Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Rating:
Summary: Flatland + me = love
Review: An ingenius little story about life in the two-dimensional world of Flatland, whose citizens use a heirarchy based on their shape. A Square is A CHAUVANEST [otherwise he's A_CUTiE] - The whole of Flatland is rather elitist, in fact. Flatland is a 2-D world, vastly differing from the 3-D one we're use to, so it's impossible to judge them by 3-D moral codes. It's hard to find Flatlanders as anything less than an intriguing, likeable lot.
To sum up Flatland, it equals a very clever, enjoyable book.

Rating:
Summary: Buy A Different Edition
Review: Flatland is an excellent book: clever, insightful, and a joy to read. But this "dry bones" version is not the one to get. I bought this because I thought crediting the author as "A Square" was a cute idea, and while I still enjoyed the book, the main problem is that this one has TONS of typos. I forgave a few at first, but then I almost couldn't believe my eyes as I was running into at least one typo per page, throughout surprisingly long sections.

That was the only problem I had with this book, but for me, it was a big problem, and greatly detracted from my reading experience. If it doesn't sound like something that will bother you, by all means pick up this copy - you'll enjoy it. If you're like me, though, and you want the books you read to have survived a spell-check (at least!), then I highly recommend buying a more professionally produced edition.

Rating:
Summary: Superb intro to multi dimension universes
Review: I am a mathematician by training, and this little book is a marvelous introduction to the concept of universes with different numbers of dimensions. Once one works through flatland (2 dimensions) and a 1 dimensional world, the author discusses how a being from a 3 dimensional world would look if it moved through a 2 dimensional world. The only limitation I found with this book is that there isn't much to help make the transition in thinking to worlds with 4, 5 or more dimensions. Of course, trying to imagine such worlds runs us right into the limits of human imagination.

I also am a Christian, and found this work fascinating in trying to imagine how a being from a 4 or 5 dimensional world would appear upon entering or leaving our world. Perhaps "heaven" is hard to imagine because it has more dimensions than we can comprehend.