quasar's Full Review: Brian Greene - Icarus At The Edge Of Time
After a radio signal indicates the presence of intelligent life around Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, an intrepid group of explorers sets out from Earth as emissaries to the unknown civilization. Even at fast speeds, the trip takes many generations. Icarus was born on the spaceship Proxima and knows he's going to die on it too. Unlike most of his fellow passengers, he yearns for more than life aboard ship, wants the opportunity to see and do and explore the universe around him. When the ship unexpectedly encounters a black hole, Icarus wants to examine it more closely, learn what can be learned from a close pass. He believes the new ship he designed can withstand the gravity and skim the surface of the line of no return beyond which nothing can escape the pull of the singularity. His father forbids the trip, but Icarus is stubborn and knows he's done the calculations correctly so he sneaks out in his runabout to explore. His father knows that Icarus forgot to consider the effects of general relativity in his calculations and can only watch in horror as the inevitable consequences slowly play out in Icarus at the Edge of Time.
Brian Greene's inventive retelling of the myth of Icarus recast into the futuristic exploits of a boy on a generation ship is a fantastic way to learn about the basic principles of relativity. The book does not assume a great deal of specific mathematical knowledge about the subject, but also doesn't explain the science in great detail. If there's one major failure in this book it's that Greene shows us time dilation in a very real and vivid way but doesn't explain why it's happening. That's a bit disappointing.
That's the only significant disappointment in what is otherwise a fantastic book. Presented as a coffee table book designed by Chip Kidd, the text is placed on top of images of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope with an ever-growing black circle in the middle representing the black hole. While brilliant, the one drawback to this approach is that some of the pictures are significantly obscured by the black hole and thus you don't get to admire them as much as you would otherwise. Still, it fits the story and that's really the most important thing when it comes to illustrating a book.
Most pages have one or two paragraphs of text (a few pages with the largest black hole figure have significantly less) and together it amounts to the size of a fairly compact short story. Greene packs a lot of punch in that short space, though, really making Icarus come to life while still giving enough background to place the story in reasonable context and to make the events seem to flow naturally. It's perhaps not as complex as the very best short stories out there, but the story works quite well, particularly as a first attempt from an author who previously has only written very technical science books.
Some people may think the natural audience for this book is a child given the elements it has in common with a picture book and the length of the story, but I wouldn't classify it that way. That doesn't mean bright children with an interest in science won't find the book enjoyable, but to me it feel much more like a coffee table book designed to make adults oooh and ahhh. I also think there's an element of showing off, of Greene saying to people familiar with both Greek mythology and physics that he's clever enough to combine the two in a way that both are accurately portrayed in a single story. Perhaps that's why Greene doesn't explain the science; this target audience would already know it.
I don't want to give away how Greene resolves the story of Icarus or brings it to a logical conclusion that's true to both the original story (in spirit at least) and the science. You'll have to read the book for yourself to find that out. If you have any interest in either of these subjects, I strongly recommend doing just that. Icarus at the Edge of Time is fun and clever and tells a good story to boot. Check it out and see for yourself.
One of America s leading physicists delivers a moving and visually stunning futuristic reimagining of the Icarus fable--a fable about fathers and sons...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.