The book has just been printed. I get my free copy tomorrow, when the
first carton full is available, hee hee. It's a MUST-HAVE for sealife
afficianados and molluscophiles.

Price has been finalized at $49.95NZ (higher than I was told to
expect, but low just the same); this comes to about $23.00US
currently, I think. Peter told me that he can personally sell them
for a discount, so if you want a copy, let him know now:
Peter Batson <[log in to unmask]>
Shipping of course will be extra.

To recoup what I've posted before, it's a color-only book (oops, I
think there's ONE grayscale illustration), not dumbed-down for
knownothings, about NZ abyssal/bathyal life and that of the water
column above, done chapterwise by phylum. The beautiful photography
is mainly by a local excellent photographer, with quite a few very
good shots by author Peter Batson (a very knowledgable and personable
marine science PhD student, and no mean photographer) himself. A few
taxa (eg Glaucus) are taken from image libraries because Peter could
not locate NZ specimens to photograph; however all such are taxa
found in NZ waters.

I proofread many chapters and was the advisor for the mollusc one;
most of the shells illustrated are from my collection.

As yet there's no website that shows more then the dustjacket
(Canterbury University Press), but Peter hopes to get a site set-up
to give potential buyers a look inside.

Anyone who can think of others who might want a copy, or a
shop/business which might want to sell it, please ask them to contact
Peter directly. I think 5000 were printed; if it sells well enough
another printing will eventually take place.