A must-have for any trilobite collector and a good purchase for anyone interested in prehuman life, Travels with Trilobites is packed tighter with gasp-inducing photographs than almost any other coffee-table book I can think of. We've learned a lot about these creatures since I last thought much about them about fifty years ago — because of the difficulty of getting the specimens out of the rock without damage, the details of their defensive spines, much less their long, delicate antennae, were mostly unknown then, and until I read this book, I wasn't even sure that trilobites had eyes. Advances in preparation have been so significant since then that many of the specimens in the book, often much larger than life, look as though they're ready to crawl over your hand. The text of the book is extremely informative as well, covering all aspects of knowledge about trilobites from locations to lifestyle and even to historical human interactions with trilobite fossils (apparently the Ute people carried trilobites as talismans). Unfortunately, the book lacks an index to the photos, so it's hard to visualize the species that are mentioned in the text. This is a particular problem since the photos rarely match the animals mentioned on the same page. All in all, this is a fantastic book for any confirmed enthusiast and might well awaken interest in anyone who knew nothing about trilobites before. But if you need a reference to species, or even a basic overview of trilobite terminology before diving in deep, you'll have to consult other books. ( )