The Planets

Each chapter of this book deals with one of the planets in the solar system, and goes from early myths, through the history of the study of the planet up to the present day with information from space probes and other observations. The book is written in a much more poetical style than Sobel's earlier works. But this doesn't mean that it's full of airy nothings, on the contrary I was very impressed by her skill in packing such a lot of information into a small space while at the same time producing a book which is easy to read.

Some author's attempts to write in a lyrical style are very off-putting, but I didn't find this with Sobel. Writing one chapter from the view of the meteorite ALH 84001 and, another as a fictional letter from Caroline Herschel to comet finder Maria Mitchell seemed to fit in very well. Perhaps younger readers might prefer something more straightforward or take a while to get used to the style. Apart from that the book should have wide appeal, and it has so much to tell that I feel that even those experienced in the subject are likely to find plenty to interest them.