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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This comprehensive portrait of the Sun's second planet is a fascinating blend of ancient history and modern science. David Harry Grinspoon begins by showing why Venus has traditionally held a unique place in the human imagination (hint: it's not just because Venus is the brightest "star" in the sky). He also includes up-to-the-minute information from the Magellan spacecraft on what we know about Venus's super-hot atmosphere and pressure-cooked geography. Along the way, Grinspoon shares his geeky humor and makes deft pop culture references to R.E.M. songs, astrology and Zsa Zsa Gabor. The pictures--many of them in full- colour--are great, too. All the planets should have books like this one.
Product Description
"Grinspoon clearly loves the subject of this exemplary work, the unfolding of our knowledge of 'Earth's Twin.'...His book is full of quieky facts, references to popular culture, clever sililes, and inventive and revealing metaphors and analogies. Even the footnotes are entertaining". -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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The striking gleam of Venus hanging low and bright in our morning and evening skies, outshining all but the Sun and Moon, has demanded the attention of ancient and modern sky watchers, inspiring religious and scientific wonder. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The striking gleam of Venus hanging low and bright in our morning and evening skies, outshining all but the Sun and Moon, has demanded the attention of ancient and modern sky watchers, inspiring religious and scientific wonder. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
A very good introduction to Venus from our early ideas about the planet, our increase in knowledge thanks to the advent of the space age. The book contains aside from spacecraft images, easy to understand diagrams that better explain metrological and geological processes going on on the planet. A good read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
An important book that's fun to read
25 Feb 2003
Format:Paperback
Anyone that wonders why humans should continue to invest in space exploration--especially important at this time of tragedy with the Columbia mission--will find many answers in this excellent book. Grinspoon is one of those rare writers that enthralls us with the mystery and wonder of science, while at the same time not shying away from, or diminishing the complexities of scientific discovery. He describes with clarity why studies of other planets are important endeavors in their own right, as well as for our continued understanding of our own planet Earth.
All readers will gain an appreciation from Grinspoon for scientific discovery: how it builds with improving data from insights that at first seem remote and uncertain into solid foundations for better understanding of issues such as global warming on earth. Volcanology, plate tectonics, acid rain, and planetary climatology are all discussed in detail, as well as the more esoteric phenomena of planet formation and extra-terrestrial life. While the later topics might be argued as to their importance with regard to current problems on our planet, Grinspoon makes excellent connections for studies of the former issues on Venus, and their impact to our knowledge of our own home planet. Anything that significantly improves our understanding of global warming, plate tectonics (earthquakes), etc., is worth a significant and continuing investment. Venus Revealed is great book in many respects: lack of a bibliography is the only fault worth mentioning. (And I, for one, loved the often hilarious footnotes!) Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A good work of comparative planetology
30 Oct 2001
Format:Hardcover
Besides a excellent historical and scientifical synthesis of the Venusian system, this book does a good job at comparing the three main terrestrial planets, from the astronomical, physical, geological, atmospheric, etc. point of views. This is very refreshing because Venus is often overlooked in most books, that usually focus more on the binary comparison of Mars vs the Earth, and, in many ways, Terra is actually closer to Venus than Mars.
The text itself is clear, accurate and very entertaining to read (especially the footnotes!). Everything is based on scientific facts, except the last chapter, that digresses a little too much from the main subject, but it's ok.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Outstanding!
13 Dec 1998
Format:Hardcover
Venus Revealed by David Grinspoon is one of the best popular-level astronomy books of the 1990s. It is full of substantial information, yet is entertaining and suspenseful. In this regard, it resembles books such as Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne; The Alchemy of the Heavens by Ken Croswell; and Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos by Dennis Overbye. Venus Revealed traces astronomers' knowledge of the planet Venus--from ancient times, when it was merely a beautiful object in the morning or evening sky, to the era of telescopic observations, which gave rise to fanciful speculations about life, and finally to the modern era of spacecraft, which revealed the true nature of Venus: a dry, torrid world with an atmosphere 90 times thicker than Earth's. Two minor complaints about the book: the numerous footnotes are often silly, and the book lacks a bibliography. Venus Revealed is definitely a lot more appealing than its inhospitable subject.
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