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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superiffic, scientific, 22 Jan 2004
This fantastic book presents a broad overview of the more exciting areas of science circa 1983 (and thus genetically-modified food, for example, is presented uncritically as an excellent cure for third-world hunger), filtered through Hugo-winning Nicholl's diverse and enormous knowledge of science fiction. Although other books have taken the same approach to popular science, most notably the various 'Real Science in Star Trek' titles, this was a unique book in 1983.It predated the popularity of cyberpunk and was written right at the end of the enviro-disastrous 1970s, and the overall tone is quite gloomy; especially a chapter which outlines the various esoteric calamities that might befall the Earth, culminating in colliding black holes. The coverage of science fiction's doomed attempts to explain faster-than-light and time travel in the context of relativistic physics is clear and mildly depressing. Overall the book is a neat antidote to the gosh-wow technology books of the time, with their endless recycling of NASA concept space wheels and Apple II screenshots. Physically the book is a chunky hardback with a cover by, I believe, Chris Foss; inside, it's glossy, with mostly colour photographs of dead fish, Japanese people in capsule hotels, microcomputers, and stills from 'A Clockwork Orange' and so forth. 'Star Wars' doesn't feature very highly and 'Blade Runner' had not yet come out. The final chapter compiles a number of common sci-fi goofs - space pirates with slide rules, hyper-intelligent robots co-existing with room-sized mainframe computers - and ends with the suggestion that the space age might already have run its course. As such the book is right on the cusp of post-modern self-doubt, what with Apollo being only a decade old at that point.
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