Yzabel / January 19, 2019

Review: When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11

When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy MetalWhen the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal by Philip Moriarty

My rating: [rating=5]

Blurb:

There are deep and fascinating links between heavy metal and quantum physics. No, really!

While teaching at the University of Nottingham, physicist Philip Moriarty noticed something odd, a surprising number of his students were heavily into metal music. Colleagues, too: a Venn diagram of physicists and metal fans would show a shocking amount of overlap.

What’s more, it turns out that heavy metal music is uniquely well-suited to explaining quantum principles.

In When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to Eleven, Moriarty explains the mysteries of the universe’s inner workings via drum beats and feedback: You’ll discover how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle comes into play with every chugging guitar riff, what wave interference has to do with Iron Maiden, and why metalheads in mosh pits behave just like molecules in a gas.

If you’re a metal fan trying to grasp the complexities of quantum physics, a quantum physicist baffled by heavy metal, or just someone who’d like to know how the fundamental science underpinning our world connects to rock music, this book will take you, in the words of Pantera, to “A New Level.”

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Why, oh, why did I take so much time to read this book? Well, alright, perhaps because I was busy reading other books to teach myself some physics principles, which, I admit, is never a bad thing when your physics classes go back to some, uhhhm, twenty years ago. At the very least.

I found this “metal + physics” approach to be a very intriguing and interesting one—all the more since the author injects a regular dose of humour into it, but never without a purpose (a.k.a. “how to discuss spatial periods using Stryper’s (in)famous striped pants as an example”). I suppose this approach may not work for everyone, but it definitely worked for me, probably because I never took myself too seriously even when dealing with serious things, because, after all, what does it matter, as long as we keep learning, right? Besides, it doesn’t harm when you can feel the passion shining through, and this was clearly the case here.

Overall, the topics broached here made a lot of sense. My own level in maths isn’t terrific, yet the author’s explanations were enough even for me to understand the principles and the equations he related to metal, harmonics, waves and strings, and so on. They don’t remain at such a basic level that they don’t bring much to one’s knowledge of physics (unless you’re already a post-graduate or someone working in that field already, in which case I suspect Fourier’s analysis of waves/patterns won’t seem such a wonder anymore—or will it?), and at the same time, they don’t stray into such abstractions that a beginner will completely lose their footing either. At any rate, I found it quite easy to picture phases when compared to a metalhead moving in a mosh pit…

Seriously, where was Professor Moriarty when I was studying physics at school? (Alright, alright, probably still doing his Ph. D., I guess.)

Yzabel / September 13, 2015

Review: Pop Sonnets

Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favorite SongsPop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favorite Songs by Erik Didriksen

My rating: [rating=5]

Blurb:

The Bard meets the Backstreet Boys in Pop Sonnets, a collection of 100 classic pop songs reimagined as Shakespearean sonnets. All of your favorite artists are represented in these pages–from Bon Jovi and Green Day to Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé, and beyond. Already a smash sensation on the Internet–the Tumblr page has 50,000+ followers–Pop Sonnets has been featured by the A.V. Club, BuzzFeed, and Vanity Fair, among many others. More than half of these pop sonnets are exclusive to this collection and have never been published in any form.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Clever, very clever.

And in proper rhyming structure *and* iambic pentameters (yes, I counted; not for every single sonnet, but I still counted, just to make sure).

This collection of 100 famous songs—some dating back to the mid-20th centuries, some much more recent—revisited as Shakespearian sonnets was very funny to read, as well as interesting: the poetry does respect the form, appropriates some lines from actual plays (“the winter of our disco tent”), and translates modern concepts into Elizabethan wording. Guitars become lutes, cars become coaches… However, the content of the songs is very easy to recognise. Here’s an example from Roxanne by The Police:

“Pray, do not put those bawdy vestments on
or paint that vulgar rouge across thy face;
thou needest not those wanton garments don
nor with that ruddy brush thy cheeks debase.
I beg thee to this sordid life forego:
turn not a trick, but prithee turn the page!
O, dear Roxanne, thou dost not need to go
into that den of sin to earn thy wage.”

Compare with the song’s lyrics, and there you have it. In general, although the sonnets don’t include *all* lines (Bohemian Rhapsody, for instance, would be hard to translate in only 14 lines), mostly they really fit their songs counterparts.

Of course, the “downside” is that, to fully enjoy this book, you have to a) be a Shakespeare geek of sorts, and b) know the songs and their lyrics. Without that, odds are it won’t be as amusing, or at least not more than “heh, nice”. On the other hand, it’s also a good opportunity to go and discover/listen to the songs one knows less.

I spent a merry good time reading this book, and I highly recommend it to whoever likes Shakespeare, famous songs, and wants to have a laugh. Not to mention to have fun with friends and/or try to find the real Shakespearian lines in there.

Yzabel / June 23, 2015

Review: Grunge Gods and Graveyards

Grunge Gods and GraveyardsGrunge Gods and Graveyards by Kimberly G. Giarratano

My rating: [rating=4]

Blurb:

Parted by death. Tethered by love.

Lainey Bloom’s high school senior year is a complete disaster. The popular clique, led by mean girl Wynter Woods, bullies her constantly. The principal threatens not to let her graduate with the class of 1997 unless she completes a major research project. And everyone blames her for the death of Wynter’s boyfriend, Danny Obregon.

Danny, a gorgeous musician, stole Lainey’s heart when he stole a kiss at a concert. But a week later, he was run down on a dangerous stretch of road. When he dies in her arms, she fears she’ll never know if he really would have broken up with Wynter to be with her.

Then his ghost shows up, begging her to solve his murder. Horrified by the dismal fate that awaits him if he never crosses over, Lainey seeks the dark truth amidst small town secrets, family strife, and divided loyalties. But every step she takes toward discovering what really happened the night Danny died pulls her further away from the beautiful boy she can never touch again.

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

The title is a bit misleading, as there are indeed ghosts and graveyards, but don’t expect literal gods to appear, and take those (as well their songs, linked to each chapter) for what they are: a tribute of an era gone by, as short as it was intense. I think this is the kind of story whose appeal will definitely vary *a lot* depending on the people: if you were a teenager in the 90s, it will resonate a lot differently than if you were born earlier or later, and didn’t approach that period the same way that we did, or didn’t live through it at all. (And I say “we” because the characters in this book, should they be alive in our world right now, would be a couple of years younger than I, not more. I will confess to being highly biased, due to my own memories of those years and the bands I used to listen to as well.)

In other words, amidst the teenage angst and drama, lies nostalgia, which fits very well with how Lainey will never get back what she had with Danny—just like the Lady in Blue will never get what other younger women had, stuck in time, doomed to become more and more transparent, then vanish.

There’s romance, but not too much, and it doesn’t trample the actual plot: good.
There’s music and a lot of name-dropping, but I thought it was well-integrated enough, and didn’t feel awkward: good.
The small town setting: stifling, difficult to hide anything for long, family secrets… Good.
Strong 90s vibes (no cell phones, bands and brands from that time…): check.
The law-related side of the story: I don’t know enough to US law to tell whether that part was true to actual laws or not. It seemed believable, so… good enough for me. Also, corrupt officials aren’t so often a theme in YA novels: nice change.

This novel had an intense side to it, sometimes too much, in that what happened to Lainey, the way she was treated, bordered on too unbelievable to be true. It’s hard to reconcile the idea of such a mean environment (not only the high school one) to what I knew when I was 17. We had cliques, and people who were more popular than others, but never did things stoop down to such a level. Maybe it does in some places, and I just happened to be in a normal enough high school? Maybe it’s the way schools are shown in novels and series, because otherwise it’d just be too boring to read about and watch. There were a few moments when all the angst and drama felt like too much to bear… yet it was precisely also what elicited my reactions, even though they kept going from notsalgic to annoyed, from glad to angry. Had this story left me indifferent, it would’ve been something else.

There were some stereotypes: the mean queen bee, rebellious teenagers, and Lainey came off as a little dull and too tempted to easily give up at times. However, she didn’t do it in the end, learnt to stick to her guns, went on when even the people closest to her seemed to have deserted her… and the clichés weren’t as annoying as they are in other stories, because several characters were actually deeper than they appeared at first, and had more to their personal stories than met the eye.

Conclusion: 3.5 to 4 stars. Not exactly the novel I expected, as there were less ghosts and a more complex plot anchored in very real matters. I think that was better, all in all: it avoided veering too much into paranormal romance-only territory, which wouldn’t have been as satifying for me.

Yzabel / November 20, 2014

Chamber of Music

Violins, pipes and cellos,
Orchestras, choirs and solos,
Songs to remember,
Songs to forget,
Songs to unmake the universe…
And songs to put it all right.

Have a seat in the Chamber of Music. These thirteen stories will take you to distant lands of faerie lords, lovelorn angels, plucky skyship pilots and plague-ravaged scavengers. They will guide you through our dark histories, our heartbreaks, our losses and revenges; our triumphs, escapes, recoveries and redemptions. No matter where, when, or whose story is being told, this collection will inspire and thrill you with the transformative power of music.

That’s right, here’s a new PSG Publishing anthology, following the theme of “music” in many variations.

Also, look at that cover!

Music is the one thing every human community on earth has in common. It is so fundamental to human experience that it is part of everything we do: music is part of our entertainment, or therapy, our expression and our ritual. We send it into space to someday meet distant life and we play it for our livestock to improve their produce, we use it seduce our lovers, to inspire our troops, to carry our messages and to ease our passing. It is part of who we are.

This, the second annual short story collection from PSG Publishing, contains the work of thirteen authors from seven countries writing in a variety of genres and styles. Featuring new stories from Charlotte Ashley, J.D. Carelli, Emerald Delmara, Dorchi Dreen, Kim Fry, Yzabel Ginsberg, Tim McFarlane, Ken Magee, Miloš Petrik, J.B. Roger, C. M. Rosens, Natasha Rowlin, and Adam Sigrist.

The proceeds from sales of this collection will be donated to Musicians Without Borders, a global network organization using the power of music for healing and reconciliation in areas torn by war and conflict.

You can buy Chamber of Music worldwide: