The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps

I've recently become interested in early exploration and how on earth human kind managed to find out and map the world. This beautiful book gives you an insight into the mistakes, deliberate attempts to deceive and downright poetic licence used by the early mapmakers. A GREAT conversation starter if you have this on your shelf or coffee table and also lovely just to flick through as well. Easily the most interesting book I've read so far this year.

Good gift for my brother he said it was a good read

Maps, we all know of them, we all use them but can we really trust them? What if they weren't drawn from reality but from belief? This incredible book catalogues some of the weirdest, wildest and wackiest things, locations and places to find themselves on a map and just as importantly why they are there. Great to sit and read through or to just dip into when you fancy. My step father is a cartographer - I had to buy him a copy so He'd leave mine alone! This book is thoroughly researched, well writted, wonderfully illustrated and beautifully illustrated it will grace any bookshelf. I can't recommend it enough!

The cover of this book gives a good clue as to the quality of the interior. The author has researched many imaginary or misplaced lands and written a detailed history of each one - how it was 'found' and how it was later proven imaginary or something else. Some of the examples are clearly sightings of other islands with an incorrect position, but it's a useful insight into the difficulties faced by early explorers and seafarers. The history is very thorough and well written, and many examples of ancient maps in full colour are provided by way of illustration.The only niggle is the amount of white space in the layout, which makes the text needlessly small and, in places, in different font sizes from one page to the next.

I love looking at maps. One of my go-to presents that I would get myself when travelling used to be maps. There is so much you see and understand about places by just looking at maps. To date I haven’t really brought maps much into my academic work – other than needing them for discussing certain points in relation to my research on the JL123 crash in my book Dealing with Disaster in Japan and, to a lesser degree, my research about the shinkansen in Shinkansen. I did manage to discuss maps within my book Japan: The Basics and also issues with how Roland Barthes interprets an historical map of Tokyo within his book Empire of Signs, but that, again, was quite specific. I hope to have a broader discussion about maps in relation to Japan in some future work.Although I have a general interest in maps, I was hoping that this book would also help provide some material that would help with any future study (and teaching) I do about maps in relation to Japan. In that respect, I was a bit disappointed. Although (late on in the book), there is mention about the themes raised in the book also applying to East Asia, the focus of the book largely ignored that part of the world. That’s a shame – but perhaps it opens up an opportunity for a second book that looks more at that part of the world. At least the variety of historical maps that are included did show enough of the world that I was able to see for myself how the view of Japan changed over the centuries.The book is beautifully presented – almost too well presented as the pages are so thick that many times I thought I may have turned too many pages at once. It’s one of those ‘coffee table books’ that you could leave out and just open a page randomly (most ‘chapters’ cover 2 to 4 pages) and just enjoy re-reading that part again and looking at the maps in more detail at leisure. In that respect I really enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it.

If you've ever got something wrong at work, then think of these poor souls whose errors are still worthy of publication centuries later! If you love maps or history you will love this book. A great mix of the maps themselves, together with information about their context and creators written in a very accessible manner. I would also think it could be a good present for any teenager who feels that these are their favourite subjects, but probably at GCSE level and above unless you are happy to go through some with them. Younger children will still love the pictures though. A great example of a book to both treasure and to read.

This was a last minute extra present for my 34 year old son. Delivered the very next day in immaculate condition. Well done Amazon!

Great book, maps pictures are gorgeous and stories are interesting