Ross Blocher's Reviews > Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe

An excellent book! What a great premise: "Bad" astronomer Phil Plait takes you on a tour of the universe to visit various locations, and explains what it would look like and feel like to BE there. Along the way, he explains the related physics and discoveries that came with our observations. This is one of those books that could have replaced (or certainly supplemented) my high school physics book, and I would have learned and retained a lot more. Plait's enthusiasm is infectious, and he proudly carries his nerdiness, pedantry and wordplay with good humor. I read the physical book while listening to the audio book, which is an ideal combo: you get Plait's passionate delivery and hear his pronunciations, but also get to take in the various spellings and diagrams. It's also fun to see how he incorporates the frequent footnotes into the reading, or modifies the text for a listening audience. I recommend either experience.

I had originally written a much longer review with extensive details and examples, but Goodreads is a buggy piece of refuse and deleted it.