The Silent Landscape
The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger by Richard Corfield explores the voyage undertaken by the HMS Challenger and her crew and explains how the findings relate to modern day science. As well as explaining how modern science has built upon those previous discoveries.
Pros
The book is well structured and organized, starting out with explaining why the voyage was undertaken, followed by the ship and crew, and then going through the years and discoveries in chronological order. As the men's journey is narrated the author explains their major discoveries, telling how theories and the actual science has changed over time. I much prefer how Mr. Corfield does it as opposed to other books where they go through the whole story and then explain the findings, I just feel like it’s easier to grasp when topics are explained in the moment instead of being broken up throughout the book.
It is an easy read and, outside of some scientific lingo that the average person may not be familiar with, the author does not make it difficult to understand. The story is engaging and the author is able to describe the ship and the men in a way that really helps you understand the hardships they faced. Not just the scientists either, but also the regular crew and those of a lower status on the ship. I very much like it when authors include all the people that helped make a discovery happen.
Cons
The book has a couple issues that left me wanting. For one, he explained the equipment used pretty well overall but there were a few gadgets that were missing key details. The one that stuck out the most to me was how the men used the sounding method to measure the depth of the ocean. He went pretty deep into the history of sounding and how it developed over time but he didn’t effectively explain how the process actually works and I had to research it myself in order to gain a full understanding.
The other not really issue but more of a gripe I have is that about half the book focuses on the first year alone. The other three years of the expedition don't have much content when compared to the first. I understand that most of the major discoveries happened in the first year but I just wish that there was a little bit more information about the others.
Things to Know
The book does have a lot of science in it and those sections could be daunting for some people; I consider myself to have a good understanding of science and there were a couple times that I had to reread a section to fully comprehend it. I do not blame the author for this, I do believe he tried to make it as easy to understand as possible, it's just a deep subject matter. I can also see how this book would be boring to certain people in some of these sections, especially if you were just reading this for the historical aspect and not also the scientific one.
Recommendation
The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger by Richard Corfield is a well put together and well thought out book that explains the history and science behind the HMS Challenger expedition. I certainly would recommend this book to someone wanting to learn about it but if someone is just looking for a retelling of the voyage and not the extra science behind it then this may not be the best source. If it seems like something that is interesting to you but you’re not sure then I say pick up a copy and read through the first couple chapters to see how you like it. It’s difficult to really give a definite yes or no on this book without knowing exactly what someone wants, it’s not for everybody but it certainly has an audience.
