Seen from the outside there’s no misery nor crowds on Earth, no lack of resources, no garbage dumps. Instead: deep blue spots in endless green, the Great Lakes of North America. Or the delicate boot called Italy. This book from director and journalist Michael Benson looks further than the Earth, though, and onto our next eight planetary neighbors in the solar system. Dust storms like caramel cream, volcanic plains like golden honeycombs, the dune-scapes of Mars’s surface, a tracery of craters. The cosmos – a feast for the eyes. Totally unknown.

--Die Zeit, February 26, 2004