The Grand Tour: A Traveler's Guide To The Solar System by Ron Miller and William K. Hartmann
01/11/2005 . Source: David A. Hardy 
pub: Workman Publishing. 296 page softcover. Price: $19.95 (US). ISBN: 0-7611-3909-5. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.workman.com
A book with this title first appeared in 1981. Then, in 1993, a second updated edition was published. Another dozen years have passed and now we have an entirely new edition, which makes full use of the wealth of data from space probes. It is, of course, primarily an art book, but it contains a wealth of information, too, and there are also photographs.
Both authors are prolific writers and artists, but it is interesting that while Hartmann (also an astronomer) has stayed with traditional media, Miller has moved into digital realms, using programs like Photoshop, with landscapes often generated in Terragen. One small irritation, for me, is that in the earlier editions the artist's credit for each illustration appears alongside it; in this new book one has to sift through one of the back pages.
Rather than starting with the Sun and working their way out, the authors dodge around the Solar System, starting with 'The Major Worlds', which they visit in diminishing order of size, starting (obviously) with Jupiter. After Mars, they move on to Ganymede, Titan, then Mercury and so on.
In Part 2, they visit 'Selected Smaller Worlds' and, again, the order seems somewhat random, ending with asteroids and comets. A final section leaves our system altogether and looks at extra-solar worlds. I did feel that some landscapes, such as Mars, Venus, Titan and Io are too vividly red and would have benefited from more subtle tones. But overall, this is a superb overview of our neighbour worlds and highly recommended.
David A. Hardy
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