Icarus at the Edge of Time
by Brian Greene
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This is an unusual book. It’s a retelling of the Greek Icarus myth, about a young man who uses wings made of wax to fly. Unfortunately, he flies too high, his wings melt, and he falls to his death. Fortunately, this version isn’t so depressing. Icarus at the Edge of Time is set on a spaceship in the future, and this Icarus is a teenage genius who flies too close to a black hole. He survives, but things don’t work out quite the way he expected.
Icarus at the Edge of Time looks like a book for kids – it’s a board book with only 44 pages, and there are only a few sentences per page. Mostly, it’s illustrated with photos from the Hubble Space Telescope. The story isn’t particularly complex, either. However, it’s a neat little story, and it does involve actual physics. It might be a good book to read with your children, if you want to get them talking about science, but I think it’s neat enough that you can enjoy it as an adult, too. I did.
The author, Brian Greene, has written a couple of big books about physics. If you are expecting more of the same, except for kids, you’ll be disappointed. If you are looking for a serious sci-fi version of the Icarus story, you’ll be disappointed. It’s somewhere in between the two. It uses the Icarus story to introduce a little science and have some fun along the way.
I linked to Brian Greene’s official college website at the top of this review, but the book itself has another site at icarusattheedgeoftime.com.
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