What a wild premise. If you thought Flatland was kind of cool but kind of stupid, this is Flatland if the author actually really thought about it... like really thought about it. Ideas for two-dimensional physics, biology, mechanics, games, social customs, and theology. Plot? Not so much. But who needs plot when you can find out how digestion works in two-dimensional animals! ( )

Of course this book begs comparisons to Flatland...though not as well known as that famous romp through a world with only two dimensions, I believe this book is much better. Dewdney put a lot of thought in the way a civilization must necessarily be set up in a two-dimensional world - how will the laws of physics affect these creatures and their world? How can a two-dimensional creature have a digestive tract without being cut in half? How to pass each other in the street? How to build a dwelling that can be easily maneuvered through? This book asked and answered questions before I even thought of them, and truly expanded the way I thought about the 2nd - and of course, the 3rd and 4th - dimension, as well as tackling ideas about philosophy, evolution, and intelligent ingenuity.

If you were intrigued by Flatland, read this book. Your imagination will thank you. ( )

Inspired by Flatland, Planiverse is a work of fantasy, or mathematics, or science, intended (in part) to solve the mind problem of how life and technology could work in a two dimensional universe. Planiverse was written in the mid-1980s by a colleague of my father's at the University of Western Ontario whose Wikipedia entry amusingly describes him as a "Canadian mathematician, computer scientist, author, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist". I don't know how the 1980s computer stuff translates to 21st century readers, but I learned computing with DOS and those green on black screens. Nostalgia. ( )

Even though I find the concept of this book super interesting, the book itself just bored me immensely. The same happened with Flatland, the original "two-dimensional universe" narrative. In both cases, I found the framing gimmick gimmicky, the prose tedious, and the math of the thing explained dryly and without clever insight. Maybe it's just me.

A lot of fun, and a better platform for the imagination than it is a story.

In "The Planiverse," we have a frame story that wraps around a travelogue through a two-dimensional world. The 2D world itself is fascinating; the frame story in our world, less so. The faux real-world contact was enough to make teenage me wonder if it could be true, but as an adult, it's a lot easier to see through the deception, and even to resent its intrusion into an otherwise interesting study.

It is clear that the author has put a lot of thought into how the science of a 2D world would work. Whereas Flatland explored the mathematical and social implications of such a world, the Planiverse gave us actual science, enough to make such a world feel claustrophobically plausible. However, the ending was nothing but pseudo-mystical oddness, designed to distract the reader from the lack of an ending, and totally at odds with the hard science nature of the earlier sections.

Recommendation: Great food for thought, and worth reading if you are of a scientific bent and like thinking about different dimensions. Don't approach it if all you want is a story, however. ( )