Customer Reviews

Flatterland: Like Flatland Only More So

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

In Flatterland, Vicki Line, the granddaughter of the adventurer in Flatland, is taken by a multidimensional being named Space Hopper to visit various mathematical places. Vicki and the reader is given a guided tour of modern mathematics and physics. She is educated in noneuclidean geometry, fractals, topology, and other topics of mathematics. In physics, she learns about relativity, cosmology, and quantum theory. In each realm, Vicki meets and converses with its inhabitants. These inhabitants possess the characteristics of their realm and, along with SpaceHopper, become Vicki's mentors to help her understand a particular branch of mathematics.

I recommend this book to nonmathematicians. Some of the subjects are challenging but all the subjects are enjoyable to read. I did not give this book five stars because Stewart's inventive naming of dates is a distraction.

"Flatterland" is billed as the sequel to the book "Flatland" and like most Hollywood sequels, "Flatterland" doesn't measure up to the original. On the subjects that I do know something about (e.g. Doppler shifts) there are minor technical errors, but not of any significance. However, in my opinion, the book fails because it is too much like a Hollywood production. In an attempt to appease everyone, the book performs a "Dante like tour" (the book's author's words, not mine) of the huge realm of mathematics and beyond while not attempting to explain anything in any detail. To my mind this attempt at "drive by learning" simply does not work. The book would be better served by addressing fewer subjects at a slightly more detailed level. Also, (like a Hollywood production) I could have done without the author interjecting his political views throughout the book.

"Flatterland" is a very thought-provoking book by Ian Stewart. It is the sequel to "Flatland". I would call it a mathematical fiction book. It is about a girl from Flatland, a 2D world. She is called Victoria Line (all women on Flatland are lines). She goes on a journey through many different dimensions and universes with a being called the Space Hopper. She learns much about math on the way.
One of my favorite universes was Platterland, a 2D hyperbolic universe. While in Platterland she learns many things about hyperbolic geometry, including that straight lines appear to be curved, squares can have five sides and five right angles, and things shrink as they get closer to the edge of the universe!
Another one of my favorite universes was Topologica, a 3D topologic universe. While there Victoria learns about topology and how two-holed doughnuts can turn into coffee cups! She also meets Moobius, a cow shaped like a Möbius strip (a 2D shape with only one side), who gives milk in Klein bottles! Klein bottles are bottles in which the top curves around and goes back into the bottle!
Throughout the book there are many funny puns, right down to the name of the main character. Victoria Line is a subway line in London! The puns go very deep. One pun is about two people called Twindledum and Twindledumber. They are named after Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass"! Another character is called the Hawk King, named after Stephen William Hawking!
I really enjoyed reading this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes math and knows a little bit about it or just enjoys reading funny books! It helps if you have read "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass". Many of the puns come from them. This book is definitely not for young kids though, some parts were way over my head. All in all, I understood most of it-and it was great!

"Flatterland" would have been a fairly good read had it not been for the heavy-handed treatment of mathematics. That's saying a lot considering I was a physics/astronomy major in college. Don't get into this book unless you intend to spend some time with it.

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.

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.

I wish I would have read something else by Ian Stewart before this book as I am sure that anything else he has written must be better than this. The mathematical context is fair but is a hodgepodge of mathematical musings having little to do with the original Flatland, like the title implies. Often the textual explanation absolutely requires a drawing or equation before the concept is tackled. In this way the book is poorly laid out with diagrams coming after the concept has been read (publishers fault and completely confusing to the reader). The chapter on fractals seems to be first draft filler. Perseus publishing should hold most of the blame for this text being in print.

The most troubling part of this book is the neverending cutesy play on words and banal dialog that hurts the readers train of thought in trying to grasp a concept more than it helps. If you don't feel embarrassed for the writer when coming across such passages you are likely still in elementary school. By the end of the book you will be able to foresee these passages dotted between the 'meat' of the text so as to avoid them outright. This book could have been written in a quarter of the space since the other three quarters reminds me of bad puppet theater.

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)

While an interesting introduction to many aspects of modern geometry and physics, this book actually has diddly-doo to do with Flatland. Beyond a few superficial trappings, there is very little about the two-dimensional world, and our two-dimensional protagonist, Victoria Line, is constantly thinking, speaking and acting in ways far more reminescent of a three-dimensional being. Which makes sense, really -- after all, the book is intended to introduce a lot of geometrical ideas to three-dimensional humans, right? Right. So then why bother setting it in Flatland in the first place. (Other than to attract a larger set of potential buyers by pretending to be a sequel, that is. For a true sequel -- one which succeeds not only in introducing the reader to 20th century geometry and physics, but also in enlarging the social world created by Abbott AND in actually depicting a two-dimensional being -- stick with Burger's "Sphereland".)