Review by New York Times Review
EVEN in the Television Universe, warp drives, androids and photon torpedoes all seem to have vague scientific plausibility, especially today when robotic vacuum cleaners and laser pointers have become commonplace. But what place does physics have in a fantasy world in which a teenage girl and her friends spend their formative years fighting vampires, demons and "killer snot monsters" with magic and martial arts, all in a contemporary alternate reality known to its fans as the "Buffyverse"? To find out, Jennifer Ouellette turns the literary equivalent of an electron microscope on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spin-off, "Angel," and comes up with a lighthearted yet informative primer, "The Physics of the Buffyverse." Blending fizzy pop culture with serious science, the book illustrates many common theories and laws of physics using examples from the plots of these two defunct cult television shows. "Metaphor can be a powerful tool for communicating abstract concepts," Ouellette writes, "and the Buffyverse offers a unique lens through which to view the precepts of science through fresh eyes." If there's anything the two series did well - besides whipping Evil with quips and roundhouse kicks - it was metaphor. Joss Whedon, the creator of both shows, has said the original "Buffy" series "was intended as a metaphor for how high school can seem like hell to teenagers." In Whedon's world, a young girl in every generation is chosen as "The Slayer" to protect the world with her enhanced strength and skills by whacking vampires and other assorted baddies. Ouellette, a science writer and a fan of both shows, cites many examples of scientific principles at work in the fictional realm: "A high school girl becomes invisible after months of nobody noticing her - a clever twist on the quantum notion that observation determines the outcome of a subatomic-scale experiment." Some associations to the show's action are a bit of a stretch, but once a connection is made, many work well enough to keep the reader going on to discussions of complex topics like wormholes and time loops. The author even associates physics with the main character's origins: "Entropy dictates that every time the primordial power is transferred to a new Slayer, a little bit of energy must be lost as heat in the transformation, because no energy transfer can be 100 percent efficient." The examples in the book are so tightly tied to the TV shows, though, that one really needs to be familiar with each series to make sense of it all. "Clearly," Ouellette writes, "in the thousand years she spent as a vengeance demon, Anya picked up a little physics." But it may not be so clear to anyone not already a Buffyverse fan. The book does not delve too deeply, but biology, electricity, cryogenics, string theory, temporal anomalies, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Schrödinger's cat and thermodynamics are all touched on in the context of "Buffy" and "Angel" plot points. Examples are often reinforced with descriptions of recent scientific experiments and developments. With a title like "The Physics of the Buffyverse," most of the uninitiated will probably take a pass on the book, but it makes an earnest effort to introduce the laws of physics to couch potatoes in a relatively painless way. For fans who find their inner scientists awakened (or even nudged a bit), it includes a bibliography for serious physics reading, along with a list of pertinent "Buffy" and "Angel" episodes for those with the complete DVD box sets of both shows handy. J. D. Biersdorfer is the production editor of the Book Review and writes the Q & A column for the Circuits section of The Times.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
Vampires and demons might be regarded as the stuff of fantasy writers' imaginations, but science writer Ouellette finds that real-world science can indeed be applied to the universe of the cult TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Despite the title--which owes a debt to the 1995 tome The Physics of Star Trek--Ouellette doesn't limit herself to physics; she also takes a look at the biological and chemical workings of the Buffyverse. Ouellette explains the ins and outs of vampire physiology, discusses why Buffy's fighting techniques are successful, and even delves into robotics and AI technology as seen on the show, and in our world. Not everything is scientifically sound--Ouellette argues against the possibility of telekinesis based on the amount of energy it would require--but she presents a strong case for many of the seemingly impossible aspects of the world Buffy and her friends inhabit. All the while, she makes the science accessible, guaranteeing that fans of the show will be receptive. --Kristine Huntley Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
There's science beneath the fantasy in the beloved television series about a teenage girl battling monsters in her California exurb, insists this lightweight pop-science primer. Science writer Ouellette (Black Bodies and Quantum Cats) hopscotches through the fictive world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel to rationalize their outlandish goings-on and mine heuristics that illustrate scientific principles. She compares exotic demons to real animals, draws lessons on Newtonian kinematics from Buffy's kickboxing, susses conservation laws in Buffy's economy of magic and compares Buffy's fight against evil to mankind's doomed struggle against entropy. Many Buffyverse plot devices (teleportation, time loops, alternate dimensions) lead Ouellette to advanced physics concepts (wormholes, relativity, quantum entanglement) that are equally weird and esoteric. Here, unfortunately, the author's sketchy disquisitions fall back on strained metaphors ("Just like the couplings... between the various characters in the Buffyverse, each iteration of string theory is connected to another through various dualities") and opaque analogies ("[i]t's best to think of imaginary time as a direction of time that runs at right angles to real time") that laymen will find as baffling as a runic scroll in a dead language. Too often, Ouellette's treatment comes across the way science does on Buffy-as a breezy, jargon-filled, unenlightening gloss on some fanciful spectacle. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Winnowing science from magic, history, mythology, and fiction, science writer Ouellette (Black Bodies and Quantum Cats) looks at physics through the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel TV series. Despite the focus on physics, Ouellette also deals with monster biology, robotic technology, the mathematics of entropy, and a variety of other issues. Her science writing is strong, and her discussions of history and folklore interesting; however, readers who are not fans of Buffy or Angel are likely to tire of the extended descriptions of series episodes. The complex scientific descriptions and serious tone will also turn off fans who would rather simply suspend disbelief and enjoy the show. That said, there are many dedicated fans-among whom books like Lawrence Krauss's The Physics of Star Trek would be popular-who might enjoy picking apart the scientific details of their favorite sf and fantasy shows. Ouellette's book should attract a similar following. An optional purchase for public and academic libraries.-Barbarly Korper McConnell, California State Univ. Lib., Fullerton (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by New York Times Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
