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Review
The Magic of Reality provides a beautiful, accessible and wide ranging volume that addresses the questions that all of us have about the universe...written with the masterful and eloquently literate style of perhaps the best popular expositor of science, Richard Dawkins, and delightfully illustrated by Dave McKean. What more could anyone ask for?
--Lawrence Krauss, author of Quantum Man, and A Universe from Nothing.
It's the clearest and most beautifully written introduction to science I've ever read. Again and again I found myself saying "Oh! So that's how genes work!" (or stars, or tectonic plates, or all the other things he explains). Explanations I thought I knew were clarified; things I never understood were made clear for the first time.
--Philip Pullman
From the first sentence it reads with the force and fluency of a classic ... a luminous, authoritative prose that transcends age differences.
--The Times
A charming and free-ranging history of science. --Sunday Times
I wanted to write this book but I wasn't clever enough. Now I've read it, I am. --Ricky Gervais
Stunning in appearance...the book is a triumph. --New Scientist
Prodigiously illustrated and beautifully designed ... I cannot think of a better, or simpler, introduction to science.
--The Guardian
Stunning in appearance ... the book is a triumph. --New Scientist
Prodigiously illustrated and beautifully designed ... I cannot think of a better, or simpler, introduction to science. --Guardian
This book may be exactly what's needed to increase science literacy for readers of all ages. --Publishers Weekly
The text is persuasive whatever one's age ... the chapter on rainbows has the clearest explanation of how they appear that I've ever seen.
--The Financial Times
Dawkins uses a simple, brilliant technique highly appealing to young and old. --The Washington Post
This book is primarily aimed at teenagers, but plenty of adults will get a kick out of it too...McKean's drawings bring the text to life brilliantly ... Dawkins writes convincingly about everything from chemistry to statistics.
--Independent on Sunday --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
--Lawrence Krauss, author of Quantum Man, and A Universe from Nothing.
It's the clearest and most beautifully written introduction to science I've ever read. Again and again I found myself saying "Oh! So that's how genes work!" (or stars, or tectonic plates, or all the other things he explains). Explanations I thought I knew were clarified; things I never understood were made clear for the first time.
--Philip Pullman
From the first sentence it reads with the force and fluency of a classic ... a luminous, authoritative prose that transcends age differences.
--The Times
A charming and free-ranging history of science. --Sunday Times
I wanted to write this book but I wasn't clever enough. Now I've read it, I am. --Ricky Gervais
Stunning in appearance...the book is a triumph. --New Scientist
Prodigiously illustrated and beautifully designed ... I cannot think of a better, or simpler, introduction to science.
--The Guardian
Stunning in appearance ... the book is a triumph. --New Scientist
Prodigiously illustrated and beautifully designed ... I cannot think of a better, or simpler, introduction to science. --Guardian
This book may be exactly what's needed to increase science literacy for readers of all ages. --Publishers Weekly
The text is persuasive whatever one's age ... the chapter on rainbows has the clearest explanation of how they appear that I've ever seen.
--The Financial Times
Dawkins uses a simple, brilliant technique highly appealing to young and old. --The Washington Post
This book is primarily aimed at teenagers, but plenty of adults will get a kick out of it too...McKean's drawings bring the text to life brilliantly ... Dawkins writes convincingly about everything from chemistry to statistics.
--Independent on Sunday --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
A stunning new title from the author of The God Delusion
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
120 of 129 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reality will out,
By
This review is from: The Magic of Reality: How we know what's really true (Hardcover)
I am glad that Dawkins has decided to write a popular science book to include a younger audience. The clarity and humour with which he deftly expounds factual reality (is there any other kind), deserves to be accessible to all.I read the 265 pages of this book within 24 hours of having received it, not through lack of content, rather because the content was so logical, amusing and beautifully illustrated. Award winning Dave McKean should take some credit here. The Dali-esque depictions of imaginary creatures from other planets were some of my favourites. Pictures aside, if I find a book dull, I fall to sleep very quickly. Despite being familiar with much of the content, I was riveted. The format of each chapter deserves a mention. 1)Start with a popular misconception about how something was once thought to be explained. 2)Demonstrate the poverty of the myth's ability to generate new and real information. 3)Observe the peculiar, mythological attempt at logic, laugh hard 4)Proceed with the actual, testable and scientific explanation. Where a question lies outside the boundaries of current understanding or Dawkins personal expertise, he is quick to point this out. Given the title of the book, I was pleased to see that no attempts were made to fudge answers (a standard I would expect), though at times I do suspect a little false modesty. Being critical, I think a problem that a book like this must face is where to start, because the assumption of prior scientific knowledge would risk losing the target audience. Therefore, popular science aficionardos may find this slow to start. However, the apparently randomly ordered chapter subjects build well upon each other to reveal some of the most interesting content later on. Any author writing on the nature of truth is bound to expect controversy and I expect the proponents of the myths concerned will be 'up in arms' (again.) This book doesn't suggest that faith in the supernatural cannot feel magical to the believer: rather it emphatically illustrates the exhilarating, magical awe experienced by discovering life's grandeur.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful book,
This review is from: The Magic of Reality: How we know what's really true (Hardcover)
A thoroughly excellent and charming read. I would highly recommend this book to anybody regardless of age or experience. As a young man with a fairly good knowledge of popular science I still found myself learning a lot of knew things, and even if I hadn't, the sheer clarity of thought and beauty of the writing would make it more than worthwhile. Not to mention some outstanding illustrations from Dave Mckean.It should be on the shelves in every household for so many reasons, but I can imagine for parents looking to educate their children in critical thinking then this would be perfect. I certainly would have liked a book like this to have been available in my younger years! I think particularly the structure of the book provides an excellent framework for the content, with each chapter asking one of the profound questions which we have all asked at some point. A must buy.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent overview of science and myth,
By
This review is from: The Magic of Reality: How we know what's really true (Hardcover)
Dawkins, most ably assisted by his illustrator, sets himself a major task, and succeeds. In clear, flowing, enjoyable language he describes the current state of scientific knowledge on everything from the origin of the universe to the evolution of life. Even more importantly, he places our knowledge in the context of how we acquired it, what evidence it is based on, and in an even-handed discussion gives an overview of mythological, pre-scientific explanations, from both Judaeo-Christian and other sources. Finally, he conveys the deep emotional (some would say spiritual) satisfaction that comes from reality-based exploration of our wonderful universe.I found two small errors. His attribution of Hubble's law to Hubble's observations is incorrect, as is his assertion that elements heavier than iron are made only in supernovas (Hubble used observations by various colleagues, and his law was formulated earlier by de Maitre; r-process nuclei are formed in supernovas, but s-process nuclei in massive "asymptotic branch" red giants). Why only four stars? Because I consider his final chapter to be a serious error of judgement. Here the subject matter is not any area of science, but belief in miracles, which he attacks on predictable Humean grounds. I completely agree with him in this, but think it would have been far more educational to leave this exercise to the reader, when the reader is ready for it.
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