Rating: 
Summary: BEYOND BEAM ME UP SCOTTY........
Review: Author Laurence Krauss is Chairman of the Department of Physics at Case Western Reserve. He is also the author of several other books including THE PHYSICS OF STAR TREK. This book explores such topics as alien invasions, time travel, quantum reality and more in movies like X-Files, Star Wars, Indepedence Days and in other aspects of popular culture and life today. Divided into 15 chapters at 190 pages (including index) it's a fairly easy read or maybe you'd like to listen on the audio version from Amazon.
It would have been great to include a glossary since those of us that don't have a physics graduate degree might enjoy glancing at that prior to reading the text. As science fiction quickly becomes science fact, this book belongs on any techie's shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't quite deliver
Review: For a book that says "Krauss explores these and other ideas of popular science fiction, from Star Wars to Independence Day, The X-Files and, of course, Star Trek" on its dust jacket, this book makes very few references to these films and TV shows.The book starts off great by talking about how the space ships in Independence Day would be quite impractical, but unfortunately it doesn't keep this up. In no time at all we're into probability and quantum mechanics, and very little of this material is related back to the aforementioned films and TV shows. At one stage the author states that he knows his view of the universe is correct because no evidence has appeared in the last 400 years to disprove the basic laws of physics, but just a few pages further on he explains how scientists were astonished to find that large Jupiter-size planets could exist close to a star, something that scientists previously thought was impossible. Later on the author states that quantum mechanics are the basic under-pinnings of the universe, but that nobody really understands how it all works. If this is the case then how can the author dismiss ideas such as faster than light travel?
Rating:
Summary: Nice, but first book was much better
Review: I am a big fan of books that use science to critically examine the (im)possibilities of Science Fiction. Lawrence Krauss did an excellent job in his 'Physics of Star Trek' book, but I am much less pleased by this sequel. Because this book is not focussed on one SF series, it lacks the structure of the first book. Krauss seems to pick out at random some elements of science commonly used in science fiction and again at random refers to some movies or books using them. While his analyses are usually sound and well written, they lack the thoroughness of the analyses in the first book. Where in the first book he examined every conceivable scientific road to make an SF phenomenon / machine work before considering it impossible, he now seems to stick to one or two explanations and when these don't work he discards the phenomenon / machine (e.g. faster than light travel or ESP). This leaves the reader with a lot of "Yes, but.." and "What if"'s. In addition, I found the very frequent referrences to other esteemed scientists who are all geniuses and are all performing ground breaking science becoming irritating after a while. A book like this should focus on the science at hand and not the people that perform it. Of course scientists deserve due credit for their achievements, but people shouldn't be presented like they are the best thing that has happened to this world since the invention of toilet paper. Such praise is always subjective and does not belong in a book that attempts to be objective.
Rating: 
Summary: This Is An Outdated Book!
Review: I don't care how respected this professor Krauss is or how many awards he has won, the physics information he presents in "Beyond Star Trek" is already out of date. In the past year, a mathematician named Oyiba has come up with equations for a Grand Unified Field Theory--with math that has been approved by Harvard and MIT professors--which would make most of the observations about the possibility for warp drive, telekenesis, ESP etc which Krauss makes obsolete. Although Krauss' observations about the ships in "Independence Day" are accurate, as are most of his long explanations about gravity and the electromagnetic field that can incidentally be found in any good high school or college textbook, or his projections for the energy and cost it would take for a ship to go to Mars, his most essential claims are the ones which are already being found obsolete. Basically, Krauss claims that the energy required to travel faster than light, move matter by telekenesis etc. would have to be equivalent to some tens of thousands of suns--which would be true were it not for this new Unified Field Theory which would make such things possible with *very little* conventional energy at all. He also smugly asks such silly questions as why a UFO would want to make sharp 90 degree right turns (answer: why don't you ask them?). In an era when books like "The Day After Roswell", written by the late (and highly decorated) Pentagon official Col.Philip Corso--with an introduction by Strom Thurmond, no less!--come out stating flat-out that most of our recent technology was indeed back-engineered from UFOs, you gotta wonder that *something* fishy is going on, and now that scientists and mathematicians like Oyiba are presenting us with information which would confirm our real X-Files, I think that one should read a book like "Beyond Star Trek" with as skeptical an eye as its author. In case you doubt me, I suggest you look up Oyiba's work (which is out there and for which he should be winning a Nobel prize or something).
Rating:
Summary: Beyond Star Trek doesn't go far enough
Review: I read Krauss' previous work "The Physics of Star Trek" which was very enlightning and held my interest. It was written from a layman's point of view and stuck to the task he set out to accomplish which was to show how the things we see in Star Trek could or could not happen. But in this work, Krauss goes farther to tackle discussions of the realities of physics when applied to components from other Sci-Fi story lines. In my opinion, this work falls short in its task of disprooving many of these components. His extensive discussions of ESP and of faster than light travel tend to become narrowly focused on assumptions that he disproved at the onset. Many of his discussions never deviate from one possible explanation and he seems to dismiss entirely discussions of possible unknowns that may make other explanations possible. I believe that he's taken on too much at once in this latest work. But on the plus side, his writing is good and his arguments are more or less sound and they progress well. His philosophical thoughts (at albeit rare times throughout the book) on science's bigger questions I found to be refreshing. And staying true to Sci-Fi fans everywhere he seems to operate on the assumption that anything could be possible while sticking to his classical physics training that dictates scientific methodologies and study.
Rating:
Summary: Believe the title
Review: It seems an immutable law of SF that sequels don't live up to the original work. Fortunately for Dr. Krauss, Star Trek proved an exception to that rule, and his own sequel borrows some of that magic, succeeding both on its own and in comparison to "The Physics of Star Trek". That being said, the book's title is significant. This is not a book about Star Trek, or even a book about SF in popular culture, but a book about science. The SF is there, but mainly as a springboard to discuss issues in physics, astronomy, and other sciences. And the issues are fascinating: Dr. Krauss explores the theoretical underpinnings of starship propulsion, ESP, and inter-species mating, all with the same careful, humorous style that characterized his first book. And as a bonus, you get one of the best explanations of the principles of quantum mechanics, translated into layman's terms, that I've ever read. But above all, believe the title. If you're looking for a catalog of science errors made by the writers of SF TV and movies, pick up one of the 'Nitpicker's Guides' assembled by Phil Farrand. If you want extra background material about the fictional worlds of Star Trek, the X- Files, or what-have-you, just browse through the SF section of your local bookstore (or Amazon)--the words are out there. But if you want a solid, entertaining look at the way things work on the real Planet Earth, then pick up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the original
Review: This book expands on the theme of the "Physics of Star Trek": namely drawing upon the science of today to ponder the validity and feasibility of the sci-fi science. Like its predecessor though somewhat to a lesser extent, this book suffers from a lack of vision by adhering to today's understanding of science (see my review for that book). The end result is still a readable and nice introduction to important questions in modern physics using science fiction as an example. I found this book somewhat less interesting than its predecessor. For one thing there is some repetition with "The Physics of Star Trek". Further, the most interesting issues have already been addressed in the earlier book, leaving the crumbs to this one. So, if you have read the first book, you might not be as excited by this one. Nevertheless it is still an enjoyable read. A word of caution, despite the "Star Trek" in the title, there is very little Star Trek in this book. Instead, the author expands the comparison to cover other cinematic shows like "X-files" or "Independence Day" (the "Beyond" part of the title). While this is OK and does not diminish the interest of the book, pure Star Trek fans who buy this book expecting to read about Star Trek will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the original
Review: This book expands on the theme of the "Physics of Star Trek": namely drawing upon the science of today to ponder the validity and feasibility of the sci-fi science. Like its predecessor though somewhat to a lesser extent, this book suffers from a lack of vision by adhering to today's understanding of science (see my review for that book). The end result is still a readable and nice introduction to important questions in modern physics using science fiction as an example. I found this book somewhat less interesting than its predecessor. For one thing there is some repetition with "The Physics of Star Trek". Further, the most interesting issues have already been addressed in the earlier book, leaving the crumbs to this one. So, if you have read the first book, you might not be as excited by this one. Nevertheless it is still an enjoyable read. A word of caution, despite the "Star Trek" in the title, there is very little Star Trek in this book. Instead, the author expands the comparison to cover other cinematic shows like "X-files" or "Independence Day" (the "Beyond" part of the title). While this is OK and does not diminish the interest of the book, pure Star Trek fans who buy this book expecting to read about Star Trek will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Good science, not much sci-fi
Review: This is an enjoyable, informative science book, wide-ranging from ESP(which he doubts)to quantum mechanics to the likelihood of ETs. All these things are common subjects of science fiction, yet unlike Krauss' earlier book, The Physics of Star Trek, in here he seldom refers to specific sci-fi stories. the first chapter ridicules the lack of science behind the film "Independence Day," but afterward it is mostly a book of science essays. It maintains a fairly complex level of discussion, yet is accessible to us non-scientists.
Rating: 
Summary: Hollywood lookout!
Review: This is an excellent book to help combat some of the myth and misinformation propagated by Hollywood. Anyone interested in how to discuss science with non-scientists should read this book.
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