Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883

Rating:
Summary: Relevant after December 2004 earthquake and tsunami
Review: Although Krakatoa was published in 2003, it has assumed new relevance since the December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunami. This book is at its most engaging when it outlines the development of our understanding of the Earth's geologic processes (Chapter 3) and describes how the Krakatoa eruption affected people worldwide (Chapter 8). It is at its least successful in demonstrating cause and effect between the August 27, 1883 eruption and the 1888 Islamic rebellion in the Dutch East Indies.

Rating:
Summary: Thorough and informative
Review: If you are interested in geology, vulcanology,colonial history, oceanography, ornithology, current politics and fascinating archane information this book can be a worthwhile reading experience. Of course the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883 is a well known historical event, but Simon Winchester lets this story unfold with a treasure chest of valuable information so that the reader can better understand the events leading up to the cataclysm and the aftermath. If you read his footnotes you will become fascinated in the connections made through history between people, languages,innovation, scientific theories, etc. This book is a worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: This book is wonderful
Review: This book is wonderful. A natural curiosity and patience with the reading will help. The reader should not try to "speed read" as with a thriller in order to enjoy the storytelling and education. This book is not for everyone, some of my friends have called this book "boring", but if you have a natural curiosity and appreciation for both sciences and history you will enjoy this book-- with patience you will savor this book rather than be bored. Who would have thought the explosion could be heard 3000 miles away? Simon Winchester has an eye for detail, and by inserting his real-life experiences and descriptions into the storyline he adds a certain poignancy and whimsy-like how his field work in Iceland helped prove (in an admittedly extremely small part) plate tectonic theory while discussing eating worm and lice-ridden bear meat, or his description in visiting the island of Krakatoa recently. (I have to admit his description of his boat captain and crew swigging Bintangs caught me off guard and I wonder if it was an exaggeration-I lived there for several years and I never saw Indonesians drinking, and Bintang is very expensive for the locals). One huge problem, especially for someone who wrote a book on maps: there are many many references to cities that are not shown on maps, and he uses "old city" names for cities that even if you get out a recent map you cannot understand where he is talking about. This is a HUGE problem and I hope if this book is republished several decent maps are included. This can be allayed a little by using a guide to Indonesia, but referring to another book should not be needed and is frankly disappointing. This is especially frustrating when a city cannot be found with a current map because Mr. Winchester uses the old city name rather than the current name. Several decent maps with city names (and the old/new version in parenthesis) would make this a five star book. Other than this problem, which is frustrating, the book is fantastic and quite applicable to today. Some of the comments about the Muslim reaction to the disaster and their guidance from Saudi Arabia are eerily familiar to today's world.



Rating:
Summary: Extremely Repetitive
Review: There are some interesting elements of this book. However, the author often repeats himself three and even four times!! His sentences are extremely long, with many, many long introductory clauses. In other words, the book is very poorly written. Perhaps the author did not believe in the importance of his topic; however, endlessly repeating the same facts doesn't persuade. This book could easily have been ONE HALF the length and say exactly the same thing. Shame on his editors.

Rating:
Summary: Another "Krakatoa" Book.....
Review: I am not interested in writing a review in detail about this book; others have done bang up jobs of that already; but for the record: Yeah, this is a good book...

What I really want to do is recommend another book that has Krakatoa in it; with the unlikely title of: "21 Balloons". The author's name is: William Pene Dubois, and it was first published, I believe, in 1948, and the last reprint was in 1983.

The book was written for children; however, EVERYONE who reads it, LOVES it.... at least anyone who appreciates really creative, over the top, enthralling fantasy fiction with a perfect balance of humor, drama, danger, inventiveness, excitement and surprise...

Okay, Now that I've got my praise out of the way, I am afraid that I have to grumble a little bit at YOU, Amazon.com- You see, it's been a while since I'd read the book, and I could not remember the precise title, nor the author. However, no matter HOW creatively I configured keyword search for books about "Krakatoa" I COULD NOT pull up this book on your site. I must have done a dozen different angles and contortions to make the right book appear. Finally, in shear frustration, I resorted to the United States Library of Congress; and... Bada-bing, Bada-Boom!: Found IT. First Try.

This suggests to me, Amazon, that something's got to be done improve your cross referencing for topic/keyword searches so folks can more easily find what they're looking for.

Anyway, in regard to the book: "21 Balloons", it is more than likely that anyone who gives this book a look-see will be more than delighted with it; AND, since the title is right in front of you, you should be able to find it okay.

Rating:
Summary: ECMCK
Review: There are several good reviews already on this site, so I only want to say a few brief things. If one wants a greater understanding of the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean, read this book. Krakatoa was located very near to the December '04 tectonic activity, and many of the issues presented in this book are relevant to todays situation. Secondly, the reviewer who stated that a relevant map is lacking in this book is absolutely right. To read this with clarity, you will have to find a current map of the region somewhere else. Lastly, to enjoy this book the reader should be interested in the science of the explosion and resulting geological ramifications as well as historical and societal issues. I thought it was a great book.

Rating:
Summary: The shock waves went round the world
Review: Krakatoa! Even the name conjures up images of havoc, and rightly so, for this is the largest volcano explosion in recorded time. It was also the first major event to have occurred since the advent of "instant" communication. Within hours of the events of that day in August 1883, those that did not hear it could know of it. The sound of that almighty explosion echoed where its sound waves were not carried. It was, however, heard on Rodriguez Island, 2968 miles away, and over one twelfth of the earth's surface.

Simon Winchester takes the story of Krakatoa, and combines history, geology, botany, vulcanology and a few other `ologies' into a book of three parts. Firstly there is the background, and an introduction to plate tectonics. The second part comprises the lead up to and the explosive events of August 1883, interwoven with detail from the lives of some of the eye-witnesses. Finally, the effects are looked at; not specifically the short term effects, but some things that are still the matter of on-going debate.

There may be those that read this book in the light of the devastating tsunami of 26th December 2004. The waves from Krakatoa were not as destructive in terms of the loss of life, or as geographically far reaching. However, it is certain that the waves were larger. A Dutch ship, the Berouw, was washed 2 miles inland, and came to rest 60 ft above the sea level. This was no small yacht, but had a crew of 28, who sadly perished.

The author mixes facts with the long and short-term storyline, to open up the events that took place, and explains the physical and metaphorical waves that shook the world. I had not considered before that it was not one explosion (although 10:02 local time was `the big bank' that ended the life of the Island in the Sunda Straight). Nor did I know a host of other facts, including a volcanic island, Anak Krakatoa [or `son of Krakatoa'] that has grown since 1927 at the rate of 5 inches in height each week, year after year.

Yet for the most part this reads like a story, not a science lesson. Winchester has an eye for detail, and it seems that many times he has to stop himself going off at a tangent, to tell a snippet at the expense of the main story. Read the footnotes; they are fascinating, and lead you in other directions. The list of further reading is too detailed for me, but I can see its usefulness to others who may be intrigued by a direction that the author did not pursue.

I especially liked the lessons that were learnt from Krakatoa, in terms of high level winds in the stratosphere, (very useful for modern weather forecasting), and the shock waves that travelled 7 times around the world. There are some less likeable parts - the very oblique political consequences of the Krakatoa (including growth of Islam and the birth of the independence movement) are an incongruous part of the tale. Better for Mr Winchester to do what he does best - tell a story. In the telling of the story, there are occasions when the skipping along of a sentence gets over-complicated. One sentence, with clause, sub clause and comma-separated asides reaches 90 words (for the really friendless people, this was on page 313). That is a small comment in the reading of a hugely enjoyable book.

Finally, just a word about points to make you think. I had never considered how there came to be life on either Anak Krakatoa, or the remnant shell that remained of the original volcano. The discussion on the `Krakatoa problem' is enlightening. Did life on the burnt out shell start again from nothing, or was there a remnant of life remaining? Of course, for Anak Krakatoa, it is not the same question, as there was nothing for life to be a remnant from - this was a new island. Interesting thoughts, towards the end of a book I would recommend.

Peter Morgan, Bath, UK ([e-mail])


Rating:
Summary: Fascinating detail but no relevant maps!
Review: I found this book enthralling although it does have certain flaws. The wealth of information contained in these pages is truly mind-boggling, but the book could have been organized better and more tightly edited. In addition, I felt rather frustrated by the lack of useful maps. I had to go to the library to get some reference books to aid in my understanding of the locations and other relevant material. For example, I needed more in-depth descriptions of the geological processes at work on Krakatoa. The author's explanations were not always adequate to compensate for my lack of background in the subject. The use of foreign language words and some technical terms without any definitions also proved problematic for me. On the other hand, explanations in the form of footnotes were a little distracting and stopped the flow of the narrative.
Despite all of the drawbacks I've listed, I really learned a lot from the book and am very pleased that I read it. It opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn't known about besides the actual eruption of Krakatoa: plate tectonics and other aspects of geology, Darwin's fellow evolutionists (who didn't get the credit they deserved), the history of the former Dutch East Indies and the spice trade, the rise of Islam in Indonesia, the fragility of our existence on this planet, etc. etc. There is so much information that I gained from this book that I heartily recommend it. This work is particularly timely because of the December 26, 2004, tsunami in the same general area (which included Indonesia), and should be read by anyone wanting to know more about our volatile planet.

Rating:
Summary: A Wealth Of Information But Be Patient
Review: I'll avoid stating the obvious regarding the central subject of this book, and will only suggest that if you're interested in reading a very detailed account of a humongous natural disaster in the modern age, then check this book out. In light of the destructive tsunami that has killed 230,000 people (at last count) in Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004, this book should bring things into perspectives.

"Krakatoa" impresses its readers on two fronts: One, the awesome forces of nature that are at work shaping planet earth; and two, the author's admirable ability to take a hodgepodge of information, which encompasses specialties such as history, science and political analysis, to churn out a captivating story for the general public. More than just a record of the volcanic eruption, Simon Winchester also builds a very elaborate historical and cultural backdrop of colonial Indonesia for this cataclysmic event. He also challenges his readers to venture into the complex scientific world of how and why the eruption had happened.

Fortunately, Winchester has a way of making the science behind a volcanic eruption accessible to even a layman like me, by keeping most of it on a theorectical and philosophical level. He avoids overusing graphes and complex equations, and instead talks about the science of such things such plate tectonics in a common sense language that most people who've learned anything from their high school science class would be able to understand. I'm a humanist and not a science nut by any means, but were delighted to have learned many interesting scientific facts from this book (For example, the idea of "continental drift", of how the surface of our planet is moving and has been moving since it was created, and the surprise that this commonly accepted conventional scientific wisdom has only been an accepted theory for the past 4 decades or so).

The book does have its shortcomings though. For one thing you have to really get comfortable with the author's rambling manner of storytelling in order to trully enjoy this book. Winchester is a generalist by nature, and is fond of being able to divulge and communicate a wide range of knowledge. He's a bit like that college professor for your social science class that you really respected and liked but find at times that he does digress too much. Much of the sometimes overbearing details come in the form of anecdotes and lengthy footnotes (That Charles Darwin had a lazy son, the origin of the anti-macassar). I for one had learned to enjoy this style of storytelling only because I'm myself a generalist by nature, and craves knowledge of all sorts.

The reader of this book should also not expect to retrieve some grand conclusion at the end. It's true that Winchester does at one point suggest that the catastrophe caused by Krakatoa's eruption had contributed to religious fundamentalism and the subsequent overthrowing of the Dutch colonial regime, which to me personally does not seem to be too far-fetched of a speculation. Big catastrophic events that causes a lot of human and economic losses can have serious social, religious and political ramifications. However, the short length and skim details provided on this account makes one think that this is more of a secondary observation by the author rather than the culminating thesis for the book. Winchester only devotes a small section to this discussion, and is quick to divert back to the story of Krakatoa. It's as if the author had realized that he had overplayed his hand as a political analyst, and decided to stepped back into the comfort of being a educated observer.

A very enjoyable read overall. Not so much intended for any grand revelations and prophecies, but simply makes one appreciate the awesome power of nature and mankind's way of coping with it, by continuously learning about it.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but too much info...
Review: I enjoyed this book, especially the informative accounts of the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa and its ghastly effects. Unfortunately, at least 1/3 of the book gets caught up in the geology of the explosion. Obviously, some information of this type is necessary, but way too much is presented. I purchased this book to learn about the history of the explosion and how it affected the region, and indeed the world. I did not particularly desire to receive a full-blown education on geology, plate-tectonics, and vulcanism. Much of this material would be better represented in a geology book, not a book about the history of the volcano. Fortunately, the rest of the book is quite enjoyable, and paints a vivid picture of the volcano and its ultimate destruction. Particularly after the recent tsunami in the same region as Krakatoa, the book seems timely. Recommended if you don't mind reading through a lot of geological facts and figures.