by Alexander Baguma Barak ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2013
Down-to-earth, expansive and optimistic, this treatise on flying saucers should fascinate the technologically inclined.
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Aerospace enthusiast Barak offers a brief history of flying saucers and a detailed description of how one might actually be built.
The start of modern UFO culture can be traced not just to the 1947 incident at Roswell, N.M., but to World War II. Nazi scientists had been researching methods of dominating the skies over Europe and, pending victory, the United States. The Treaty of Versailles, however, prevented the Germans from building traditional weaponry; they instead focused on disc- and wing-shaped flying machines. This led to great successes in stealth technology, which married lasers and mirrors to standard aeronautical principles. But the war ended before the Nazis could deploy their breakthrough ships. And the U.S., in a secret campaign called Operation Paperclip, brought their enemy’s brightest scientists home to work in the American Southwest. There, human test pilots—not extraterrestrials—flew miraculous planes that were key in the Cold War strategy against Soviet Russia. Such hyperfast, maneuverable vehicles, able to fly nuclear payloads across the world within minutes, had to be kept secret at all costs. The U.S. government therefore encouraged a public obsession with aliens and unidentified flying objects. Barak, who encapsulates history with a novelist’s flair, goes on to discuss the mechanical details of how such aircraft might be constructed. Early on, he also reminds us that: “I am not a physicist, and my entire book is based on suppositions and imagination.” Nevertheless, he writes confidently—and at exhaustive length—about various craft structures and the wide range of materials used therein. Most engaging are his discussions about natural engineering (honeycombs and seed pods) that has inspired researchers in the field of biomimicry. Toward the end, he explores how lasers, fiber optics and quantum entanglement could power a flying saucer. Unfortunately, simple facts are sometimes wrong; awkward gaffes, including one in which President Ronald Reagan is mistakenly named Robert, may keep readers from investing too much faith in him. Still, the author’s rational insistence that alien abductions aren’t real is quite refreshing.
Down-to-earth, expansive and optimistic, this treatise on flying saucers should fascinate the technologically inclined.Pub Date: June 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482045017
Page Count: 204
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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