved those reviews over.
2006–2010
- National Geographic Atlas of the World, 9th ed. (The Map Room, 22 Nov 2010)
- From Here to There by Kris Harzinski (The Map Room, 26 Oct 2010)
- The Power of Place by Harm de Blij (The Map Room, 16 Mar 2010)
- The Fourth Part of the World by Toby Lester (The Map Room, 7 Dec 2009)
- Paris Underground by Mark Ovenden (The Map Room, 24 Nov 2009)
- Map Addict by Mike Parker (The Map Room, 7 Oct 2009)
- Two Inexpensive Star Atlases (The Map Room, 20 Feb 2009)
- Cartography Design Annual #1 edited by Nick Springer (The Map Room, 15 Sep 2008)
- Rhumb Lines and Map Wars by Mark Monmonier (The Map Room, 22 Jul 2008)
- Lost States by Michael J. Trinklein (The Map Room, 15 Jul 2008)
- Transit Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden (The Map Room, 5 Mar 2008)
- Canada Back Road Atlas (The Map Room, 15 Feb 2008)
- Longitude by Dava Sobel (The Map Room, 22 Jan 2008)
- Our Dumb World by The Onion (The Map Room, 14 Jan 2008)
- Arthritis Without Pain by Scott J. Zashin and M. Laurette Hesser (Ankylose This!, 26 Aug 2007)
- The Geist Atlas of Canada by Melissa Edwards (The Map Room, 20 Jov 2006)
- From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow by Mark Monmonier (The Map Room, 26 Jul 2006)
- Seeing Through Maps by Denis Wood et al. (The Map Room, 25 Jul 2006)
- How to Lie with Maps, 2nd ed., by Mark Monmonier (The Map Room, 29 May 2006)
- Walking with Your Ancestors by Melinda Kashuba (The Map Room, 8 May 2006)
- Making Maps by John Krygier and Denis Wood (The Map Room, 29 Mar 2006)
- GPS Mapping: Make Your Own Maps by Rich Owings (The Map Room, 10 Feb 2006)
On Sending Me Review Copies
See my contact info for how to send me a review copy. I can handle most electronic review formats (acsm, epub, mobi, pdf). Ask me for my street address if you want to send a physical review copy by non-postal methods (e.g. DHL, FedEx, UPS). Also keep in mind the following:
- My areas of interest and expertise are primarily history, maps and cartography, general-interest science, reptiles and amphibians, classical music, and science fiction and fantasy. With some exceptions, the likelihood of my being able to review books outside those fields is low.
- Books about maps and cartography are reviewed at The Map Room. Please see The Map Room’s contact page for more information.
- The timeliness of my review is contingent on my workload and health. I’m also quite backlogged and may say no if I can’t get to your book in a reasonable time.
- I am generally not interested in reviewing self-published fiction.
- The phrase “in exchange for an honest review” makes my teeth itch.
- Review copies aren’t gifts, they’re work materials. I’m a reviewer, not a prize-winner.