Planet of the Ants: The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors

This book is very interesting and full of ant facts, as one would expect. I wanted to really love this book, but it is in desperate need of an editor. I am still working my way through it, but I find myself reading and rereading passages over and over to understand what the authors are saying. The stream of content is disorganized, switching from one subject to the next without transitions or notifying the reader. For example, in one paragraph the authors are discussing soldier ants of various kinds, and in the next they are suddenly talking about how to suck ants out of nests. It is jarring--it feels a lot like a novel that moves back and forth between different eras without any markers to alert the reader that the time reference has shifted. Also, there are an overabundance of adjectives, making the writing clunky and difficult to move through. The sentence structure varies so that the subject and object of each sentence is unclear. Sometimes the scientific name of a species is used, other times a common name so I have no idea what type of ants are being discussed and I'm learning little about specific ant species. It's more a smattering of ant facts, with details about research processes thrown in, but presented without the organization or structure to make it understandable. I was excited to learn about ants but have gained very little due to the structure and style of the writing.

Mind blowing stuff on my favourite creatures.

Got this book the other day, and, I'm pleased with it. Interesting! Thanks.

Very well written and informative. Very well designed and illustrative. Useful to an adult (scientist) as well as an early teen with a high interest in the subject. One of our two favorite books!