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Poseidon's Steed: The Story Of Seahorses, From Myth To Reality (2009)

by Helen Scales(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

159240474X (ISBN13: 9781592404742)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Gotham

review 1: Interesting but brief and still relatively superficial. I suspect Scales was reaching a bit in some of her argument about early cultural reference to seahorses, like arguing that the indigenous myth of the rainbow serpent refers not to a serpent but a seahorse or pipefish, interesting but I am not convinced. From a pop science standpoint the book is informative enough and readable. The discussion on ecology and fishing is informative, as is the discussion on the Chinese medicine trade. An okay pop science read. A nice, interesting little book. Just wish some of the black and white illustrations and photos had actually been in colour.
review 2: This book allows us to take a good look at an odd fish: the seahorse. It's a popular science book that treats us to ... morea multidisciplinary approach in the different chapters considering such things as archeology, traditional Chinese medicine, conservation issues and climate change. Though at times this creature seems so thoroughly odd they are still sea dwellers and suffer along with everything else in the oceans with what we humans are doing. So that bit is as depressing as anything on the current state of our oceans, but the style is clear and easy to understand and I did learn a lot about seahorses too! There are some beautiful reproductions of woodcuts of seahorses throughout the book. less

Download links for: Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality

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