The Stars of Heaven by Clifford Pickover, Oxford University Press, 拢17.99, ISBN 0195148746
HOLD on to your hair, earthlings. Humanoid Bob and Mr Plex, a mouth with legs and arms, are about to take you on a magical journey through the Universe! Meet the triple-nostrilled Miss Muxdr卢卢zol. Learn the secret of life (it鈥檚 7.6549!) and much, much more!
Clifford Pickover suggests you join this wild company in his new book, The Stars of Heaven. Bob, who has two faces, is a teacher and guide and has equally strange assistants to call on, such as ants who can write English. Luckily, he has both humour and patience. Plex and Muxdr卢卢zol are pupils eager to learn. It all adds up to an admirable astronomy course ranging from stars as the raw material of humanity to stars as a stupendous mystery and inspiration for dreams and spirituality.
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It鈥檚 eccentric, excellently written and splendidly illustrated. Bob occasionally talks as if he鈥檚 reading from a textbook, but the science fiction sections鈥攖hey are a love story, too鈥攁re aimed at keeping attention. On the whole they succeed, though some readers might find the technique irritating. They should be mollified by the 鈥淪ome science behind the science fiction鈥� pages that regularly appear.