In Darwin's image Book

Gerrit Verschuur has out together a well-researched if not particularly well-written book about asteroids and comets, and the danger that they present to life on Earth.

He is not afraid to re-iterate himself; in fact one finds oneself reading the same thing re-phrased several times throughout the book and yet, he omits some things, for example names of sources of observations for brevity. I cannot help but think that an editor started work on the manuscript with some initial suggestions but the job was never completed. One error of paricular annoyance is his continued use of the word "loose" instead of "lose". Was the editor on holiday when this was published?

At the time of reading, the book is about twenty years old and therefore twenty years out of date. Despite this, we get lots of information on asteroids and comets and what they are likely to do when they collide with our planet. One obvious omission is the detailed discussion of potential methodolgies to divert these objects in their orbits away from a collision course. Perhaps there was reticence due to our poor understanding of the make up of these bodies.

This book is ripe for a new edition with cleaned up text and an update on the science and knowledge that we have gained since, patchy as it still is.