Rating: 
Summary: Clever, wide-ranging overview of modern physics and math
Review: Stewart takes the conceit of a descendant of Flatland's A. Square being given a similar tour as her ancestor and uses it to explain modern physics from a somewhat mathematical perspective. Stewart covers all the bases: curved space, quantum physics, the big bang, and so on. It was somewhat entertaining but a bit basic so far as I was concerned. Also, some of Stewart's wordplay will go completely over the heads of those who aren't familiar with British English - a serious deficiency in a book intended for a wide audience.Still, I'd recommend the book for someone wanting a lightweight introduction to some of the key topics of modern physics.
Rating: 
Summary: Unimaginative and nowhere near Flatland
Review: The book advertised as a sequel to Flatland but lacks everything Flatland has. There is basically no plot, except some bare bone stuff to lead from one explanation of dimensional concepts to the next (what is intended to hold the semi-essays together is Vikkie Line a grand-grand-child of Abotts A.Sphere from Flatland ... Vikkie emerges into Spaceland and meets Space-Hopper who explains things line n-dimensions or n-fractional dimensions, etc.) The explanations are bit like essays, their style somewhere between childlike and the stuff you read in mass market science magazines. Now and then the auther manages some invent some witty and funny play of words, especially when it comes to the characters, so you can't help but smile in a couple of places. So the book may be ok if you are not from a technical profession and looking some easy to read math and science articles, e.g. to read a chapter on the bus each day, and if you do not expect any useful plot. But nontheless, the book comes nowhere near Flatland. Compared to that it makes the impression of just having been stiched togeteher from a couple of magazine essays.
Rating: 
Summary: Annoying Tone
Review: The book deserves credit for making the reader aware of multidimensionality around us right now. The author has an annoying habit of writing people's names as First name followed by family name with no spaces, like Ianstewart. This is not innovative or clever, just annoying. Like a speedbump. Also bizarrely chose to use 'People' instead of 'Person'. Similar syntatical choices slowed the reader down. If you want a better layman's tour of geometry that does not insult your intelligence, try the 'Shape of Space' by Jeffrey Weeks. Admittedly, these books cover somewhat different ground, but Weeks' format is far more engaging. What made the original Flatland interesting to this reviewer was the realization that *we* live in Flatland. I got no such sense of wonder after reading Flatterland. The whole book felt rather forced to me.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasing Guided Tour to Higher Dimensions
Review: The heroine Vikki Line is a great-great-granddaughter of the narrator A. Square of Edwin Abbott's classic book, "Flatland." The teenaged Flatlander heroine goes to a tour to higher dimensional worlds guided by a Space Hopper. She visits the Fractal Forest, Topologica, Platterland, Cat Country, the Domain of Hawk King, etc., and learns, together with the reader, about many concepts of modern mathematics and physics. The author Ian Stewart, a winner of the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Medal for furthering the public understanding of science, writes the story in the style of "Alice in Wonderland" by using enjoyable wordplay and putting exotic and cute creatures he invented to familiarize the difficult concepts. Some topics are treated in a manner to give the reader good understanding, but others are described only superficially. There are simple errors in giving a number for fractal dimension and describing the behavior of the decoherence time. (I leave it to the reader as exercises to spot them.) The author explains the particle nature of the photon by the uncommon use of the process of electron-impact photon emission, while the orthodox explanation uses the inverse process, i.e., the photoelectric effect. In spite of these minor defects, this is a joyous read for holidays. The heroine is depicted as such a clever, adventurous and charming linear being (near the end of the story she comes to know that she is something superior to a line) that I think how I would have been happy if I had had a girlfriend like her in my youth. Her guide and tutor, the Space Hopper, often shows a big grin, reminding us of the popular physicist and good lecturer Richard Feynman. In the short last chapter, the reader feels it important that more of us, "Planiturthians," become aware of the possible ten-dimensional reality of our physical universe, which Vikki learned at the final stage of her tour. Thus, I would like to recommend this book to every curious mind.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasing Guided Tour to Higher Dimensions
Review: The heroine Vikki Line is a great-great-granddaughter of the narrator A. Square of Edwin Abbott's classic book, "Flatland." The teenaged Flatlander heroine goes to a tour to higher dimensional worlds guided by a Space Hopper. She visits the Fractal Forest, Topologica, Platterland, Cat Country, the Domain of Hawk King, etc., and learns, together with the reader, about many concepts of modern mathematics and physics. The author Ian Stewart, a winner of the Royal Society's Michael Faraday Medal for furthering the public understanding of science, writes the story in the style of "Alice in Wonderland" by using enjoyable wordplay and putting exotic and cute creatures he invented to familiarize the difficult concepts. Some topics are treated in a manner to give the reader good understanding, but others are described only superficially. There are simple errors in giving a number for fractal dimension and describing the behavior of the decoherence time. (I leave it to the reader as exercises to spot them.) The author explains the particle nature of the photon by the uncommon use of the process of electron-impact photon emission, while the orthodox explanation uses the inverse process, i.e., the photoelectric effect. In spite of these minor defects, this is a joyous read for holidays. The heroine is depicted as such a clever, adventurous and charming linear being (near the end of the story she comes to know that she is something superior to a line) that I think how I would have been happy if I had had a girlfriend like her in my youth. Her guide and tutor, the Space Hopper, often shows a big grin, reminding us of the popular physicist and good lecturer Richard Feynman. In the short last chapter, the reader feels it important that more of us, "Planiturthians," become aware of the possible ten-dimensional reality of our physical universe, which Vikki learned at the final stage of her tour. Thus, I would like to recommend this book to every curious mind.
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable sequel
Review: This book is a sequel to Edwin Abbott's "Flatland" and makes its heroine a granddaughter of the hero of Abbott's book. Some people may find his playing with words excessive (his heroine is named "Victoria Line," combining the fact that she is literally a geometric "line" with the name of a subway line in London) but the book manages to cover a lot of territory in an amusing manner. I can't say I _learned_ a lot from the book, because I already knew most of its subject matter, but I'd certainly encourage someone who wanted to learn about curved spaces and higher dimensions to read it. The ultimate accolade: _After_ I had read it from cover to cover, I bought a copy, just so I'd have it in my own library.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable sequel
Review: This book is a sequel to Edwin Abbott's "Flatland" and makes its heroine a granddaughter of the hero of Abbott's book. Some people may find his playing with words excessive (his heroine is named "Victoria Line," combining the fact that she is literally a geometric "line" with the name of a subway line in London) but the book manages to cover a lot of territory in an amusing manner. I can't say I _learned_ a lot from the book, because I already knew most of its subject matter, but I'd certainly encourage someone who wanted to learn about curved spaces and higher dimensions to read it. The ultimate accolade: _After_ I had read it from cover to cover, I bought a copy, just so I'd have it in my own library.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever
Review: This book is great; it casually brings some complex concepts out to the reader in a comprehensive and entertaining way. The writing is perfect for the context, as are the diagrams -- for the people who seem to dislike format used, I'll bet it's due to a lack of intelligence and sense of humor. Overall, his clever play on puns makes the journey through multiple dimensions and geometries even more exciting.
Rating:
Summary: A Geometrical Travel Guide
Review: Though =Flatland=, by Edwin Abbott^2 100 years ago, was exclusively about 2 things: satirizing Victorian English society and explaining a 4th Euclidean dimension, Ian Stewart's =Flatterland= is about all sorts of geometries that mathematicians play in: finite projective geometries, in which there are a finite number of points and lines, interacting in specific ways; discrete binary geometries, which described digital encoding and the error-correcting codes used in things such as CDs and DVDs; hyperbolic geometry, in which there are and infinite number of line parallel to a particular line, all going through the same point (as opposed to the usual one parallel line); and on and on and on. However, as a math grad student, I found the treatment too shallow, the puns too egregious (especially when I saw them coming) and too unrelenting (though now I've got plenty of math jokes to add to my arsenal), and some of the descriptions are somewhat confusing -- the only reason I knew what was going on is that =I knew= all these subjects from mathematics before. And, being a physics major in my undergrad life, I wasn't thrown off by the veering into modern physics topics. This book is more like a travel brochure - letting you know what exciting sights are to be found in the strange lands of Geometry - but not giving you much of an experience of what's there. I think this book would be a great gift for a child who's interested in math - sure, they won't understand alot of it (and they'll miss many of the puns), but then my favorite math book, =Godel, Escher, Bach=, was given to me when I was 12, and I grew into it over the years through rereading it and learning more stuff in school. I can see this book as inspiring kids to learn more about strange concepts in math, but it would be nice to have a list of followup books for doing some =real= exploring as opposed to this travel guide. (I recommend Rudy Rucker's book =The 4th Dimension= for those who want to do more thinking about the 4th dimension). If you're a math teacher, this book can come in handy in providing was to visualize some very odd concepts in math. And, again, there's the puns that you can try out on your class. For those interested in getting a feel for what math is about, there's actually a great secret revealed inside the book - just what makes something a geometry. The answer doesn't seem evident when one compares the odd spaces and places visited by Victoria Line and the Spacehopper, but it does become clear. I will not give that secret away, but I will give another secret away that is also shown by the book - yes, mathematicians love to play with their math.
Rating:
Summary: Do not expect Flatland II
Review: When I first began to read this book it really was not enjoyable. The main reason was that I expected another flatland. Really the book feels nothing like flatland(which I love),b ut rather more like a modern mathematical Alice in Wonderland. By the end of this book, once I came to grips with the books tone I really did enjoy it. (But will probably enjoy it more once I take some of the Math classes that this book speaks of)
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