It's all a bit mercurial

[andrewducker]

Just finished reading Quicksilver last night, which has led me to spend the following 3 hours reading Neal Stephenson's website, numerous Wikipedia articles on the Glorious Revolution and James II, and annotations from around the web.

I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the huge amounts of detail, and in some ways would have preferred it if he'd just written an entertaining non-fiction book.

Next in the series is The Confusion, which will hopfully make me _less_ confused. But first I have about 5 other books to finish off - including We Need to Talk about Kevin and the second Science of Discworld book.

Comments

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Science of Discworld?

[andrewducker]

Amazingly good. And not like "Science of Star Trek" - they're science books, with alternate chapters of Discworld (by PTerry) and Science - written by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (who are fantastic science writers who'se The Collapse of Chaos is highly recommended).

[makyo.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The premise of the book is that the Wizards of Unseen University have constructed a little universe in a bottle. They watch it carefully and find that, due to the lack of chelonium and elephantigen, `proper' flat worlds can't exist there - instead they get these weird spherical ones, and thus the project is dubbed `Roundworld'.

Chapter by chapter, a Pratchett story following the wizards examining and analysing the new world (which is actually Earth) alternates with chapters written by Stewart and Cohen explaining in depth the science of the phenomena that the wizards observe.

I'm biased (Jack and Ian are both professors in my department) but I recommend it if you like Discworld and/or are interested in science. All three of the authors have a very readable style, and the book was sufficiently well-received to spawn two follow-up volumes (`tSoD II: The Globe', in which the wizards observe human society and culture, and `tSoD III: Darwin's Watch', in which the wizards study evolution).

[andrewducker]

I am remarkably envious that they both work in your department.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

I've been extremely fortunate, and have learnt many interesting things from talking to either or both of them. I certainly recommend everyone to take advantage of any available opportunities to hear them speak.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

I have read several Ian Stweart books and found them readable and good.