Customer Reviews

Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . .

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author reviews just about every disaster of global proportions that this old universe has in store for us. This includes everything from impacts with space rocks, solar magnetic storms, gamma-ray bursts, and the ultimate fate from the expansion of the universe itself. While these and others are serious scenarios, the author maintains a cosmic wit as is demonstrated even in his section subtitles. For example, there's "Sirius Danger?," "The Hole Truth," and "Sunrise Sunset" which is of course followed by "Swiftly Flow the Days Millennia Eons." By the way, if you wade through all of the cosmic disasters (speaking of which disaster itself is derived from the Greek for 'bad star') you'll find in the end that you have learned a bit about almost every topic that I teach in my introductory astronomy classes. Note that there are not any color photographs, but you can find lots of those online or in any standard astronomy text. I'm sure that by only including black and white images, it helped keep down the book cost, which makes this volume reachable to a wider audience. I highly recommend the book as an enjoyable weekend read which can lead you to think, learn, and perhaps realize that there can be lots gained from analyzing doom and gloom scenarios, especially if you apply scientific reasoning, which includes critical thinking.

The book is quite a roller coaster ride that takes you through all the many ways that the universe can kill us. Yet, the author, Dr. Philip Plait masterfully explains the many concepts with wit and humor rarely encountered in todays popular science books. Even those who have a decent background in astronomy can find facts and information that are absolutely novel to their thinking. Plait echoes the spirit of Sagan with an approach that allows any lay reader to understand the ridiculously difficult concepts that must be simplified but not dumbed down. Moreover, the science in the book represents our very latest understanding about the cosmos. One very important fact that must be mentioned from the book is that there are many ways for the universe to kill us, but the two that are most likely to disrupt our lives are fully preventable and mitigable. There is absolutely no excuse for our ignorance regarding the next near Earth asteroid, or major coronal mass ejection/giant solar flare from destroying all that we've worked so hard to accomplish. This is the ultimate and greatest message of the book.

I can't praise this book enough! This gifted author, a renowned astronomer, discusses the various ways in which our world could end due to catastrophes of a cosmological/astrophysical nature. In order to do this, he must explain the scientific principles involved and relate them to the ways in which we could meet our end - in morbid detail. For all of these events, probabilities are given regarding their possibly occurring during our own lifetimes, as well as whether any are actually preventable. The prose is simply outstanding; it leaves the reader breathless! The author's passion and excitement for his subject matter are quite contagious. Not only is the writing style clear and authoritative, but it's also immensely accessible. Using wit, humor, excellent analogies and everyday language, the author weaves each potential disaster tale in such a way that both general readers and scientists alike can relish them. Reading this book is the most pleasant way that I can think of for learning of human-race-annihilating disasters. This book can be enjoyed by anyone!

Neat little book! It very cleverly and scientifically debunks the plethora of astonomical horror stories wandering around and popular on TV these days, while remaining light hearted and entirely readable. Anyone, anyone, can get at least an elementary grasp of the basics of astro-physics from this book, without either falling asleep or getting a headache; no prior Ph.D required. Anyone with a big ego best watch out for the last section, it really sets one into the enormity of the universe and time.

As a person who is lucky enough to write horror books for a living, I thought I knew "scary." Maybe I do, but not on the same level as Plait. Holy crap. DEATH FROM THE SKIES is absolutely terrifying -- a dozen ways for the world to end. Real ways, and some that are mathematically inevitable. That's right, someday all of this that you see here will vaporize. And yes, that includes your Smurf figurine collection. Sorry about that.

DEATH FROM THE SKIES taught me more about astronomy than any other source has. The clever way Plait lays out information keeps you engaged, informs you, teaches you, then hits you in the stomach with just how much unstoppable power is out there. The book is suitable for pre-teens all the way up -- even flat-earth Grampa would dig it. You don't have to know a damn thing about space, stars, astronomy, etc. (because I sure didn't, I know that now) to love this one. Some of the best science writing of all-time.

While reading this book, I wondered how one person could possibly know all this stuff in such depth--the area of scholarship seemed so vast. But in the acknowledgements, Phil Plait graciously points out that he was helped along by a list of fifteen other scientists, so the reader can be certain the information is backed up with a lot of expertise.

Each chapter deals with some spectacular aspect of the universe, and the material is often simplified with easy-to-understand analogies--important, when you're dealing with numbers that are incredibly large or small. You won't feel like you're taking a course in astronomy, yet you will get a basic understanding of all the "juicy stuff" we've learned in the last century or so--in a fun and exciting way. Imagine what Galileo and others like him would have given just to read a single chapter, yet we can buy the entire novel for a pittance.

Finished Phil Plait's Death from the Skies. It is customary to drop the negatives later, but first for the negatives, to be be overwhelmed later by the positives and there are many positives: How many? Gobs!

Negative Number One: I showed the cover of the book to my wife and asked her what she thought. Her reaction was "...sleazy, something out of the 1950's. You would expect to see something like that in a grocery store and I would walk right by it." My feelings are, with that cover, instead of the sun, it should have shown a scantily-clad girl with her left hand held up in horror as she saw this giant asteroid coming to destroy the earth. My wife asked who the publisher was. When I told her Penguin (Viking) she was dumbfounded. You would expect a dreadful (ghastly?) cover like this from El Schloko Press. But from Viking? Is the editor still working in journalism? If so, why?

Negative Number Two: Phil Plait, Ph.D. Ph.D. in what? An earned doctorate? Why the Ph.D. on the cover and directly under the title inside. Credential and C.V.'s are usually placed on the book jacket or on a separate page titled "About the Author". Then his experience and education could have been spelled out. Those of us who know his background don't need the resume, but if I were picking up the book, I would wonder about the expertise of this guy.

Negative Number Three: Dr. Plait writes smoothly and cleverly with a great deal of whimsy. But sometimes his cuteness belies the importance of what he is saying. Sometimes his excessive use of humor wipes away the seriousness of what he is saying.

Negative Number Four: How about a glossary and bibliography? It would enhance the quality of this book.

All these negatives? They pale in comparison to the quality of the writing and the facts. I love to catch Ph.D.'s making errors in math and facts. No bonehead errors here. This book is dead on. Just the facts ma'am. He covers the material thoroughly, yet neither dumbs it down nor makes it a grueling slog through a gauntlet of arcane facts shoveled in to make his case. This guy knows how to write. Science writers, astronomers, physicists take note and read how it should be done. I am really not surprised at the quality of his prose as I am a big fan of his "bad astronomy" website.
I would strongly recommend this book in spite of its garish cover. It is fun to read and with Dr. Plait (he has a Ph.D.!) I always learn something new. I thank him for that.
I have simultaneously been reading and highly recommend a book by Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin, The Five Ages of the Universe. Plait references the authors of that tome in Chapter 9 of his book. He acknowledges their fine book as he brings to a close his look at the future of the universe.

Buy this book and throw away the dust jacket as you leave the store.

Phil Plait has written one hell of a gem.

This book is a fun romp through all of the cosmic disasters that could bring about doomsday. Some of these topics are gamma ray bursts and solar storms. As someone who visits nutty websites all of the time, I find the author's writing to be pertinent to the concerns of many people. This book also teaches critical thinking and a good deal of general material in astronomy. This book is humorous and it is fascinating. I highly recommend it.

This book is a member of the fairly popular genre of books that talk about end of the world or disaster scenarios. Phil Plait is a well-known Astronomer with a good deal of experience writing for popular audiences and it shows in this book. This is a well-written book that includes some of the latest scientific thought on the matters he discusses and it is presented not only with an appropriate bit of humor but also in a fairly compact form. Some books of this type go on at great length about somewhat arcane details, but Plait seems to be able to summarize the important details in very digestible packages each time.

The topic of this particular book in general is the different ways that life or the planet Earth could be harmed or killed by some cosmic event. These things range from asteroid hits and solar flares to the death of the sun, galaxy and universe. Each chapter is dedicated to one particular issue. They begin with a fictitious scenario involving the issue causing trouble on Earth and then go on to describe the issue. The author is very honest about the actual chances of each of these happening and also conjectures about what could be done in most cases. While the disaster aspect of each situation acts as the hook to get the reader's attention, the real substance of each chapter is actually a good, solid summary of some astronomical issue like the makeup of the sun, the nature of black holes, or the interaction of galaxies. So in addition to a disaster story, you also get a good astronomy primer, at least for some topics.

As I mentioned, there are many books of this type out, many of which are also very interesting and well-written. What I like about this one is that it seems very up to date and honest. The author doesn't overplay the chances of some of these things happening, and he clears up a lot of misconceptions. This obviously isn't a comprehensive book on astronomy, but it's an interesting read and it's one of those books that gets you thinking and widens your perspective. I found it to be a real page-turner and I highly recommend it if you like disaster-type books.

I read this book during a time when I was incredibly busy with work. My brain had virtually nothing left by the time I got home. One look at the sensationalist title and cover art convinced me that this was THE book for winding down to go to sleep. I actually ended up learning quite a bit more than I bargained for. The occilations above and below the galaxy plane and the possible repercusions of said occilations were news to me. The book is also noteable for containing the best description of black holes (for the layman) I have ever read - and I have read several. That said, 'Death from the Skies" fulfilled my expectations as light entertainment that didn't demand too much from the frazzled reader - all while putting my trivial work-a-day problems in proper perspective.