Peter Cattermole’s “Introducing the Planets and their Moons” is part of a series of titles by Dunedin aimed at students and enthusiasts of the Earth and Environmental Sciences. This book visits the major solar system planetary bodies comparatively, starting from their origin, through their evolution to the present. As stated in the title, moons also are introduced in some detail, with our Moon, unsurprisingly, enjoying a dedicated chapter.

I find this approach in principle valid and it offers an alternative quick reference to broad planetary themes. A glossary is also included, and this turns out vital to understanding some of the more obscure jargon that peppers this work. This is symptomatic of the main problem with this publication: its lack of consistency, both in style and scientific level. We switch continuously between discursive dialogue such in “powerfully hot lava glowing orange” to precise geologic jargon “anastomosis”, “scoriaceous”, “allotropes”, and the first two terms are not even included in the glossary.

Indeed, the overall impression of this work is that it was put together over a long time interval, as evidenced by many content and stylistic inconsistencies (e.g., billion years as Gya in chapter 1, to Ga from the following one), but rushed to the press skipping a thorough proof reading stage. The latter would have eliminated much clumsy phrasing (e.g., “information that informs us”), wrong or missing figures (e.g., Fig. 6.8), spelling mistakes (e.g., “Harzwburgite” should be “harzburgite”), typos (170 °C instead of K for Mercury’s shaded regions), etc.

As a lunar specialist, I found the choice of images for the Moon puzzling, with all but one drawn from the 1960s and 1970s, instead of the available high-resolution images from the last 10 years or so (from Clementine to Kaguya, LRO, etc.). Moreover, some science details, as they are introduced, are also somewhat sloppy, for instance when talking about the Earth’s mantle the author writes: “…once these heavy radioactive elements became locked into the minerals found in near-surface rocks they commenced to decay…” (only then?). Or referring to Mars: “the core has a ‘significant’ proportion (16 wt %) of sulphur”—I wish we knew the sulphur content of the Earth’s core anywhere near that precision, let alone other planets!

To conclude, I found the idea, format and structure of this instance of the ‘Introducing’ series potentially exiting and interesting, especially as aimed to its target audience. If we set aside the weaknesses highlighted above for a moment, I can say that the book’s content is mostly valid and narrated with authority and proven professional knowhow. Nonetheless, I feel that what went to press was more like a ‘work in progress’ than a final polished version.