Customer Reviews

Storms in Space

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

 

 

I'm frequently quoted in this book, so have an interest in it
having been well done. John has done a fine job in giving explanations
that will appeal to readers from outside our community
and that should serve as a model for writers in
our field. He conveys technical information easily and makes
it interesting -- but I'm an easy sell. I have found about
6 mistakes in the text, but they are mostly trivial.

Most books on the sun are heavy on the history and light on the explanations. Not so with this one. Freeman knows the subject well, so well that he can explain it in simple terms. That doesn't happen often at this level of knowledge, and I for one really appreciated his attempts to simplify the explanations!

Although the book is well written, this is not a subject most people can just jump into and expect to understand. The interaction of the solar wind with the earth's magnetic field is not trivial. If you really want to understand this topic you should at least have taken and passed College (algebra based) Physics 2 (electricity and magnetism). It will be even better if you have had Engineering Physics 2 (the calculus based equivalent) instead. If you have had either of these, you are ready for this book and should have no problems understanding the material.

For me the math appendix alone was worth the cost of the book. The math is simply and clearly stated, and has cleared up some issues I have had with KE/temperature concepts. Definitely worth a look, even if you don't care for the material in the book itself.

As in every book on advanced topics, this book could have used more diagrams. The plasma sheet in the magnetotail was particularly confusing. I think I understand it but am not sure. A picture of that would have been worth more than a thousand words. A picture showing the ring currents, ionosphere, and Van Allen belts would also have been nice. A little expansion of the glossary in the back would also be helpful. I went to look up several terms that were not there.

All in all, the most interesting of the last 10 books I have read, and it was very hard to put it down for any reason.

I bought this book with high hopes but was somewhat disappointed after reading it. I thought the idea was excellent, and the subject matter is most certainly worthy of a treatment in the popular science literature, but the actual execution was lacking. It was too technical, jargon was not properly introduced, and the author tried to cover too many topics too quickly. Anyway, that is just my opinion, but I would certainly encourage readers to buy the book and judge for themselves.