Maluku: Indonesian Spice Islands

Rating:
Summary: The Only Guide Available To This Region
Review: And that's a complement in itself.
For the short term visitor, this book will be a good read.
It has lots of nice photos, background information and good descriptions of the major tourist areas of Ambon, Lease, Ternate and Banda.
Unfortunately information on other islands (even on rather easily accessible Seram or Halmahera) is extremely limited, and is usually supplemented by lengthy references to old literature like the Malay Archipelago by Wallace, or even descriptions of places based upon hearsay. Needless to say, lots of that is wrong.
This may just be a blessing in disguise however, as most remoter islands of Maluku are ill-equipped to cater for tourists, and those determined to visit such places will find discovering them on their own all the more exciting.
I'd still recommend this book for anyone interested in Maluku, but would warn against expecting too much from it!
In fact, general guidebooks to Indonesia by Lonely Planet and Rough Guides (first edition only!) contain just as much info on the sights and facilities of Maluku as this book, and are certainly more up to date.
But if you find all these too limited, you will just have to wait and see things for yourself!