The Cloud Chamber - thoughts
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A thoroughly enjoyable read - a book about science with a real human quality and charm. The trials and tribulation of the lead character who battles with his guilt by association feel very real, as does the impact on his family. Not only entertaining but a insight into the history of nuclear physics and in particular fission leading up to the development of the atomic bomb. I found this novel a real thought provoker.
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I have become Death - destroyer of worlds!
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P>It is very well written and kept me reading it way past my bedtime most evenings and almost made me miss my stop on the train several times - very absorbing. Informative, intriguing, gripping, humorous and horrifying in equal measure. Very clever in showing the almost child-like innocence in which the physicists approached the problems of the atom never dreaming it would lead to a hugely destructive weapon! It is also a human story of Walter and how his friendships and marriage are affected by the war and most of his colleagues working for the government on "the bomb" and his and perceived guilt at not doing enough in the cause of peace All in all, an excellent debut novel - go and buy it!!
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A great novel
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I loved this book. It's very richly written and multi-layered, and totally unsloppy - every sentence counts in the overall design. In a way it's an old-fashioned novel, in that the themes - nuclear physics, the bomb, the burden of scientific knowledge, the dilemmas of pacifism, are dramatised through its character's lives. The personal is shown to be deeply political. Buy this book because a) it's really about something very important and interesting (also it's the great primer in modern physics for the science duds among us) and b) it is a JOY to read - the breadth of the author's human sympathy is quietly gobsmacking, and the narrative is continually leavened by her lovely sense of humour.
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The Cloud Chamber
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I have just finished reading this book and found it to be a fond companian for every free few minutes I gleaned. I shall miss it. I found it to be a fasinating piece of research on a specialised area before and during the Second World War period. Written as fiction, but interspersed with factual 'laymans' definitions of the various particles found by these eminent Scientists as they discovered them. The story follows a gifted Physicist's battle with his conscience as he clashes interests with science and pacifism during this very unsettled period. I enjoyed the way the book ended and felt a surge of satisfaction when this very troubled man realised, finally, that he had the opportunity of fulfilling his purpose in life.
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Well written but lacking something
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This book is well written and the author's extensive knowledge of physics is without question - you can't read it without learning something! However, I bought it because, having read the cover, I believed it to be a spy story based around WWII, which it is but all the way through I kept feeling something was going to happen that, in the end, never did. So I was slightly disappointed. The Cloud Chamber is well written with good characters but, for me, never quite realised it's potential.
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