[.ca] Meteorite Hunter: The Search for Siberian Meteorite Craters (ISBN 0071372245)

Traveling in Russia and Fascinating Facts about Meteorites:
I am surprised to see that no one has reviewed this book until now; it's been out for about two years and the title is certainly intriguing. Anyway, this book contains a nearly homogeneous mixture of essentially two seemingly unrelated subjects: (i) traveling within Russia and (ii) information on meteorites. The first is presented as a travelogue; it includes all sorts of little details on travel problems encountered in Russia (political and otherwise), food eaten, people encountered, etc. Interspersed with this, in each chapter, is fascinating information on meteorites, i.e., their origins, types, composition, behavior upon entering the earth's atmosphere and upon impacting the ground, etc. Each chapter addresses a specific meteorite site that was visited by the author, with the exception of the last chapter which is about comets and asteroids that are out in space and that may or may not pose a threat to life (or some of it) on earth. The book is well written and should be of interest to those planning to travel within Russia, as well as those interested in meteorites; and, of course, those interested in both. I gave the book four stars instead of five because, to me, the two subject areas, which may be worth five stars each, detract from each other. For me, the parts about meteorites per se, were great (five stars); but I found the travel information rather cumbersome - hence an overall four stars.