Date: February 11, 2001 Book Title: Beyond Star Trek Book Author: Lawrence M. Krauss ISBN: 0-465-00637-X Style: Hard Cover

 

Being that this is only the second book that I have ever read (since I was in school) start to finish you may want to dispute this review, because of my experience (or lack there of) with the quality of material that is out there on the subject of physics.

I found this book ... how should I put this,... slow and painful. When I pick up a book to read about physics and how they relate to star trek etc. I read it because I hope to be inundated with easy to read and understandable facts about physics. Not to drudge through 175 pages of on going ramble. Many times while reading this book I became lost when he started describing the some of the actual calculations or including them, when describing a theory. Worse then that he uses actual words to describe the calculations and not a standard mathematical equation. Worse yet his means of using real world scenarios to help the reader relate to the theory he is describing were poorly relayed.

I did not pick up this book to learn the math behind particle physics! I read it because I wanted a clean, clear, and concise description about the theories and actual findings related to physics. The only other book that I have read from start to finish was another physics book I believe was called "The Universe and Doctor Einstein". It was a small soft cover book, only about 100 pages or so (1cm thick). I learned more reading that book (originally written in I believe the 50's) then I did this one. It had pictures and easy to read descriptions of Einstein's theories.

So how can a book like Beyond Star Trek have a quote like "Krauss is always enlightening." From the new York times book review. Simple. The readers of the book probably have read a couple of books like it before, And from those have pieced together and understood most aspects of the theories beforehand. Not to mention the fact that some of these reviewers probably went to university and took in a year of physics. Bottom line, the people who gave the review were not like you or me. It's there job to read a book and give a review, And because of that their are able to take in the content of a book more easily then the below average reader.

This book only confirms my belief of the true limitation of this media (books and reading). I walk away from this book with a good chance of not reading another for a long while.