- Hardcover: 232 pages
- Publisher: Westbridge; 1st Edition edition (April 1979)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0715376616
- ISBN-13: 978-0715376614
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.5 x 5.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,335,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
2080 notwithstanding, this book does very little to introduce the subject of a future war.
Sure, the author IS a scientist and sure, it was involved in weapon's research but apart the - very interesting, for 1979 - chapter on nuclear weapons, this book is absolutely lacking any data, nor it postulates any of the - now accepted - theories on future weapons and/or warfare.
Like too many physicists before him, Langford uses too many times the words "impossible", "unfeasible", "improbable" and so on, on various subject now widely accepted (and/or existing) like laser weaponry, electromagnetic artillery and other staples of "science-fiction" weaponry.
After reading the book the question arise: "How in the world did we reach our actual level of scientific development, if our own "men of science" do use so many often so many "imp-words"?
But the most risible aspect of this book is the author arguing at lengths in a - rather boring IMHO - discussion on the "very realistic" aspect of future warfare, like smashing planets with "planet-busting" asteroid-weapons and black hole generators... a really, really REALISTIC scenario, don't you think?
Not bad for a scientist who dismissed only a chapter or two before the reality of laser guns and particle small arms or the use of antimatter in warfare.
Sure, the author IS a scientist and sure, it was involved in weapon's research but apart the - very interesting, for 1979 - chapter on nuclear weapons, this book is absolutely lacking any data, nor it postulates any of the - now accepted - theories on future weapons and/or warfare.
Like too many physicists before him, Langford uses too many times the words "impossible", "unfeasible", "improbable" and so on, on various subject now widely accepted (and/or existing) like laser weaponry, electromagnetic artillery and other staples of "science-fiction" weaponry.
After reading the book the question arise: "How in the world did we reach our actual level of scientific development, if our own "men of science" do use so many often so many "imp-words"?
But the most risible aspect of this book is the author arguing at lengths in a - rather boring IMHO - discussion on the "very realistic" aspect of future warfare, like smashing planets with "planet-busting" asteroid-weapons and black hole generators... a really, really REALISTIC scenario, don't you think?
Not bad for a scientist who dismissed only a chapter or two before the reality of laser guns and particle small arms or the use of antimatter in warfare.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Poorly written
29 Sep 2005
Format:Hardcover
The Pros:
The author is a physicist, and so provides a solid analysis of the physical possibilities of tomorrow's wars.
The cons:
The author is a physicist, and can't write his way out of a paper bag.
There is some interesting material in here, but the painful writing style makes it hardly worth the effort. Frequent digressions and asides (like this one!) make the text difficult to follow. Key points are skipped over while others that to me seem obvious are covered in excessive detail.
Worse, I think, is that the analysis is just not very imaginative or insightful. The technological possibilities are explored adequately, but the political consequences of those possibilites are handled clumsily, if at all.
I found this book frustrating. The author obviously knows his stuff, and I kept thinking "this SHOULD be interesting".
But it's not.
The author is a physicist, and so provides a solid analysis of the physical possibilities of tomorrow's wars.
The cons:
The author is a physicist, and can't write his way out of a paper bag.
There is some interesting material in here, but the painful writing style makes it hardly worth the effort. Frequent digressions and asides (like this one!) make the text difficult to follow. Key points are skipped over while others that to me seem obvious are covered in excessive detail.
Worse, I think, is that the analysis is just not very imaginative or insightful. The technological possibilities are explored adequately, but the political consequences of those possibilites are handled clumsily, if at all.
I found this book frustrating. The author obviously knows his stuff, and I kept thinking "this SHOULD be interesting".
But it's not.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Very interesting...
16 Dec 2003
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
After a small, but very detailed history of warfare Mr. David Langford dives right into the military technology of the future, the many ideas from science fiction and if they would really work. He looks at lasers and other energy weapons, nuclear wars, missiles and space weapons, biological and chemical weapons, fuel air explosives, space stations and spaceships, mass drivers and wars between planets (and even solar systems). He even talks about black holes and knocking planets into the sun!
He not only examines how something might or might not work, but how much it might cost. Even if it could work, would we want to pay the funds, the man hours or the energy to build or work such a weapon? And what happens when we start running into aliens? I think a lot of later science authors took some of his ideas too.
Great for fans of science fiction, future studies or military studies. He even asks if we can live with some of the choices that we might be forced to make!
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