Fire in the Sky: Cosmic Collisions, Killer Asteroids, and the Race to Defend Earth by Gordon L. DillowMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
First off I'm fairly interested in asteroids; not sure why but they intrigue me. It's not like I go out looking for them, but I have read several fictional accounts of a "killer" asteroid and watched the popular movies on the same theme. Also used to watch the TV show about the guys looking for meteorite fragments called Meteorite Men. So when this book was coming out I was intrigued and definitely wanted to read the book.
Yet, I had a hard time with this book. It took me much longer than it should have to get through it, at nearly a month. The problem I had wasn't the material, it was the writing style. I just did not like the way the author presented the material. He wrote like he was trying to be a funny guy or something, making jokes. It was casual, way too casual, sort of gimmicky. I did not like it.
If it wasn't for the actual topic I would have stopped. I did take a break for a week or two, and upon getting back to it, almost stopped again, but I pushed on. I forced myself to keep reading. It actually got better in the later portion of the book. Too bad the entire book wasn't written similar to the last part.
The rating for this book is solely based on the topic and the structure of the book. I like the scientific history, the how and why scientists finally came around to accepting that massive asteroids have hit the Earth before, and one took out the dinosaurs. Next was what is being done in searching for the NEOs, Near Earth Objects, that could cause some problems if they hit Earth one day. I'm happy I stuck with the book, as I did find out information on this topic that I definitely wanted to know.
Maybe the writing style won't bother you as it did me, and if you have any interest in this topic, the material and coverage is good.
Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.
Related Fictional books read:
- Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - 2 stars : Read in Jan.2019
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - 3 stars: Read Oct-Nov.2016
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