Customer Reviews

Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries

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Brahe and Kepler were giants, both in science and in character, and they deserve better than this book. There are some interesting factoids about Kepler's pathologic family, his strange relationship with his university and his well known struggle to obtain the observations of the orbit of Mars which were made by Brahe. Beyond that there is little if anything to recommend this book. The relationship between Tycho and Kepler is far better documented in the excellent book by Kitty Ferguson which is concerned with the facts and not the fiction. One star is more than this book merits.

This book discusses the lives and relationship between two key figures in astronomy, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Brahe was a nobelman who shrugged off political life to pursue his love of science and the stars. Kepler was a commoner who also studied the heavens and developed the laws of planetary motion. Kepler is portrayed as an insecure man looking for acceptance. The book also gives me the impression that Kepler did not like Brahe, while Brahe seems to be constantly helping Kepler and his family. Kepler is given a job by Brahe and Brahe also pays Kepler out of his own pocket, while his financial situation is being resolved. However, Kepler seems to go out of his way to fight with Brahe and look for a way to get out from under Brahe's control. Regardless of the help being given by Brahe.

The main point of the book is to lay the foundation and grounds for why someone would want to murder Brahe. Namely Kepler. I am not an expert in either astronomers' life, but I find the book too one sided. I would have to do more research to come to a conclusion, but for now my verdict is out. I have read a little that brings into question some of the findings from the tests performed on Brahe's hair.

I do not think the issue is as clear cut as the book tends to conclude. The book also doesn't clearly discuss the questions with the test results. The book was still enjoyable to read, but I believe more research is required to come to any conclusions.

There is scant, if any, historical evidence justifying this sensationalism (murder). I'd recommend books by James Voelkel (his relatively brief "Johannes Kepler and the New Astronomy" or Kitty Ferguson's more expansive "Tycho and Kepler" over this. The story about how Tycho's excellent observational science and Kepler's analytical science -- and how they come together at a propitious time, when modern science is just being born -- is exciting enough. The struggle for how Kepler proposed his geometric model of the solar system and how he had was led to other conclusions based on dogged respect for data is a tale all science lovers may be attracted to. Skip the "Hollywood" and enjoy rather the real stuff.

Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, And The Murder Behind One Of History's Greatest Scientific Discoveries is a historical re-creation of the seventeenth-century collaboration between geniuses Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. Kepler's scientific brilliance laid the foundation for modern physics, and his mentor Brahe spent forty years mapping the heavens with more accuracy than any before him; yet Brahe refused to share his maps with Kepler. When Brahe died far too young in 1601, rumors circulated that he had been murdered, yet it took twentieth- century forensics to reveal the proof - poison in Brahe's remains. Authors Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder apply detective work to point a reasoned accusation against the ambitious Kepler. Heavenly Intrigue is a simply stunning, thoroughly researched work that dares to question the personal character of great thinkers.

I'd have some respect for this book if it were marketed at a work of fiction because that's what it is. The authors have little familiarity with any aspect of their subject. It's particularly unlikely that Tycho would have spent the last day of his life tying up loose ends, such as taking care that his common law wife and children would be his heirs, if his death were unexpected. And no one who has studied Kepler closely and honestly could imagine him capable of murder.