Customer Reviews

The Jinn from Hyperspace: And Other Scribblings--Both Serious and Whimsical

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If you are a fan of Martin Gardner's recreational mathematics book, and would like to see his other writings, this book might be for you; others should be ok if they miss it. It's a collection of essays, on no single topic. The book is divided into four parts, with 36 chapters in all spread over 300 pages. The parts are


* Science, Math, and Baloney: This part (19 chapters) contains Martin's opinion on various science related topics, as well as some paradoxes which philosophers and logicians seem to be very fond of. The topics range from False Memory Syndrome to a hypothetical Time Reversed Universe. The title of the book is actually name of a fictional story related to Klein bottles in this part.

* Literature: This series of chapters (5) contains Martin's view of literature, specifically focusing on the work of Chesterton and how the Santa Clause came into being.

* L. Frank Baum: Martin Gardner seems to be a fan of L. Frank Baum (the author of The Wizard of Oz); though, people outside the US (like me) might not have heard of him earlier. This section consists of 7 chapters, entirely dedicated to the writing style of L. Frank Baum.

* Lewis Carroll: Like Frank Baum, Martin seems to be a fan of Lewis Carroll as well. Martin discusses the background of the writings of the famous logician. This might be very interesting for you if you know a little bit about Lewis and/ or have enjoyed reading Alice in the Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass. This part consists of 5 chapters, and also sheds some light on the life of Lewis.

Depending on where you live, some of the content---such as False Memory Syndrome which discusses false childhood abuse memories---in the book might be disturbing for you. While there were certain bits and pieces to learn from here and there, I am not much impressed by the overall theme and content of the book.

THE JINN FROM HYPERSPACE AND OTHER SCRIBBLINGS - BOTH SERIOUS AND WHIMSICAL blends math and science, essays and fantasy/sci fi tales in a book difficult to easily categorize, but promising to read across genres. Science fiction readers will love its possibilities, science readers will love its focus on math and probability, and even literary readers will find analysis of and references to literary topics in this satisfying, involving read perfect for both college-level science collections and general-interest lending libraries.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is a book that should have something of interest for just about everyone. Roughly the first half contains nineteen essays on various scientific topics; some of these essays are reviews of certain books. The second half is about certain authors of fictional literature, i.e., Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, G.K. Chesterton and some others. Here the author discusses details of several of their stories and offers some critique.

As a science buff, I much preferred the first half of the book, although I enjoyed some essays therein much more than some others.

Martin Gardner's writing style is very clear, friendly, lively and engaging. Because of the wide variety of topics discussed in this book, it's difficult to determine who its intended audience is. Perhaps one can safely say that those who are likely to enjoy this book the most are fans of Martin Gardner' writings.

After reading this book I have entered Martin Gardner into the pantheon of good science writers along with Isaac Asimov, George Gamow, Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Pinker, Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennet. From obscure figures in renaissance mathematics to relatively obscure poets and novels, Gardner pulls the reader into a world that is simultaneously fun and academic. Much of the book is re-prints of material that he had written for various publications, but some was written in its year of publication, when Mr. Gardner was in his 90's! I can only hope to be as sharp as he was so advanced in years. His writing about Ramon Lull and the writer Chesterton are some of the most interesting parts to me. He exposes his biases thoughout, but does so in a way that it's hard to get upset even when one disagrees with him. I wish he were still alive and writing, and I hope I can find more books like this one.

What solid information can you learn from a book written about other books? Th answer is "a lot" if you are good at reading between the lines.

Martin Gardner's "The Jinn from Hyperspace" is a compendium of his short article, letters to the editor, reviews and prefaces for science books, little-known works of Lewis Carroll and Frank L. Baum books. There is something both attractive and irritating about the book. By design, a book preface will not spill the beans about the book's content. That means that much useful information is only hinted at. Still, there's enough meat in "Jinn" to whet the appetite for the range of topics that fascinate Gardner. Where else would you read about Raymond Lull's magical, supposedly predictive wheels? Or the shortcomings of string theory? Or the problem with telephones build on tachyons -- theorized particles that travel faster than light?

At the end of the day, I was glad I read the book, if only to glimpse corners of science, mathematics and literature that I knew little or nothing of. But there's not enough here for the ordinary reader, much less one without an interest in math and science.

I bought this for someone else, book arrived from Amazon quickly. I know my friend enjoyed this book so I can't write anything else unless it's about the delivery.