Its starts OK but when it reaches Humphrey Davy, I felt it got lost with too much poetry and details of his romantic life, and too little actual science. For example it goes on and on with how Davys wife didn' get along with Faraday, but then Faradays work on electromagnetism, which had without doubt enormous impact in our civilization only gets ONE paragraph, whole section are full of Davys poetry but Charles Lyell is only mentioned in passing. I really enjoyed this! It didn't "change my life" (my criteria for a five-star book) but it's rare these days that I make my way through 400 plus pages -- and am sorry to see it end! Holmes does a tremendous job of bringing to life the stories of 1780-1830 era scientists like William Herschel and Humphrey Davy, who I knew little about. But this goes way beyond their impressive contributions and insights (in addition to being important "scientists" (a word that didn't exist then), Davy was a poet and Herschel a musician (though for some reason, the author passes the latter role over)). Holmes spins the narrative into a wonderful social narrative of their families and the "Romantic" age society they lived in, with Coleridge, Shelley and others as close colleagues. Probably the best book I've read about the process of scientific discovery and it covers a time when the first real "benefits" of science to the world were just becoming evident.
What do You think about La Edad De Los Prodigios (2012)?
Holmes's joy with his subject is contagious! I cannot wait to read his new book on ballooning.
—Divya
I learned a lot from this book, it did a good job of covering a very interesting topic.
—violinchic13
An outstanding read of the birth of modern science
—a1platinum2
