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The Planets
by Dava Sobel
The author of Galileo's Daughter returns with a series of essays about the planets and other objects in our solar system (yes, including Pluto), each featuring differing styles and approaches.
Viking, 288 pages
10/11/2005
$24.95
ISBN: 0670034460
Nonfiction
Essays
Science & Nature
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Daily Telegraph Justin Marozzi
In prose that is by turns lyrical and wry, and always filled with an infectious sense of wonder, [Sobel] moves engagingly through our solar system in chapters that are potted planetary biographies.
Library Journal Denise Dayton
Once again, best-selling author Sobel (Galileo's Daughter) brings science to readers across the spectrum. Her writing is vivid and poetic as she looks at each planet, including the sun and moon, from various scientific and cultural perspectives. [1 Aug 2005, p. 118]
Publishers Weekly
This resonant and eclectic collection--informative, entertaining and poetic--is a joy to read. [25 Jul 2005, p. 57]
The Spectator Andro Linklater
It is a bonus to be reminded so vividly of the infinite beauty and frailty of the world and our place in it.
The New York Times Book Review Marcia Bartusiak
For newcomers to planetary astronomy, "The Planets" offers a nimble summary of the latest findings on each planet's features and geology. For those who avidly followed the journeys of the Mariners, Voyagers and Vikings through interplanetary space, it lets us fall in love with the heavens all over again.
Boston Globe Anthony Doerr
[Sobel] bring[s] a sense of wonder to [her] writing that makes [her] marvelous company--a belief that the universe is utterly enthralling, worth investigating with every breath, before our brief time on Earth is up.
Boston Globe Peter Bebergal
Mixing science, biography, mythology, and even astrology, Sobel offers an inspiring view of our celestial neighbors.
San Francisco Chronicle David Perlman
This is a splendid and enticing book, filled with fact and fancy and compelling enough to keep any reader alert to the next planetary missions to be launched by the space agencies of America, Europe, Japan and one day for sure, by China too. Stay tuned.
Kirkus Reviews
Thoroughly readable: not a dry recitation of facts--though the facts are there--but a lively exploration of the historical and cultural meaning of the planets. [15 Jul 2005, p. 783]
Wall Street Journal Oliver Morton
Like many presentation boxes, "The Planets" seems likely often to be bought as a gift for others; perhaps it could be thought of as a selection of shiny tree ornaments as much as a box of wonders or chocolates, and it may well have been conceived with that seasonal similarity in mind. If so it is a testament to Ms. Sobel's acumen that a wide range of readers will enjoy being given it. It is a testament to her clear joy in communicating what moves her that for many of them it will read like a gift from the author herself.
Daily Telegraph Alexander Masters
The Planets isn't popular science, it's the step before: it's serenading science.
Chicago Sun-Times Fred Bortz
Part memoir, part anthology, part short-story collection, part anecdotal gossip and part reverie.
Entertainment Weekly Joan Keener
An incantatory serenade to the solar system.
The New York Times William Grimes
Ms. Sobel, the author of "Longitude" and "Galileo's Daughter," has aimed "The Planets" squarely at a mass audience receptive to the romance of the heavens, ready to have its mind boggled by weird and wonderful facts, and eager to coo and trill over verbal baby pictures of peppy little Mercury and seductive Venus.
The Independent John Morrish
It is hard to imagine a better picture of the dangerous and inhospitable nature of our solar system, where the existence of any form of life, let alone one capable of travelling to other worlds, is nothing less than a miracle. The book is also a timely reminder of the fragility of the little green spacecraft on which we are all passengers.
The Independent John Gribbin
I have to confess the style is not one I relish--it smacks too much of eating a whole box of soft chocolates, with no hard centres ... If you do like soft centres, don't be put off by me
USA Today Dan Vergano
Keeping the spotlight on... science might have rewarded readers at least as much as personal takes on planets.
Los Angeles Times Ursula K. LeGuin
Sobel, acting as the force of gravity, has pulled together a piecemeal mess of disparate bits of information and made a more or less whole thing. It isn't a rock planet, or a gas giant, but it is a pleasant, undemanding, often tantalizing, sometimes exciting book. [30 Oct 2005]
The Economist
At her best, Ms Sobel blends together anecdote, science and history in a confection of elegant prose... Unfortunately, Ms Sobel's essays are a little hit-and-miss.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Dan Falk
The Planets gives us some good science and some good history.
Unfortunately, Sobel never seems to know what to include and what to leave out, in what order to present the material, and in what voice to tell the story. [22 Oct 2005]
The Guardian Patrick Moore
There is not enough astronomy to satisfy the astronomer, not enough history to satisfy the historian and not enough poetry to satisfy the poet ... Despite these criticisms, The Planets is a very agreeable read. It is an ideal book to take with you on a long aircraft flight.
 The average user rating for this book is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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