“How Space Works - The Facts Visually Explained” is a book from a series published by DK which includes subject areas such as science, technology, business management and philosophy. Designed as a “beginner's guide” to astronomy it claims to be “The simplest, most visual guide to space - ever”. Quite a big boast to live up to! The book is a handy medium-sized hardback with full-colour (although not glossy) pages. The information is ordered into five colour-coded sections: Space from Earth, Solar System, Stars, Galaxies & the Universe and Space Exploration.

This is a reference book designed to quickly and easily deliver answers to your space questions. It is heavily illustrated with pages mostly about half text, and half colour pictures/diagrams. Fascinating facts and answers to key questions are pulled out in bubble highlights to further enhance user-friendliness and speed of use. The illustrations are colourful and clear which makes the book a pleasure to flick through, so kudos must go to the artists: Messrs Clifton, Crisp & Gamble.

The information presented is concise and to the point, with most subjects covered on a double-page spread. Sometimes they are broken up and spread throughout the book. Logically, The Moon is covered in “The Solar System” and the Apollo Missions are in “Space exploration” so to read everything about one particular topic you may have to jump about the book a bit.

The consequence of clear and concise text in a heavily illustrated book like this is that the information can be pretty superficial. For example, with the exception of Ceres and Pluto, the Dwarf Planets only get a single sentence each. There is also little about future space missions. The chapter “Space Exploration” tells the story up to and including the New Horizons probe with only two pages devoted to all “Future Spacecraft” (a section which just concentrates on Orion & SLS from NASA's Artemis programme). Surprisingly, although this book was published only nine months before the launch of the revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope there are only two sentences about it!

"How Space Works" functions as a primer or quick reference rather than a serious textbook. For the layman who wants the low-down on a new space topic or a swift answer to a space question, this book is perfect. It’s also fun just to admire the diagrams and read the space facts. Does it live up to its boast of being “the most visual guide to space - ever”? Probably.