Rating: 
Summary: Just plain fun
Review: "Monsters of the Sea" is a book that'll bring out the 11-year-old kid in anyone with a shred of curiosity. It's great fun.Richard Ellis, a capable and lively popular science author, is always wrestling with how to frame his material. His book "Deep Atlantic," for example, took a long time coming together because he couldn't figure out how to narrow his subject down to a book's length. Even then it included some repetitive material, as a few reviewers noticed. I've read a handful of his other titles now, and this one and the excellent "Encyclopedia of the Sea" are the two where he really succeeded in figuring out how to structure things. This is an effortless read. "Monsters" alternates between reviewing people's mythological, "monstrous" ideas about sea creatures and describing the animals as they actually are: you read all the Kraken stories, and then you learn about squid, and the giant squid in particular. That outline of the book works really well. First you hear the old sea yarns, and then those lead you into the marine biology. Both sides are written very engagingly. And then there are the loose ends. There's a chapter in this book about "blobs and globsters" that I really figured I'd be bored by. Not at all. Those are the enormous things that washed up on beaches that nobody's really explained. Ellis can't write the second chapter about them -- there's no marine biology that's explained the things, not yet. This book, like any good popular science, could lead you in a lot of different directions. If you're interested in Deep Sea life, Ellis's Deep Atlantic would be good -- or you could try William Broad's "The Universe Below" if you're more into the mechanics of submersibles and sunken ships. There are lots of books about sharks and whales of course. Ellis wrote one about the Great White shark that's supposed to be good. He also gathered lots of his giant squid material for a book on Architeuthis Dux. I'd recommend starting with this one, though. It'll get your sense of wonder going.
Rating: 
Summary: "Delightful" - New York Times
Review: "A delightful and learned adventure in cryptozoology (the study of hidden life forms) including the Leviathan, the Sea Serpent, the Kraken, the Blob, and the Globster)." NEW YORK TIMES
"ELLIS'S REVIEW OF THE SUBJECT IS MASTERFUL, CLEVERLY ILLUSTRATED, AND UP-TO-DATE." Scientific American
Rating:
Summary: Just plain fun
Review: "Monsters of the Sea" is a book that'll bring out the 11-year-old kid in anyone with a shred of curiosity. It's great fun. Richard Ellis, a capable and lively popular science author, is always wrestling with how to frame his material. His book "Deep Atlantic," for example, took a long time coming together because he couldn't figure out how to narrow his subject down to a book's length. Even then it included some repetitive material, as a few reviewers noticed. I've read a handful of his other titles now, and this one and the excellent "Encyclopedia of the Sea" are the two where he really succeeded in figuring out how to structure things. This is an effortless read. "Monsters" alternates between reviewing people's mythological, "monstrous" ideas about sea creatures and describing the animals as they actually are: you read all the Kraken stories, and then you learn about squid, and the giant squid in particular. That outline of the book works really well. First you hear the old sea yarns, and then those lead you into the marine biology. Both sides are written very engagingly. And then there are the loose ends. There's a chapter in this book about "blobs and globsters" that I really figured I'd be bored by. Not at all. Those are the enormous things that washed up on beaches that nobody's really explained. Ellis can't write the second chapter about them -- there's no marine biology that's explained the things, not yet. This book, like any good popular science, could lead you in a lot of different directions. If you're interested in Deep Sea life, Ellis's Deep Atlantic would be good -- or you could try William Broad's "The Universe Below" if you're more into the mechanics of submersibles and sunken ships. There are lots of books about sharks and whales of course. Ellis wrote one about the Great White shark that's supposed to be good. He also gathered lots of his giant squid material for a book on Architeuthis Dux. I'd recommend starting with this one, though. It'll get your sense of wonder going.
Rating:
Summary: Cryptozoological Writing at its Finest
Review: Actually, as a writer, Ellis leaves something to be desired. He can be a little repetitive and disorganized at times (but is that more a criticism of him or his editor?). However, the content of this book is incredibly interesting, and it is presented very well. Ellis maintains a very good degree of subjectivity, considering the strange matters that he is discussing in the book. The topics, ranging from the myth and history of mermaids (which we now know as manatees and dugongs) to the strange blobs that have washed up on several beaches in the past century, to the giant squid which Ellis would go on to write an entire book about, are fascinating. The degree of detail he goes into when describing both the mythology behind these monsters, and the science and natural history of the creatures we now believe formulated these myths is amazing.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on the subject ever written!
Review: I always believed that the authors were the best qualified people to review their own books. I wrote this book, and I truly believe that it is the best book on the subject ever written. I loved the research, and the picture research as well (It has 150 spectacular illustrations). But most of all, I liked the great reviews I got from -- among other publications -- The New York Times, Nature, and Scientific American
Rating:
Summary: Enormous fun
Review: I'd read Deep Atlantic before finding this book. In Atlantic, Richard Ellis wrote elegant, spare, relatively straight science. His illustrations complemented the text perfectly. Here he's having a rollicking good time, and with a subject that's great fun. I recommend this highly, and I recommend Ellis to anyone in whom adulthood has only enhanced the ability to feel childlike wonder.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I've been interested in marine-biology and cryptozoology for years but plan never to take that road in life... my interest is still fed though, by masterpieces like this... an amazing, fun, and non-stodgy piece of non-fiction.
Rating:
Summary: really good
Review: It was a really great novel. His desciption of tentacles made me laugh. The St. Augustine monster that wased ashore he thinks is a 200 foot octopus. Other than that he debunked every other sea monster.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: One of the best works I've ever read about the ocean's most mysterious monsters and the real animals behind the myths. In an eloquent, well structured and entertaining compilation, Ellis introduces us to larger-than-life creatures that frightened both mariners of centuries past and audiences of theater and movies. Then he takes us on a voyage of discovery as he reviews the available facts and natural history to explain the equally amazing animals responsible for these fantastic accounts. Informative and thought provoking, this book grasps the interest of both the believer and the skeptic, and encourages us to instill in ourselves not only prudence and responsibility in scientific exploration, but also a sense of childlike wonder in the mysteries of the unknown.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Compilation
Review: One of the best works I've ever read about the ocean's most mysterious monsters and the real animals behind the myths. In an eloquent, well structured and entertaining compilation, Ellis introduces us to larger-than-life creatures that frightened both mariners of centuries past and audiences of theater and movies. Then he takes us on a voyage of discovery as he reviews the available facts and natural history to explain the equally amazing animals responsible for these fantastic accounts. Informative and thought provoking, this book grasps the interest of both the believer and the skeptic, and encourages us to instill in ourselves not only prudence and responsibility in scientific exploration, but also a sense of childlike wonder in the mysteries of the unknown.
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