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Some may contend with the fact that there just isn't enough non-speculative information out there to write a scholarly book dedicated to giant squids, but this is also a great foray into the environs of squid species in general - as just another basis to the understanding of their much larger, mythic relatives the architeuthi. After a couple reads of this, self-proclaiming oneself a Teuthologist (squid investigator) becomes a reality. Richard Ellis cogently writes to us how with such little actual information out there on giant squids, one could, in principle (and after having read his book) claim expertise on the elusive creatures fairly easily. Read this along with the author's other excellent marine-cryptid book 'Monsters of the sea' and let it do unto you.
It is a reasonably comprehensive overview of the mythos and known facts of Archeteuthis, the giant squid. I've given "Giant Squid" a three star rating because it deals with a subject I am interested in. It offers little, if anything new, and some opinions--such as the squid being a rather flaccid creature rather than a a highly mobile and active hunter--are almost certainly wrong. On the other hand, I expected more from it. There is little new here. At the same time, my opinions are colored by the photographic findings of Japanese researchers of a powerful and mobile hunter of the depths. Rather than a giant hovering in the deeps, snagging occasional flotsam, fish and squid that drift by, we see a mobile, powerful creature that fought, possibly for hours, before tearing free and leaving a writhing tentacle.Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
The models chapter should not have been last, the chapters on the squid in folklore and literature and cinema should have been sequential (and after the chapter on anatomy and characteristics), and it has a lot of superfluous and useless information. With one exception, it mentions everything that I would. The footnotes are the second worst that I have ever seen, as well. The exception. The book is ATROCIOUSLY organized. They are frequently useless details, sometimes they should be in the main text, and sometimes they are only incredibly tenuously connected to the text (if it weren't for the asterisk, they wouldn't be connected at all.).This was not a great book, even for people who love Archaeteuthos. Penguin should have done better.Harkius
Beyond that the comments of other reviewers that he kind of struggles to fill a book about the squid, are true. How many times does he tell me how big, say, squid axons are versus human axons.
But I just can't understand how _anyone_ gave this book a positive review, and I'm 2/3 through it. The redundancies are ridiculous; it's like he never reread or edited.
I'm sure Richard Ellis is a fine fellow. And this kind of thing happens continually.
So on page 108 he gives you a long quote from what he tells you is an article from Roper and Boss -- and in _the very next paragraph_ he gives you _the same quote_ again and attributes it. Amazing.
I mean, really: this book went totally unedited. Of course some of the amazing footage of the past couple years could've been used to pad it out another chapter, but, there's just not enough there there, or at least Ellis isn't able to make it seem so.
This was a pretty good book, but I would have given it 3 and a half stars if that option existed. The biggest problem with the book is that it needed an editor to come through and cut redundant passages (of which there are quite a few) and put the chapters into a more coherant order. This book reads like a third or forth draft.almost there but not quite polished. Still, if you are interested in the giant squid, it is a pretty good place to start.
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