The New Solar System

Rating:
Summary: Warm science
Review: Through its many iterations the editors have managed to tie substantiated facts with brand new discoveries quite seemlessly. The writing avoids the mistake of taking you on a "ride" through the solar system and instead focuses on facts and inferences. It bugs me when writers throw too much opinion your way trying to paint the night sky in your head. Instead, you get to do all that painting yourself.
The illustrations and tables are also very good. The tie together the body of text pretty well. I'm not any kind of engineer or photographer, so when the included visual aids bring the words to life like this, it makes the reading time valuable.
What I really wanted was an all-encompasing text reference of our home planetary family. What I got was all that and a little more. It's well worth the dollars of initial investment. If we want a greater understanding of who we are and where we come from, careful study of our observable neighborhood qualifies as a good investment of time.