The Planets

i read it. it's a book

Beautifully written. Current state of the science amazingly and understandably presented.

Great Service from the sender, quick and clean book.Dava Sobel writing compelling story. This is a must read for all amateur back yard astronomers.

When I began approaching this review I was going to start by saying "The Planets" is not a scientific book. That take wasn't going to be a criticism, simply an observation. There are no data presented in charts and tables, not one photo or illustration - nothing really quantified. And yet Sobel succeeds in a profile of the planets by weaving what they are into a cultural tale. After all, the majority of humans who ever lived had no real idea what those wandering lights were. Sobel juxtaposes planetary knowledge gained robotically in the last half century - knowledge that can seemalmost pedestrian to us - with the long-ago myths and god-like status given to planets as an explanation for them was sought.I once interviewed people for a print publication. As any good interviewer knows, the point is not to simply ask a list of questions and check them off. The key is to begin a conversation with the subject. This process takes longer, as what will be the interview must be found in the taped conversation, and as background information about the subject is fitted around his or her words. So, really, this is what Sobel did - she interviewed the solar system.Although I agree Sobel can be verbose at times, other reviewers have criticized the book's lack of explicit presentation. I think they miss the point. I am not a lay person regarding the subject, but I enjoyed learning about the historically cultural aspects of our neighbors. As one example, Sobel's description of tidal action contains no coefficients, and yet it is an elegant and accessible depiction. This book can be a good starting point for the lay person.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the premise of this book. It is not intended as a scientific journal elaborating on the most detailed of newly arrived astronomical data. It is informative in a pleasant, albeit, pedestrian way. It is a quick stroll across our solar system, skipping from planet to moon, to comet, to asteroid - like skipping a stone across the surface of a broad deep pool of knowledge. I learned many new things and had my memory jogged on items that had sifted through my memory.It was worth while getting up to speed on the latest discoveries of Viking, Voyager, Galileo, Cassini and other of our space probes. It was also interesting to read a little background of famous astronomers who dedicated their lives to gazing at the heavens.Nevertheless, this book lacks the passionate detail of Sobel's other works. Both "Longitude" and "Galileo's Daughter impelled the reader into the historic drama that she was presenting. There is no particular hero in this descriptive book and that may well a problem. It is more a high school reader chockablock full of facts and information. There is no detail, no in-depth analysis, no personality, no drama here. It is, perhaps, too dispassionate a subject for her keen writing skills.