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What If The Earth Had Two Moons?: And Nine Other Thought-Provoking Speculations On The Solar System (2010)

by Neil F. Comins(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0312598920 (ISBN13: 9780312598921)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

St. Martin's Press

review 1: It takes a bit of work to take such riveting questions and fascinating science and turn it into one of the most boring non-fiction reads I've experienced in a while, but Neil Comins manages to pull it off. My review won't add anything to previous reviews, but merely agree. The fictitious excerpts on these alternate worlds was a corny trick. Feeling the need to rename the alternate earths and other worlds (presumably to remind the reader that this really isn't how earth is) was just annoying. I don't think I'm being picky here. The device ruins any opportunity for the reader to feel any relation to the world that might have been, because so much care is given to make sure we don't think of it as our world. Coming off the latest book from physicist Michio Kaku, an auth... moreor with an almost self-blinding passion for his material, Comins presents these bizarre alternate scenarios for our solar system in an emotionally detached style. And as another reviewer pointed out, he goes from talking down to the reader to throwing out some passages that probably require a prerequisite in a couple of collegiate astronomy courses to make any sense. Two stars is being kind, and entirely to the handful of interesting nuggets that escape the unriveting parts that surround it.
review 2: I love Neil Comins and recommend this to anyone willing to give it a crack. Reading these essays on how single, but pivotal, changes to our solar system or our planet or our moon would effect the earth and life on it, really sparks and invigorates the imagination. These are great fun to read and to think and imagine with and Comins takes the reader through the ripple effects single differences might make. Two moons, as opposed to one, is just one example: how would it effect gravity and water and the development of life on the earth and how different might things be? With this, I'd recommend "What if the Moon Didn't Exist," also by Comins, filled with more imaginative essays of speculative physics and evolution. less

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