Science Of The X Men

Rating:
Summary: From a Scientist's P.O.V..... uncredible
Review: Honestly, I've skimmed through this book. It's probably most interesting to X-Men fans with a background in science, but for the common X-reader...it's a non-essential.

I read through the sections on my favorite characters, but it couldn't hold my interest enough to keep reading about my non-favorite characters. And right now it is on my bookshelf, collecting dust and waiting to be donated to a used bookstore.

Rating:
Summary: Not for those with lacking scientific knowledge...
Review: I am the first person to admit that my science knowledge is limited. It ends on a college freshman physical science level. I thought that this book could give me a better grip on science by using a topic I enjoy to explain it. Well, the science is poorly explained for those of us who are science dummies. I tried to keep up but just couldn't. And on top of that the text is dry. The most interesting part of the book are the introductions for each character. I will not lie to you, halfway through the book I started to read only the introductions and skipped the rest. I am glad that I borrowed it from a friend. Don;t waste your money, and if you just REALLY REALLY need to read it because you are an X-Men fan then check your local library.

Rating:
Summary: for X-fans only
Review: i didn't check the science of the book to see how accurate it was or was not. i don't think that is really the purpose of the book. it's here for fans of the x-men to think on what gives them their powers. and it is mildly entertaining in its attempt. the writing bogs down here and there and gets a little boring but overall it is entertaining. there are a few xmen that are left out that would have been nice to read about (gambit, bishop, cannonball, toad, avalanche, mystique) and there are some that are questionable in their inclusion (scarlet witch, unus the untouchable). the technology and alien races section are extremely weak. the technology offers no diagrams and both sections are merely synopsises and don't go into the how. still, for an x-fan, it is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best.
Review: I had anticipated more from this book. Quite a few important characters are left out, and also quite a bit of the X-Men information is wrong. Seems like they did plenty of science research, but hardly any X-Men research.

Rating:
Summary: cool and provocative
Review: Not just for geeks--fun look at the x-men's paradigms and how they hold up as science.

Rating:
Summary: Typos, Bad Editing and Worse Science
Review: Several reviewers have commented on the lack of editing of this book and I agree. The repeated paragraphs and self-contradiction were infuriating. I counted at least four places where the text contradicted itself within 3 pages.

But I would not be writing this review if it weren't for the abysmal science writing. I will resist quoting the numerous glaring factual errors I ran across (OK I have a science background) and will not name the even more frequent statements which seemed to make no sense at all (Quanta are smaller than atoms. Huh?) But force, energy and power are confused while trying to explain the units, Evolutionary theory is thrashed, and fresh pseudo-science is provided to replace the already existing pseudo-science of the comics.
The only correct factual material appears to be cut and pasted from the Encyclopedia Brittanica and reads with less grace.

If you want to read about the thresholds of science read Charles Sheffield or someone else who gets their facts straight. If you want to read about the Marvel characters stick to Stan Lee.

Rating:
Summary: Wait for a second edition
Review: The editing in this book is abysmal, from verbatim repetitions to errors like "here motions" instead of "her emotions" (Storm section). While this doesn't affect the content, it makes this book a frustrating read.

Several of the character sections are rather unfocused and follow tangents of tangents. Some sections discuss scientific phenomenon that have nothing to do with the mutants' powers, but are merely related topics. While some readers may be interested in these facts, I personally wanted more focus on the mutant powers themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Wait for a second edition
Review: The editing in this book is abysmal, from verbatim repititions to errors like "here motions" instead of "her emotions". While errors like this seem minor, they make this book a frustrating read. Several sections are very unfocused: rather than attempting to explain a mutant's powers, those sections describe various tangentially-related scientific phenomena. While this may interest some readers, I would prefer better focus on viable explanations for the powers. Overall, the idea behind this book has a lot of potential, but the reality is disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Mutant Physics 101
Review: Think of it as a comic book lover's guide to basic science. This book doesn't so much debate the plausibility of a mutant's powers as it explains the laws of physics that would govern the use of them. It's overly simplistic in some places and needlessly complex in a few others, but mostly it's an easy, straight-forward read. Out of the 19 mutants that they profile they include all the originals (Jean, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel), some odd choices (Scarlet Witch, Unus the Untouchable) and miss some good opportunities (Banshee in particular). The section on psi-powers is probably the weakest, but the strong analysis of Wolverine and Magneto mostly make up for it. The character bios seem very accurate and detailed and the one error that I noticed is more likely a problem with editing than with the authors. On the whole it's a much better book than I expected it to be.

Other mutants included: Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Quicksilver, Mastermind, Colossus, Havok, the Blob, Xavier, Storm, and Rogue plus sections on Cerebro and the Sentinels

Rating:
Summary: cool and provocative
Review: This book is in dier need of an editor, it has bad grammer and often repeats sentences and sometimes even Paragraphs. Occasionally this book even is hard to read. Although this book is not completely useless. This book is slightly interesting, it has nice notions and can at some times be very scientific ( hense the name) which may lead to some excitment to make you keep reading. If your an X-men Fan, this book will go good with your collection and may spark some intrest, disregarding the frequent errors.