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mlynes_author's review against another edition
3.0
"Over our Heads" by James Sinclair is an enigmatic work, one that does not fit into a specific niche. The closest genre, in my experience, would be a type of reference guide or perhaps a 'Time-Life' survey book, in large coffee-table format with lots of beautiful pictures and illustrations. This work is a step away, in that it does not have the graphic or magazine type layout so familiar to readers of "The Universe" series of Time-Life books, but does contain similar information.
Within this body of work the reader is presented a series of short articles, written in 'every-man' type terms, that illustrate scientific concepts. These articles are laid out in a logical and somewhat progressive order, describing various aspects of the physical world from its tiniest building blocks to some of its largest structures. The articles are mostly factual through for those with a solid scientific background several important concepts are glossed over or even in some cases incorrectly portrayed.
I gave this book a rating of three stars. It is written in a clear concise style, but as is typical of works of this type, it is a bit of a dry read without much by the way of grand description or ground-breaking theorizing or conceptual work. It reads rather like a reference work or a Wikipedia article in places and the reader's attention will surely wander unless they have a specific interest or need. In my opinion this work would benefit greatly with the addition of full color illustrations or well done pictures. Breaking the work into two or more volumes with a more in-depth exploration of large interesting topics might also be a path of improvement. All that said, there are nuggets of good information and a younger audience might find them to be informative and useful.
Within this body of work the reader is presented a series of short articles, written in 'every-man' type terms, that illustrate scientific concepts. These articles are laid out in a logical and somewhat progressive order, describing various aspects of the physical world from its tiniest building blocks to some of its largest structures. The articles are mostly factual through for those with a solid scientific background several important concepts are glossed over or even in some cases incorrectly portrayed.
I gave this book a rating of three stars. It is written in a clear concise style, but as is typical of works of this type, it is a bit of a dry read without much by the way of grand description or ground-breaking theorizing or conceptual work. It reads rather like a reference work or a Wikipedia article in places and the reader's attention will surely wander unless they have a specific interest or need. In my opinion this work would benefit greatly with the addition of full color illustrations or well done pictures. Breaking the work into two or more volumes with a more in-depth exploration of large interesting topics might also be a path of improvement. All that said, there are nuggets of good information and a younger audience might find them to be informative and useful.
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