Planet Earth Macmillan World Atlas

Rating:
Summary: Good graphic and details.
Review: I found this book is value for money. The map is colorful and accurate. The details of reservoirs, roads, national parks in my country are more accurate than any other atlas that I have seen.

Rating:
Summary: After shopping around, this is the best.
Review: I needed a really good, accurate, no fluff atlas, and I looked very hard, at many books, and even compared to MUCH more expensive ones, this was obviously the best atlas on the market. I ESPECIALLY LIKED THAT THERE WAS A CONSISTANT SCALE USED FOR ALL THE MAPS, SO THAT CERTAIN PARTS OF THE GLOBE WERE NOT NEGLECTED THE WAY EVERY OTHER ATLAS LIKED TO LEAVE THEM. It is so very clear and simple, really easy to use. This atlas made better use of page space, was a more convienient size, and was not as distracting as other cluttered atlases that made maps secondary to photos of natives.

Rating:
Summary: Ugh. Buy something else.
Review: I wish I'd have been able to take a look at this thing before I bought it. The problem is, its like the world's busiest roadmap; all you can see is a jumble of roads. Its hard to make out cities and other points of interest. Its cartographic gobbledygook. Stay away. You've been warned.

Rating:
Summary: This Thing Might Have Value as a Doorstop
Review: I wish I'd have been able to take a look at this thing before I bought it. The problem is, its like the world's busiest roadmap; all you can see is a jumble of roads. Its hard to make out cities and other points of interest. Its cartographic gobbledygook. Stay away. You've been warned.

Rating:
Summary: Ugh. Buy something else.
Review: The other reviewer was correct -- it IS a jumble of roads. Atlases should inspire and fascinate. Not this one. It's busy, chaotic, and confusing. Even worse, it offers very poor coverage of remote areas. (In the South Pacific for example, Tahiti is a pin dot and Bora Bora doesn't even exist.) Spend your money elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Look at it before buying
Review: This handsome volume is obviously the most detailed small atlas you will be able to find. It is a smaller (but exact) replication of the larger MacMillan series. It can also be used as a fairly accurate road atlas for most of the World. Important geographical and touristic features are also displayed readily. There is a cartographic quality which is missing considerably from other similar atlases.
As stated, all maps presented within are basically to the same scale worldwide. The result is that certain areas usually neglected in atlases such as Siberia, the Amazon basin and the Sahara are shown in explicit detail, whereas compact but geopolitically significant areas such as Western Europe are terribly compromised. Also, a few place name misspellings can be found. A person unfamiliar with national boundaries may find the lack of distinction between countries confusing on occasion. Another drawback is that the pages tend to fall out with frequent use.
Even so, with some adjustments by the editors and cartographers, this could easily be the most adequate atlas on the market. A comparison of other typically shoddy atlases at the same price level should make this clear.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is the most beautiful atlas I have seen in a long time. I make maps for a living, and I find this atlas' use of color to correspond to the actual vegetation on the earth a very inspiring and informative bonus. Why should maps be colored by country when they can be colored by what's really on the earth? All of the maps except for the last section of special closeups of the United States are all the same scale, 1:5,000,000, so you can look at the Nile and flip to where you live and see how long it really is. The constant scale means with this atlas, maps of parts of the world that previously were shown as tiny places in other atlases are shown at last in beautiful color and plenty of detail. A hearty recommendation, an outstanding bargain.