Atlas of Improbable Places: A Journey To The World’s Most Unreal Corners
By Travis Elborough
I received a free copy of Atlas of Improbable Places from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.
Travis Elborough goes in search of the obscure and bizarre, the beautiful and arcane. His unique atlas shows you the modern world from surprising new vantage points. Discover the secret Soviet city of Zheleznogorsk and the church tower of San Juan Parangaricutiro, miraculously still standing as the sole survivor of a town sunk by lava. Explore the underground realms of Beijing and Berlin, dug for refuge and espionage, and the floating worlds of remote Palmerston and the macabre Island of Dolls.
The truths and myths behind these hidden lairs, forgotten cities and improbable wonders are as varied as the destinations themselves. These curious places are not just extraordinary sights but reflections on our relationship with the world around us.
Summary from Goodreads.
The Atlas of Improbable Places takes you on a journey to a variety of different locations. While some will not be known by many, such as Varosha an abandoned tourist resort in Cyprus; others such as Aokigahara Forest and The Palm in Dubai are more widely known.
The Atlas of Improbable Places is split into 6 seperate sections: Dream Creations; Deserted Destinations; Architectural Oddities; Floating Worlds; Otherworldly Spaces and Subterranean Realms.
While each location mentioned had a brief but detailed description around the place and how it came to be, I struggled to connect with each location and understand it.
Also, I wish that more pictures were included. I feel like when you are talking about locations, the best way to showcase them is through photographs. Since I have never heard of or seen what some of the places look like, photographs would have been highly beneficial to this book to help the reader understand what location you are reading about.
I personally found the Atlas of Improbable Places to be a tad confusing. It did not seem to know exactly what it wanted to be, and unfortunately I did not find it a very engaging read like I had hoped.
2/5
Have you read Atlas of Improbable Places? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!
Check it out on Goodreads here.
Purchase it on Amazon here.
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