I enjoyed this mixture of science and travel writing, and was intrigued by the affliction of total colour blindness: it would be interesting to know more about the linguistic consequences of this way of perceiving the world. While I felt Sack's style remained accessible even while describing the intricacies of different diseases and varieties of cycad I didn't think he was as powerful or engrossing as when writing a briefer case study. Even so, I wish I had seen the television series.