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somewheregirl7's review
4.0
I have been eagerly waiting for this guide to the Uglies series for a while. It was a lot of fun to find out the background info behind the names in the series, more info about some characters and the Hoverboard manual was really cute. I liked the light science and tech stuff that is sprinkled throughout.
Westerfeld's tone is informal and friendly, as though he's just chatting with the reader. It makes me want to dive back into the books for the fiftieth time. It's safe to say I have a slight obsession with this series and the guide helped satisfy that itch for all too brief a time. I dearly hope Westerfeld someday revists Tally's world!
Westerfeld's tone is informal and friendly, as though he's just chatting with the reader. It makes me want to dive back into the books for the fiftieth time. It's safe to say I have a slight obsession with this series and the guide helped satisfy that itch for all too brief a time. I dearly hope Westerfeld someday revists Tally's world!
stiricide's review
3.0
It's a nice afterward to the Uglies series, if you were all in on that. I don't think I learned anything new, plotwise, but it was a nice little insight to where Westerfeld's mind was at while writing all of it.
apalubeskie's review
3.5
I did enjoy the history of the books. It wasn’t something I normally would read. It is a cool concept and not something usually written either.
classicallyzo's review
3.0
A cute companion to the Uglies series. Fun insight, definitely something to glance at if you are a fan.
valhecka's review
2.0
Westerfeld seems so pleased about being a geek that he forgets that it's important to get science right.
1) "The word 'nano' means 'a billionth'" - no, the word "nano" in today's culture probably means someone's iPod; the PREFIX 'nano' totally means a billionth, and yes, this is nitpicking, but it is actually really crucial to get it correct
2) "Current superconducting materials have to be kept, like, a hundred degrees below zero" - this sentence is scientifically useless without saying which temperature scale you're using, and even then it's not correct: "high-temperature superconductors" operate at around 90K, which is -183 deg C, which is nearly -300 deg F. (Recent HTS operate at, oh, -18 deg C. But those were only developed in 2009, after the publication of this book.)
3) "The proteins in your body, like DNA, are basically nanoscale machines." This is the worst. The writing is ambiguous to the point of incoherence: either he's saying that DNA is a nanoscale machine, which I might agree with, or he's saying that DNA is a protein, which oh my god it isn't. And yes, there's a good chance he meant the first option. However, his job is writing; he's supposed to be good at this crap.
4) "You can think of the hole in the wall as a kind of three-dimensional printer...in Tally's world you can 'print' things in three dimensions" - Yeah okay this was published in 2008, which is the same year that I had a research project in a lab that had had multiple 3D printers for years. The technology has been around since 1984.
5) "I stole [the term ping] from corporate slang for an email that reminds you to do something" - The term 'ping' has been used since 1983 as part of IP troubleshooting; furthermore, there's about a hundred people I know from college who use it to greet people online, by email or instant messaging, as a check to see if their potential conversational partner is currently available. This is just etymology fail.
6) "Tricks are very important in the world of Uglies" and also prostitutes lol
Yes, he's writing for young adults; no, he's not scientifically trained (although I read that he was a software designer, which is cool!); yes, it's great that he's writing science fiction at all; no, I don't expect everyone to get everything right all the time...
But if you're going to informally teach kids about science as part of a guide to the worldbuilding of a popular dystopian sci-fi series, and this is the only way some of them are going to get access to this information, please, please, PLEASE do your research.
Anyway, this is a problem I've had with Westerfeld a lot - the mythology of Midnighters doesn't hold up at all when you look at it, and it seems he goes for Rule of Cool a lot more than accuracy and realistic extrapolation, and overall he's just way more nerd-fandomy than actually nerdy. Which makes me sad.
1) "The word 'nano' means 'a billionth'" - no, the word "nano" in today's culture probably means someone's iPod; the PREFIX 'nano' totally means a billionth, and yes, this is nitpicking, but it is actually really crucial to get it correct
2) "Current superconducting materials have to be kept, like, a hundred degrees below zero" - this sentence is scientifically useless without saying which temperature scale you're using, and even then it's not correct: "high-temperature superconductors" operate at around 90K, which is -183 deg C, which is nearly -300 deg F. (Recent HTS operate at, oh, -18 deg C. But those were only developed in 2009, after the publication of this book.)
3) "The proteins in your body, like DNA, are basically nanoscale machines." This is the worst. The writing is ambiguous to the point of incoherence: either he's saying that DNA is a nanoscale machine, which I might agree with, or he's saying that DNA is a protein, which oh my god it isn't. And yes, there's a good chance he meant the first option. However, his job is writing; he's supposed to be good at this crap.
4) "You can think of the hole in the wall as a kind of three-dimensional printer...in Tally's world you can 'print' things in three dimensions" - Yeah okay this was published in 2008, which is the same year that I had a research project in a lab that had had multiple 3D printers for years. The technology has been around since 1984.
5) "I stole [the term ping] from corporate slang for an email that reminds you to do something" - The term 'ping' has been used since 1983 as part of IP troubleshooting; furthermore, there's about a hundred people I know from college who use it to greet people online, by email or instant messaging, as a check to see if their potential conversational partner is currently available. This is just etymology fail.
6) "Tricks are very important in the world of Uglies" and also prostitutes lol
Yes, he's writing for young adults; no, he's not scientifically trained (although I read that he was a software designer, which is cool!); yes, it's great that he's writing science fiction at all; no, I don't expect everyone to get everything right all the time...
But if you're going to informally teach kids about science as part of a guide to the worldbuilding of a popular dystopian sci-fi series, and this is the only way some of them are going to get access to this information, please, please, PLEASE do your research.
Anyway, this is a problem I've had with Westerfeld a lot - the mythology of Midnighters doesn't hold up at all when you look at it, and it seems he goes for Rule of Cool a lot more than accuracy and realistic extrapolation, and overall he's just way more nerd-fandomy than actually nerdy. Which makes me sad.
shinychick's review
2.0
Ehh. I didn't need this, and if it was going to be useful to me, I should have read it in conjunction with the four-book series of Uglies.
larvapuppy's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
Gave the "Uglies" series some background that made me appreciate it a little more. Still not my favourite series, but I liked learning about the thought that got put in to writing the books.
Content Warnings
Minor: War, Medical content, and Self harm
It's a guide to a book series, so nothing is described in too much detailblcharly15's review
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0