Flatterland: Like Flat Land Only More So: Amazon.co.uk: Ian Stewart: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

With Flatterland, Ian Stewart returns with more fantastically mind-bending mathematical puzzles. In 1884, an amiably eccentric clergyman and literary scholar named Edwin Abbott Abbott published an odd philosophical novel called Flatland, in which he explored such things as four-dimensional mathematics and gently satirised some of the orthodoxies of his time. The book went on to be a bestseller in Victorian England, and it has remained in print ever since.

With Flatterland, Stewart, professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick, updates the science of Flatland, adding literally countless dimensions to Abbott's scheme of things. ("Your world has not just four dimensions," one of his characters proclaims, "but five, fifty, a million, or even an infinity of them! And none of them need be time. Space of a hundred and one dimensions is just as real as a space of three dimensions.") Along his fictional path, Stewart touches on Feynman diagrams, superstring theory, time travel, quantum mechanics and black holes, among many other topics. And, in Abbott's spirit, Stewart pokes fun at our own assumptions, including our quest for a Theory of Everything.

You can't help but be charmed by a book with characters named Superpaws, the Hawk King, the Projective Lion and the Space Hopper, and one dotted with doggerel such as "You ain't nothin' but a hadron / nucleifyin' all the time" and "I can't get no / more momentum". And, best of all, you can learn a thing or two about modern mathematics while being roundly entertained. That's no small accomplishment, and one for which Stewart deserves applause. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Overly cute sequel to British mathematician Edwin Abbott's 1884 classic "Flatland", from the "Scientific American "recreational math columnist. In his introduction, Stewart (Mathematics/Warwick University) says he got a "bee in his bonnet" to continue Abbott's whimsical fantasy of life experienced in a two-dimensional universe. Though there have been other "Flatland "sequels, Stewart ("Life's Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living World", 1998, etc.) was fascinated with the way Abbott used science, in the form of the looming threat of a Fourth Dimension and the eerie visitation of a Promethean circle, to laugh at the narrow-mindedness of English Victorians. He also wanted to have some fun: in "Flatterland", set a century after the events of "Flatland", the precocious adolescent Vikki Line learns that her great-great-grandfather Albert Square (a Square who learned that he, too, could become a Circle) died in prison. "He was the black shape of the family," her father, Grosvenor Square, recalls. Vikki stumbles on a copy of "Flatland "(books are actually a series of dots and dashes on a wire), decodes a cipher that helps her hook up a Virtual Unreality device to her computer, access the Interline, discover a smiley-faced Space Hopper and embark on a tour of Planiturth, where, among other things, "the fundamental unit . . . is the philosophon, a unit of logic so tiny that only a philosopher can split it." Vikki must thwart the anti-intellectual (and antifeminist) suspicions of the older generation as she learns about topology, gets a quick course in quantum mechanics, zooms off to visit black holes in the Domain of the (Stephen) Hawk King and eventually gazes in rapture at existence viewed in a ten-dimensional supermanifold. Cloying, pun-filled tour of late-20th-century mathematics, physics and cosmology: high twee for the science set. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Pretty good sequel to Flatland - rather a long time to wait! 17 April 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I found this book very compelling... I'd thoroughly recommend this book, especially to the mathematically minded and those that enjoy having their imaginations stretched. The action starts with the descendants of the inhabitants of Flatland. Vicki, a teenage girl (one dimensional of course) stumbles across the secret of calling beings from outside her 2D world. Her subsequent trips take her through many strange worlds: multi-dimensional, fractional dimensional, and just plain weird. If you liked Ian Stewart's other books you'll like this one, but it's pretty different from the others as well. It's full of mathematical puns and is a really good way of manking you think about some of the strange spaces that exist in the relams of mathematics. If you've already discovered Flatland or Planiverse you'll just have to get this book.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Flatterland - 25 April 2001

When I first struggled with the concepts of multi-dimensional space a friend recommended I read "Flatland" by Edwin A. Abbott. It was a best seller during the reign of Queen Victoria and I didn't expect to find it in a high street store. However, much to my delight, I found it in the mathematics section next to a book called "Does God Play Dice" by Ian Stewart. I bought them both and they had a profound effect on my choice of career. In "Flatterland" both my favourite subject and author have been combined in one book. Ian's style, both humourous and informative, brings the flatland characters into the context of this millennium and opens the readers mind to the rich complexity of the world of mathematics. The adventures of Victoria Line carries the reader through the book in an effortless ease. Ian is a winner of the Faraday Award, for the public understanding of science. His unique style carries the reader from chapter to chapter on a voyage that will enhance the readers understanding of some of the most challenging concepts and problems in mathematics. It may be a record for a sequel (over 100 years) but, having read it with the same enthusiastic delight as "Flatland" and "Does God Play Dice", it is not hard to picture a high street store 100 years from now with "Flatterland" still on the best seller list.

Dr. G. Keith Still (Head of Mathematical Modelling - Starlab, Brussels)

Flatterland will get you everywhere 10 May 2011

By Al Terego

Format:Paperback

I have loved Edwin Abbott's book Flatland since I discovered it 40 years ago. It deals with some complex mathematical issues in a clear and entertaining way. I thought it said everything but I was wrong. Ian Stewart's Flatterland deals with even more complex issues in the same clear and entertaining manner. The heroine, Victoria Line, is engaging and the reader quickly becomes involved in her search. A masterpiece.