... you have a black hole, a region of the universe that those outside it can never see into — unless we decide to cross that event horizon and take a look. Levin’s book is dressed up as a 'survival guide' to doing just that. It’s a conceit that doesn’t have a lot of mileage because, as she is forced to admit fairly early on, black holes aren’t survivable. It hardly matters: so much about them demands we suspend disbelief that the fact you are being simultaneously shredded and pulverised by gravity during the ride is justa detail ... Just like its subject this book is a seemingly miraculous compression of a vast amount of material into an implausibly small space. It’s packed with revelations. As you approach the event horizon, for instance,you’ll reach a point where spacetime is so distorted that light orbits the hole — with the entertaining result that you could look straight ahead and see your own back ... this mind-bending little book is still, unavoidably, a difficult read at times. It’s a hugely enjoyable one, though. At the end of it you will know a lot about black holes, but you won’t understand them. At least you will have the comfort of knowing that nobody else does either.
... illustrated by painter and photographer Lia Halloran, [this] is an exuberant, flashcard-size book of 13 chapters with, naturally, a black cover that draws you in, as it depicts an astronaut similarly attracted toward a mirror-like sphere, perhaps exploring it. Levin takes us on a virtual adventure to black holes, a safe trip that we can actually survive as long as we stay far enough away. Her writing is clear and so colloquial that it sometimes seems as though she’s right there chatting with you, telling a story in a conversation so compelling that you hardly notice the complexity of the actual physics. That’s her trick of talking about science to a lay audience ... Not only is Levin a brilliant physicist, she’s a gifted writer, sensitive to language and its nuances ... From her new book’s first chapter 'Entrance' to its final one 'Exit,' Levin’s writing is heightened by an often poetic voice ... this is a science book for poets.
Black holes are in need of something of a makeover, argues astrophysicist Janna Levin in her new book, Black Hole Survival Guide , which revisits how we think about black holes ... One issue, she said, is the perception that black holes mercilessly suck in any matter in its gravitational grasp ... This slender volume will get the reader quickly up to speed when it comes to black holes, without equations or torrents of jargon.
A short, lively account of one of the oddest and most intriguing topics in astrophysics ... No writer, Levin included, can contain their fascination with the event horizon, the boundary of the black hole where space-time doubles back. Nothing inside the event horizon, matter or radiation, can leave, and anything that enters is lost forever. Time slows near the horizon and then stops. The author’s discussions of the science behind her subject will enlighten those who have read similar books ... An enthusiastic appreciation of a spectacular astrophysical entity.
... with palpable excitement, Levin goes over facts and features of black holes, from the event horizon and the bizarre quantum mechanics involved when black holes 'evaporate,' to their surprisingly common occurrence throughout the universe; the Solar System currently orbits one at the center of the Milky Way, while simultaneously being pulled toward another in the Andromeda galaxy. She shares plenty of vivid details ... Readers couldn’t hope for a more fascinating intro to a family of cosmic objects whose existence promises still more wonders to be discovered.
