[.ca] Creatures of the Deep: In search of the sea's 'monsters' ... (ISBN 1552093409)

Amazon.ca:
The English word "monster," writes marine conservationist Erich Hoyt, means, at heart, "a creature having a strange or frightening appearance." The world's oceans are full of such creatures, but the association with the ghoulish and terrifying is unfortunate, and Hoyt's mission in this book is to make the denizens of the benthic deep less frightening and more familiar. More than a checklist of misnamed creatures like the goblin shark (which, living at a depth of 1,200 metres, is no danger to humans), the bloody-belly ctenophore, the killer whale, and the vampire squid ("dangerous only to its prey"), this lively book takes readers on a learned tour of the oceans' varied environments, from coastal shallows to deep-sea floor. Along the way, Hoyt discusses how various creatures have evolved to take advantage of these many ecosystems, how oceanic vents may harbour the secret of life, how sea currents regulate the world's atmosphere--and how movies such as Deep Blue Sea use bad science to demonize sharks and other pelagic predators. In the end, Hoyt always returns to these strange creatures, always with the hope that "this introduction to the deep will turn a few more sea monsters into sea friends." This handsomely illustrated book does just that. --Gregory McNamee

surreal so real:
This is a fascinating, compelling book with a lot of truly phenomenal photography throughout. I love deep-sea beasties - they please my aesthetic taste - spiky, fangy, bizarre and... bioluminescent. Hmm. The writing is clear, concise and evocative - an 'easy' read without being simplistic or dumbed-down. Overall, an excellent trip into a world here and not-here. Highly recommended.

"Stunning" doesn't quite cover it:
I sat with this book for 4 solid hours, in aew. Packed with incredible photos of creatures so bizarre that you couldn't invent anything even close to this reality. Hoyt explains the layers of the sea and what lives there, why and how each atmosphere creates and hosts it's own World. It tells in plain language how these creatures live, eat and reproduce and find each other in the pitch black. It's rare to find a book who's text and visual offerings are equally astounding and educational. I came away with a feeling that all I thought I knew about the sea and life on Earth had just been rewritten for me. This book is a genuine treat and a glimpse into all the possibilites of Life in our "not human" terms.

Shallow book (pun intended):
This book displays more about what the author doesn't know, rather than what he does know. Also, it is peppered with evolutionary dogmatism. I think evolution is ridiculous, but if you don't, you may not mind. That aside, there are a few nice pictures, which I surmise is why this book sells any copies at all.

"Stunning" doesn't quite cover it:
I sat with this book for 4 solid hours, in aew. Packed with incredible photos of creatures so bizarre that you couldn't invent anything even close to this reality. Hoyt explains the layers of the sea and what lives there, why and how each atmosphere creates and hosts it's own World. It tells in plain language how these creatures live, eat and reproduce and find each other in the pitch black. It's rare to find a book who's text and visual offerings are equally astounding and educational. I came away with a feeling that all I thought I knew about the sea and life on Earth had just been rewritten for me. This book is a genuine treat and a glimpse into all the possibilites of Life in our "not human" terms.