Rating: 
Summary: Times Atlas 10th
Review: the tenth edition is not quite the same as the magnificent eighth edition, but the times atlas is still the best one volume world atlas i have ever seen. the eighth edition had more beautiful city maps and an excellent laminated place holder/map key. maybe in the eleventh edition these things will be brought back.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: The Times Atlas of the World is probably the finest and most comprehensive atlas that has ever been published. I purchased a copy of the ninth edition on March, 1994 and have really enjoyed it ever since.
Rating:
Summary: The world's finest Atlas of the times!
Review: There can be no doubt in anyone's mind after seeing the Times Atlas of the World, that it is truely the finest.
Rating:
Summary: This will raise the standard for all general atlases to come
Review: This atlas is the best international atlas for production graphics shops. Its gazetteer of latitude longitude for place names makes answering "Where is it?" questions nearly as fast as a computer search. It has more place names than any other souce I know except the U.S. State Department's online search, but this atlas is so much nicer to use. My only criticism is the colors have been toned down compared to my old 7th Edition from 1980. The elevation colors went from vivid oranges and browns to light greens. The 10th Edition now has pail greens and light buffs. The contrast from 1000 to 3000 meters is much less. Your eye has to work harder to discern elevations. The very light water blues compared to the light land colors don't seem to offer as much "figure ground" contrast as my old 7th Edition Times Comprehensive atlas did. These lighter colors do help in two ways. They make the black text of feature names stand out. Also, the populated areas' color has been changed from black hatching to a bright solid yellow. It raises the visual importance of urban areas, which is good. Political and administrative boundaries have gone from violet to a dull purple, thus this theme has been pushed back in importance. I notice that city names seem to have gotten smaller. I guess this means more information can be shown on a page, which is good. Also it will push the 'small towns' theme back in importance so as to make clearer trends in physical geography, of valleys, plains, passes, major rivers etc. to be recognized more easily. There has been an editorial update in what is important to show now. My old atlas has one whole plate for Iran with an insert of Tehran. Now, it shares a plate with three other countries. In contrast, there are now three new full plates for the Los Angeles area, the San Francisco Bay area and the New York City area, all very nice. The thematic geography section located in front of the map plates has all been redone. It has grown from about thirty pages in 1980 to over fifty pages now. The shift in the style of presentation of the world's environment and mapping is timely and an improvement. This is the kind of stuff any geography teacher might curl up with on a rainy night. These are difficult, yet vital concepts to relate to a world populace and The Times does a good job. My older edition simply had four sections of physical geography including: Physiography, Oceanography, Climatology and vegetation. This was followed by two sections of cultural geography including: Political, and Cultural (religious, population) and Airline routes. The tenth edition changes and improves the format. Instead of a discussion of space flight and satellite imaging, it actually has a beautiful series of composite processed imagery that shows off what this marvelous science can do to illustrate the lands we live in, in a way different than from the regular atlas sheets. These large regional highly processed composite 'Photos' are on the cutting edge of geo-description. It's about time that 30 years of space exploration has been encapsulated so well to cover all the continents. The small section on the science and history of cartography makes a sometimes boring topic come alive. If you love atlases buy this now. Don't wait five years. This will be the standard for awhile. When you hear of some far off place on the six o'clock news, you can I.D. it quickly and get an idea of some of the physical and cultural conditions fellow human beings will have to go through to be there.
Rating:
Summary: The best atlas I have ever seen
Review: Tis is the most comprehensive, up-to-date atlas I have ever seen. The amount of facts contained in the book pale the competition. The maps are truly magnificent. This atlas contains 248 pages of clear, beautifully detailed maps which truly make this book worth its price. This book is expensive, but well worth every cent, and will be a treasure for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy, Expensive and with lots of small print . . .
Review: You will need a magnifying glass for the very small print. I nearly strained my back lifting the book after it was delivered. But, the world is a heavy thing. I like the book because I can look up back-water places in every puny little country in every nook and cranny on this old Earth of ours. It is also a good prop-up under my old feather pillow, as I need something large and firm. Plus, it's kind of nice to know the world in right underneath my pillow. I sometimes dream of far away places that I visited as a boy. My father was a traveler who inherited a great deal of money and little common sense. He lugged us three kids around while my mother complained about food, coarse bed linens and bugs.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy, Expensive and with lots of small print . . .
Review: You will need a magnifying glass for the very small print. I nearly strained my back lifting the book after it was delivered. But, the world is a heavy thing. I like the book because I can look up back-water places in every puny little country in every nook and cranny on this old Earth of ours. It is also a good prop-up under my old feather pillow, as I need something large and firm. Plus, it's kind of nice to know the world in right underneath my pillow. I sometimes dream of far away places that I visited as a boy. My father was a traveler who inherited a great deal of money and little common sense. He lugged us three kids around while my mother complained about food, coarse bed linens and bugs.
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