bengriffin's reviews
2677 reviews

I read this a few months ago and already barely remember the story. I do remember it being a bit pretentious and trying too hard to be profound. The artwork is stunning, however, both kinetic and dreamy at once. I wouldn't buy it, but it was a pleasant enough way to pass an hour on the till at work.

I need more of my friends to have children so I can buy all the cool kids books I find for them, otherwise I'm gonna have to start impregnating people myself. Whilst this book is just slightly too American, I love the artwork here, I love the message, and I love the humour. It didn't occur to me that there would be controversy around this book. Your kids are smarter than you are, educate them don't shelter them. Buy this book.

It seems most of the negative reviews around this book focus on the lack of scientific details or things that were missed out. I fnd this strange because the book never claims to be an indepth explanation of the principles of electricity, but rather its history and the human stories behind each important discovery, and it does this very well. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about Alan Turing, the development of radar, and found the story of Alexander Graham Bell and his wife incredibly moving. The writing style is easy to read and digest and rattles along nicely. It doesn't get bogged down in the science but has enough knowledge behind it to present what it does well and intrigued me enough to make we want to read more on various subjects in greater depth. As an introduction to the subject it's a great place to start, or if science isn't your thing then there's enough of a human element packed with romance, subterfuge and adventure to appeal to the majority of readers.

I wish the book were as good as its cover or the premise would have you believe. Sadly, I found the characters rather flat, and for every beautifully done piece of imagery there's a clumsy or overwrought piece not far away. There's even the occasional image which is far too modern and therefore breaks the spell of the setting itself. I imagine it wasn't the easiest thing to translate so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, but I found myself wanting to like it more than I actually did, and as most of it has since slipped from memory, it makes it difficult to recommend.

Whenever I tell anyone about this book they pull a face and act like I'm weird. Then they have a flick through. Then they can't put it down. It is a morbid and fascinating subject and the book presents each letter with minimum comment, allowing each author to speak for themselves. This becomes most fascinating when you read one thing in the note, and then a completely different reality in the facts which follow. There are some genuinely tragic stories in here, but they seem to be outweighed by the ones who just seem incredibly selfish, and in some cases despicable. I wish there were more published on this taboo subject and ideally from a wider range of sources (i.e. different countries and backgrounds) but this is an excellent start and the way it handles the difficult subject matter is excellent.