This collection of essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction finds the eight-armed, four-typewritered Asimov venturing into the remotest crevices of light in the observable Universe and revealing that its diameter is 25,000 million light-years and will remain so until we invent an instrument that measures speeds faster than light. He also corrects Shakespeare's Caesar, who said, "I am as constant as the northern star." When Caesar lived "there wasn't any North Star/" — Asimov's explanation is rather complicated but seems correct. Subjects covered include the stars, solar system, life, matter, energy, and numbers. He discusses the chemical inevitability of life on Earth, evolution, a short story he sold in which he predicted Everest would never be scaled because it was an observation post for Abominable Snowmen who were actually Martians (the story hit the stands five months after Everest had been climbed — "Not one of my more luminous accomplishments!"), his abstention from alcohol, his thoughts on why the U.S. allowed its energy crisis to build, the largest prime number ever conceived, and much more. Each article is introduced with an amusing autobiographical anecdote. Ingratiating and mind-stretching when not boggling.
Pub Date: April 11, 1975
ISBN: 0441610722
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1975
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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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