Thom reviewed Soonish by Kelly L. Weinersmith
Review of 'Soonish' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
An investigation into potential technologies that could affect your future, from cheaper space flight to brain computer interfaces. Well researched and current, but with far too much added humor and web-style comics.
These are bigger-picture ideas, not simple components like driverless cars or retinal scanning. Each has a thumbnail sketch of where we are now, possibilities and concerns, and how this tech could change the world. In the conclusion, the authors express their biggest fear is being called inaccurate, and this book seems to pass that test.
There is a final chapter which lists ideas they thought of including but didn't. In that section they described their process - write up the idea, then inject humor and cartoons. This latter injection was the major drawback for me. Cartoons that explain a topic or its drawback would be fine, but the vast majority of comics in this book do not. Many …
An investigation into potential technologies that could affect your future, from cheaper space flight to brain computer interfaces. Well researched and current, but with far too much added humor and web-style comics.
These are bigger-picture ideas, not simple components like driverless cars or retinal scanning. Each has a thumbnail sketch of where we are now, possibilities and concerns, and how this tech could change the world. In the conclusion, the authors express their biggest fear is being called inaccurate, and this book seems to pass that test.
There is a final chapter which lists ideas they thought of including but didn't. In that section they described their process - write up the idea, then inject humor and cartoons. This latter injection was the major drawback for me. Cartoons that explain a topic or its drawback would be fine, but the vast majority of comics in this book do not. Many contain just the authors and a joke or humorous situation - these feel very forced.
I get that one of the two authors is a successful web comic guy, and some humor in a science book is welcome - but this book goes beyond over-the-top.