Even veteran stargazers won’t find much value in the oddball approach, and for younger ones, more cogent, readable print and...
This quirky introduction to the solar system and constellations aims for a broad audience—and scores a clean, complete miss.
With deliberate emphasis on Copernican (i.e., fixed Earth) astronomy, Kraul not only devotes three full chapters to the sun’s “apparent” annual motions and how they are “seen from space,” but describes in tedious detail the angled rising and falling of stars and constellations from various latitudes. He also traces the moon’s movements through the zodiac and the retrograde loops that the “superior” and “inferior” planets seem to make to earthly observers. Some of the illustrations are photographs, but more are small watercolor sky scenes that are hard to read despite the removal of extraneous stars and other details such as the names of zodiacal signs (though the symbols for each remain). Instructions for constructing a planisphere and a lunarium from card stock offer no advice for using either at night. The text is plagued by several copy editing (or possibly translation) errors and is prone to opaque or poorly phrased statements (“All the stars in the course of their daily movement culminate as they pass through the meridian”). Furthermore, the author makes a true but possibly misleading claim that seasons “are connected to the Sun’s position in the zodiac” and errs outright in claiming that if the Earth did not rotate, one side would always be light and the other dark.
Even veteran stargazers won’t find much value in the oddball approach, and for younger ones, more cogent, readable print and digital aids abound. (index, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-178250-046-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.
A new life and book arise from the ashes of a devastating California wildfire.
These days, it seems the fires will never end. They wreaked destruction over central California in the latter months of 2018, dominating headlines for weeks, barely a year after Fies (Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, 2009) lost nearly everything to the fires that raged through Northern California. The result is a vividly journalistic graphic narrative of resilience in the face of tragedy, an account of recent history that seems timely as ever. “A two-story house full of our lives was a two-foot heap of dead smoking ash,” writes the author about his first return to survey the damage. The matter-of-fact tone of the reportage makes some of the flights of creative imagination seem more extraordinary—particularly a nihilistic, two-page centerpiece of a psychological solar system in which “the fire is our black hole,” and “some veer too near and are drawn into despair, depression, divorce, even suicide,” while “others are gravitationally flung entirely out of our solar system to other cities or states, and never seen again.” Yet the stories that dominate the narrative are those of the survivors, who were part of the community and would be part of whatever community would be built to take its place across the charred landscape. Interspersed with the author’s own account are those from others, many retirees, some suffering from physical or mental afflictions. Each is rendered in a couple pages of text except one from a fellow cartoonist, who draws his own. The project began with an online comic when Fies did the only thing he could as his life was reduced to ash and rubble. More than 3 million readers saw it; this expanded version will hopefully extend its reach.
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3585-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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