Andrea Barrett has a gimmick. As the New Republic put it in their review: "As surely as Woody Allen writes about anxious intellectuals and John le Carré writes about spies, Barrett writes about scientists." Her stories always revolve around a professional or amateur seeking to understand the natural world around them. They usually take place in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
Barrett's focus on science and scientists makes her stories unique and gives her characters the attractive qualities of intelligence and curiosity. The stories always inspire me to develop new interests and pay attention to the world around me. On the other hand, they do tend to repeat the same themes. The five stories in this book all deal with an insecure protagonist torn between loyalty to an established scientist and a new theory rejected by that scientist.
My favorite story was "The Ether of Space," which is also the messiest story. Somehow its ideas kept swirling around in my head after I finished it. Objectively, "The Particles" is probably the best story, with an action-packed ocean disaster to complement its story of scientific rivalry.
Barrett's focus on science and scientists makes her stories unique and gives her characters the attractive qualities of intelligence and curiosity. The stories always inspire me to develop new interests and pay attention to the world around me. On the other hand, they do tend to repeat the same themes. The five stories in this book all deal with an insecure protagonist torn between loyalty to an established scientist and a new theory rejected by that scientist.
My favorite story was "The Ether of Space," which is also the messiest story. Somehow its ideas kept swirling around in my head after I finished it. Objectively, "The Particles" is probably the best story, with an action-packed ocean disaster to complement its story of scientific rivalry.
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