Customer Reviews

Science of the X-Men

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Think of it as a comic book lover's guide to basic science. This book doesn't so much debate the plausibility of a mutant's powers as it explains the laws of physics that would govern the use of them. It's overly simplistic in some places and needlessly complex in a few others, but mostly it's an easy, straight-forward read. Out of the 19 mutants that they profile they include all the originals (Jean, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel), some odd choices (Scarlet Witch, Unus the Untouchable) and miss some good opportunities (Banshee in particular). The section on psi-powers is probably the weakest, but the strong analysis of Wolverine and Magneto mostly make up for it. The character bios seem very accurate and detailed and the one error that I noticed is more likely a problem with editing than with the authors. On the whole it's a much better book than I expected it to be.

Other mutants included: Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Quicksilver, Mastermind, Colossus, Havok, the Blob, Xavier, Storm, and Rogue plus sections on Cerebro and the Sentinels

The concept of this book is excellent and the introduction is good. This completes the list of nice things I have to say about the book. The artwork varies from good to dismal, the science is often poor or simply wrong (a list of my favorites: Stephen Jay Gould is a controversial evolutionist!, most scientists believe evolution of higher life forms from nothing is inevitable(?), superstring theory is presented as a fact, only primitive civilizations have polytheistic religions(I'd love to know where he got this one from and how the Hindus of the world feel about it), and the section on the Brood shows such a fundamental lack of understanding of evolutionary theory that I was almost in tears). I might even have overlooked these glaring problems if the writing about the characters had been good, but quite frankly, it wasn't. The author mentions the possibility of sequels in the introduction; in response I say: Please don't.

The story behind the book is probably more interesting than the book itself. For starters, let me tell you that Karen whatsername had nothing whatsoever to do with this book. Byron Preiss (recently deceased), the publisher, put her name on this because she is the WIFE of ROBERT SILVERBERG, famous SF author. He hoped that if he hired her as a copyeditor, Silverberg would look it over. Not only did Silverberg ignore it, so did she.
If this thing was copyedited, then why all the terrible typos?
This thing wasn't even SPELLCHECKED!

I rewrote this like, five times. Preiss took incomplete drafts from different rewrites of various chapters, and put them together OUT OF SEQUENCE so they contradict each other in places.

I have yet to receive complete payment after over FIVE YEARS.

Now that Byron is dead, I guess I will never get paid.

Well, it was nice to be able to say I wrote a book, but the unnerving experience of being screamed at by Byron's neurotic assistant editor who had never edited a book before, hardly made the task a joy. The result is so slapdash that I have never been able to open the covers and actually read it. GAD, there are so many TYPOS!

BYRON PREISS had a reputation and as soon I signed the contract and announced it to various zines and groups, other authors who had worked for Byron began to approach me to warn me about hiim.
So none of it came as a suprise. I KNEW what I was in for. But that didn't make it any more pleasant.

But...good things came of it, so it was well worth it. My nerves jangled for some time afterward, but that's life in the publishing biz in New York City. A real contest of egos. It is easy to face them down and I did so many times (all so childish) but it is so TRYING. It is a foolish way to do business. No adult should interact with another like a schoolyard bully.

I feel there is some good text in the book. Some very funny stuff. All the research I did on the characters was thrown out. The science is uneven because some chapters are, as I say, incomplete drafts. But I tried to write a lot of funny stuff. The editor felt it was unprofessional and kept cutting it out. I kept putting it in. After awhile I think he gave up. The editor was Byron's assistant, I think his name was Dwight. I've blocked him out. He was so shrill and brittle. Poor man. He must have been suffering the major brunt of forces above far more shrill than he. And he could NOT have been making much money. So he was trying to rush thru my little book as fast as possible because time was money. He had a dozen other projects that were on deadline and no time for me.

SO, if you want to be a writer, I warn you as I was warned--be prepared for everything I have described. It is a common story.

Not so bad in the scale of things. People are starving in Africa, the world is full of terrorists...In the scale of things.

Thanks for reading,
My best to you all,
=link

Personally speaking as a long-time X-men fan, I find this book an interesting piece of fiction...but not as interesting as the fiction which motivates it. The Physics of Star Trek succeeds where this book fails simply because it is written by a scientist who can see the mistakes in the logic of Star Trek yet is able to admire the prescience and veracity of its many writers. X-men is mostly based on a biological phenomenon, yet this book is quick to point out how all of their powers are so mysteriously derived. And when the authors are stumped, they owe the powers to mini-wormholes within the characters' bodies. This book is interesting to fans because it features characters they know and love, but it is a horrendous atrocity to anyone who would like to ponder the origin of mutant powers. These authors have nothing on Stan Lee and his cosmic rays, gamma rays and radioactive spiders. I can bear the typos, but the complete lack of parsimony is appalling.

Overall I would say this is an quality read. The different views of the manifestaions of mutant powers were intriguing. It covered a good deal of my favorite X-MEN but I want to read about some of the others. My only complaint about Science of the X-MEN would be the numerous amount of typos. It really took away from making this book excellent. Especially since this was such a scientific book. (Spell check anyone?) But other than that I like this and would recommend it.

This was a terrific book.Yaco comes up with plausible explanations for how the X-Men's powers might work. Some of it's drawn from the frontiers of physics.There's obviously a lot of scholarship behind this book, but Yaco has a gift for writing simply and engagingly about complex ideas. His style is more playful than preachy. I especially liked the material on Iceman and Angel. Any true fan of the X-Men would treasure this book!

I like the author's approach -- that the most simple scientific explanations are the best and not to complicate the explanations of the X-Men's powers. Also, this book is a reminder that a lot of contemporary scientific thought is even stranger than the strangest fiction, the implications of which are not yet fully understood and COULD plausibly explain mutant powers. Sure, there are typos in this book, but don't let that stop you. This book is fun. And educational!

It's a pretty cool idea to use scientific theories to explain how the powers of the X-Men might work. What better way to get kids to read about and develop an interest in science! I'm by no means a science whiz myself, but even I learned a thing or two from this and got some explanations for terms and theories I've only casually heard about.

The only thing that keeps me from giving it five stars (I actually gave it 3.5 in my mind, but I rounded up) is that the book has many typographical errors. Maybe some readers don't mind this and gloss over such things, but I find them distracting.

I am the first person to admit that my science knowledge is limited. It ends on a college freshman physical science level. I thought that this book could give me a better grip on science by using a topic I enjoy to explain it. Well, the science is poorly explained for those of us who are science dummies. I tried to keep up but just couldn't. And on top of that the text is dry. The most interesting part of the book are the introductions for each character. I will not lie to you, halfway through the book I started to read only the introductions and skipped the rest. I am glad that I borrowed it from a friend. Don;t waste your money, and if you just REALLY REALLY need to read it because you are an X-Men fan then check your local library.

Honestly, I've skimmed through this book. It's probably most interesting to X-Men fans with a background in science, but for the common X-reader...it's a non-essential.

I read through the sections on my favorite characters, but it couldn't hold my interest enough to keep reading about my non-favorite characters. And right now it is on my bookshelf, collecting dust and waiting to be donated to a used bookstore.