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Avatar - A Confidential Report On The Biological and Social History Of Pandora - An Activist Survival Guide
Harper Collins American Edition.
206 pages, Paperback
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119 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 24, 2022
A really comprehensive guide to the world of Avatar. It's written like a book protesting the exploitation of the planet, Pandora. However between the calls to action, there are lots and lots of fascinating information on this sci-fi planet James Cameron created. Flora, fauna, beasts, food, the Navi and the things they make; all of it is in here in loving detail. This isn't all. A great many details on the Earth technology that came to the planet is on here. From ships, guns, survival equipment and more. You even get detailed information on fast than light travel, and what makes Unobtanium so valuable. My only complaint is the decision to size it as a pocketbook. Pictures are way too small to really enjoy, and it wouldn't hurt to have larger type as well. Full size book would have really made this!
January 31, 2023
Loved this book. I'm ready to go to Pandora now!
June 14, 2020
If you want to read a book that's similar to this but of much higher overall quality, as well as written and illustrated by one of the creature designers of James Cameron's Avatar, check out Expedition: Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV.
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Like everybody else at the time, I was dazzled by James Cameron's Dances with Smurfs when I saw it in IMAX 3d. And like a lot of people when I watched it again on the small screen, I was disappointed to realize that movie was actually pretty shallow, even accidentally racist and pro-colonialist. However, I still found the creature designs, the overall aesthetic, and world-building enjoyable.
Now here I am, a decade later, reading this book, and while the creature designs and aesthetic are still fantastic, the world-building is not nearly as compelling as I remember. Every plant and creature is just a mystical-looking version of a living thing on Earth. The alien creature known as the thanator, for example, is just a panther, except it's "bigger", and "faster" and "stronger", and apparently has the capacity to kill a T-rex. It makes a decent fantasy setting, but not a terribly interesting sci-fi one.
Speaking of the setting, I need to bring up the framing narrative of this book, which is set up as a compilation of stolen government files being passed around in secret by revolutionaries. The "narrator" is an activist (as the title suggests), and makes notes in the margins, warning of the RDA (Resources Development Administration) exploiting Pandora's native people and literally selling their artifacts and culture to Earth's wealthy. I think of the Pandora theme park in Walt Disney World, in which you can buy/make Na'vi necklaces for $20 and get Na'vi facepaint (blueface?), and I feel offended for a culture that doesn't even exist.
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Like everybody else at the time, I was dazzled by James Cameron's Dances with Smurfs when I saw it in IMAX 3d. And like a lot of people when I watched it again on the small screen, I was disappointed to realize that movie was actually pretty shallow, even accidentally racist and pro-colonialist. However, I still found the creature designs, the overall aesthetic, and world-building enjoyable.
Now here I am, a decade later, reading this book, and while the creature designs and aesthetic are still fantastic, the world-building is not nearly as compelling as I remember. Every plant and creature is just a mystical-looking version of a living thing on Earth. The alien creature known as the thanator, for example, is just a panther, except it's "bigger", and "faster" and "stronger", and apparently has the capacity to kill a T-rex. It makes a decent fantasy setting, but not a terribly interesting sci-fi one.
Speaking of the setting, I need to bring up the framing narrative of this book, which is set up as a compilation of stolen government files being passed around in secret by revolutionaries. The "narrator" is an activist (as the title suggests), and makes notes in the margins, warning of the RDA (Resources Development Administration) exploiting Pandora's native people and literally selling their artifacts and culture to Earth's wealthy. I think of the Pandora theme park in Walt Disney World, in which you can buy/make Na'vi necklaces for $20 and get Na'vi facepaint (blueface?), and I feel offended for a culture that doesn't even exist.
December 18, 2022
This book reads like a printed out video game codex with a loose narrative that never goes anywhere literally scrawled between the pages about some kind of resistance smuggling this information out of the RDA for the reader.
Assembled before the movie release, the book contains much concept art, some of which consists of nice drawings and artwork but much is actually just early (and very rough looking) CG renders that look like they were pulled from an animatic.
I wish I had skipped this in favor of The Science of Avatar instead.
Assembled before the movie release, the book contains much concept art, some of which consists of nice drawings and artwork but much is actually just early (and very rough looking) CG renders that look like they were pulled from an animatic.
I wish I had skipped this in favor of The Science of Avatar instead.
January 16, 2024
Overall it was alright, but I do have multiple issues with it. I wish there was more about the Na’vi and other kinds of them, I understand this is old and made before there WERE more but it still would’ve been nice to think ahead or wider a bit. I also wish the visuals were slightly higher quality, and again, I understand it was old but it’s certainly an experience reading a sci-fi book that takes place way in the future using such low quality imagery. This was more of a personal issue but I had a lot of difficulty reading this, which I think may be partially because of another issue I had that wasn’t personal. The writing errors. There was a SURPRISING amount of errors. Things being spelt wrong, spaced out wrong or even repeated phrases. The grammar felt off sometimes as well.
August 11, 2021
I will admit that I skipped over the section of RDA equipment and weapons because I just didn't care but I enjoyed this book. It's informative and great canon for the Avatar fandom.
I do feel like they could have made the tone a bit more reader friendly instead of being so heavy on the science and using terms that most people not involved in heavy science study wouldn't understand. But I still enjoyed the book enough to finish.
I loved reading about all the flora and fauna on Pandora and about Na'vi culture.
I do feel like they could have made the tone a bit more reader friendly instead of being so heavy on the science and using terms that most people not involved in heavy science study wouldn't understand. But I still enjoyed the book enough to finish.
I loved reading about all the flora and fauna on Pandora and about Na'vi culture.
November 29, 2021
I’m going to be honest, I read everything except for the chapters on flora and fauna. I ain’t about to read about plants and animals that don’t actually exist! Ain’t nobody got time for that. The technology component and the history of the Nav’vii was interesting and was the reason I borrowed this. I’m curious to watch scientists’ reaction to it. I hope there are some on YouTube.
July 3, 2023
Loved this book and all the details that went into it as if we were actually on Pandora and needed to survive there. The only thing I wish was different was the size of the book because it made the text and pictures small, I wish it would've been made bigger like the one that they have in move is all but still great book!
February 19, 2023
Really great book if you want to know more about the Pandora culture in terms of plants, animals, history, etc. It is written in a way that is really educational and hard to believe it's not a real place!
May 28, 2018
I love this movie and the book. Can't wait for the second movie to come out!!
December 27, 2023
If you are looking for a book to read with a plot, look elsewhere! 😜 But if you fell in love with the world of Pandora like me, and want to know more about the creatures that inhabit the vibrant moon and how they function look no further! It is essentially a field guide of Pandora life forms, as if complied and written by the scientists that traveled there.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews