Ben Miller (1) (1966–)

The long lost Farscape is still my favorite science fiction series. It’s not just the humor, but the existence of a wider variety of alien life. There are lots of aliens who are not hominids. There’s Maia, the leviathan, there’s that fabulous praying mantis like diagnosan doctor, there’s the Hinerians who are amphibians, and the crustacean Pilot. Sure, most species were hominids, because after all it was relatively low-budget, but they at least made an effort to break form.

If only show more science fiction writers read The Aliens Are Coming by Ben Miller. I thought I was clever and discerning by objecting to all the bipeds and hominids, but he points out all the other variations in possible alien beings that might make even perception difficult, let alone communication. What if they are not carbon-based? What if they are incorporeal, a gaseous creature? What is they operate in a faster time frame than we do, making them imperceptible to us and vice versa? Our ability to search for and identify intelligent life can be limited by our assumptions, so we should look for intelligent life without uncertainty about how it will present itself.

Before I begin this review I must confess my bias. I volunteered my computer’s idle time to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) since I first learned I could back in 1999 or 2000. I would leave my computer on, with SETI running and proudly pasted by certificates on the wall at work, even if some of my colleagues rolled their eyes. I am fairly certain that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. I am also pretty certain that we have not met any yet.

The Aliens Are Coming is an insouciant, enjoyable and downright funny science book. Ben Miller is not just a science geek, he’s also an actor, a comedian and is thus able to make physics and cosmology amusing. This is a fabulous book for someone who wants an introduction to the science of the search for life and to the ideas that are driving that search, the physics that are the foundation on which many of those ideas lie.

You can’t help but enjoy this book. It cracks me up at times, for example, when talking about dark matter, he wrote, “Whatever dark matter is, it’s definitely the boss of you.” Yup.

Much of The Aliens Are Coming may be surprising in its focus on life on Earth, but it’s what we know about life here that informs our ideas of life out there. For example, we used to think there were far more narrow limits for the kinds of environments in which we can find life. Now, having found life at the deep bottom of the sea and in the deadly heat of Yellowstone, we know there are forms of weird life, of extremophiles, that can take the heat or the lack of light.

Because of what we know about evolution on Earth, we can make some assumptions about evolution elsewhere. Because we know about gravity, chemistry, biology, language and so on, we can make solid guesses about what kind of planets we need to look for to find life.

This is solid science in The Aliens Are Coming, even some math, but it’s explained clearly and logically so that it is not difficult to follow. If you’re a physics/astronomy enthusiast, some of the time spent in explanation may set your mind wandering, but this is a foundation-building book–one that lays the groundwork for a solid and science-based understanding of the search for life in the universe – and a powerful antidote to the UFO/Roswell/alien abduction kind of mythology.

I liked The Aliens Are Coming a lot. It’s smart, witty and fun. It does not oversimplify or talk down to readers. It does start with the assumption that readers are new to much of the science and walks through the assumptions researchers are making so readers understand that SETI, for example, is not some weirdos waiting for E.T. but serious science searching for signals that may reveal there is someone somewhere out there. And like us, they may be listening.

The Aliens Are Coming will be published October 4th, 2016. I received an e-galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

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I was in a Heathrow Terminal 3 bookshop a few months ago, all too aware that the one book I was taking on holiday would be insufficient. What I needed was something to read that would take a while. Something big and complicated with lots of equations and indecipherable diagrams. I needed a book on rocket science.

Then, as if Serendipity-incarnate herself had just landed in WHSmith, I espied a paperback by Ben Miller. “Ben Miller? Isn't he the amusing comedian chap from the telly?” I show more thought to myself, having no one else to think to. “I enjoy his work with comedy partner Alexander Armstrong. And, since I'm thinking to myself and no one will ever find this out, I admit to being partial to his much-belittled detective TV show, Death in Paradise.” I was also vaguely aware that he had a PhD, or most of one, in Physics or something like that, but had decided to become a professional jester rather than striving to uncover the very secrets of the Universe. Not that I'm judging him.

I'd probably been stood there for a few minutes at this point, staring gormlessly at a bookshelf while listening to this inner monologue. It was time to move on. After all, much as I might enjoy Ben Miller's comedy he clearly wouldn't have written a book about rocket science. He gave up science years ago, this was probably a book about going to fancy parties with his famous friends, or about the history of jokes in Mesopotamia, or whatever it is comedians write about. On a whim, though, I decided to deign the book's title with a quick glance. And who would have thought it, it was rocket science!

Sure there were some other words in the title, but they were probably just “An advanced guide, with lots of fancy equations involving Greek letters, to…” or something like that. But whatever it said couldn't be important. Everyone knows that God, the New Yorkër, and the Westboro Baptist Church all hate qualifying clauses at the start of sentences, and Ben Miller doesn't strike me as the kind of person who'd incur the wrath of that particular trio.

Decision made, I literally picked up the book and bought it, ready to metaphorically devour it on the plane.

Well, upon starting the book a little while later, and to quote Robert Oppenheimer, “I am become disappoint.” Turns out you should read the whole title before buying books in the WHSmith in Heathrow Terminal 3. This wasn't an excruciating trawl through the finer points of ballistic mechanics. There was no discussion of the effects of jerk on fuel consumption, not to mention jounce, crackle, pop, lock, and drop. Instead Ben Miller tries to rub some of his enthusiasm for science off on the reader by discussing in short essays lots of different interesting results from various scientific fields. He's at pains to point out that he's just an enthusiastic fan of science not an expert. This gets a little incongruous at times, like finding out your tour guide in the natural history museum is just someone who really likes Jurassic Park.

Still, once I'd gotten over my disappointment I did warm to the book. Ben Miller is nothing if not enthusiastic and does his best to convey the wonders of modern science. I can't help but feel there's a pretty small market for the book, since it needs people bright enough and curious enough about science to want to read it, but also who don't really know anything about science to get anything from it. Maybe that's why he's resorted to luring people in with promises of being a stodgy old book on mechanics when it's actually a lively zip through, well, everything. The scoundrel. show less

I was in a Heathrow Terminal 3 bookshop a few months ago, all too aware that the one book I was taking on holiday would be insufficient. What I needed was something to read that would take a while. Something big and complicated with lots of equations and indecipherable diagrams. I needed a book on rocket science.

Then, as if Serendipity-incarnate herself had just landed in WHSmith, I espied a paperback by Ben Miller. “Ben Miller? Isn't he the amusing comedian chap from the telly?” I show more thought to myself, having no one else to think to. “I enjoy his work with comedy partner Alexander Armstrong. And, since I'm thinking to myself and no one will ever find this out, I admit to being partial to his much-belittled detective TV show, Death in Paradise.” I was also vaguely aware that he had a PhD, or most of one, in Physics or something like that, but had decided to become a professional jester rather than striving to uncover the very secrets of the Universe. Not that I'm judging him.

I'd probably been stood there for a few minutes at this point, staring gormlessly at a bookshelf while listening to this inner monologue. It was time to move on. After all, much as I might enjoy Ben Miller's comedy he clearly wouldn't have written a book about rocket science. He gave up science years ago, this was probably a book about going to fancy parties with his famous friends, or about the history of jokes in Mesopotamia, or whatever it is comedians write about. On a whim, though, I decided to deign the book's title with a quick glance. And who would have thought it, it was rocket science!

Sure there were some other words in the title, but they were probably just “An advanced guide, with lots of fancy equations involving Greek letters, to…” or something like that. But whatever it said couldn't be important. Everyone knows that God, the New Yorkër, and the Westboro Baptist Church all hate qualifying clauses at the start of sentences, and Ben Miller doesn't strike me as the kind of person who'd incur the wrath of that particular trio.

Decision made, I literally picked up the book and bought it, ready to metaphorically devour it on the plane.

Well, upon starting the book a little while later, and to quote Robert Oppenheimer, “I am become disappoint.” Turns out you should read the whole title before buying books in the WHSmith in Heathrow Terminal 3. This wasn't an excruciating trawl through the finer points of ballistic mechanics. There was no discussion of the effects of jerk on fuel consumption, not to mention jounce, crackle, pop, lock, and drop. Instead Ben Miller tries to rub some of his enthusiasm for science off on the reader by discussing in short essays lots of different interesting results from various scientific fields. He's at pains to point out that he's just an enthusiastic fan of science not an expert. This gets a little incongruous at times, like finding out your tour guide in the natural history museum is just someone who really likes Jurassic Park.

Still, once I'd gotten over my disappointment I did warm to the book. Ben Miller is nothing if not enthusiastic and does his best to convey the wonders of modern science. I can't help but feel there's a pretty small market for the book, since it needs people bright enough and curious enough about science to want to read it, but also who don't really know anything about science to get anything from it. Maybe that's why he's resorted to luring people in with promises of being a stodgy old book on mechanics when it's actually a lively zip through, well, everything. The scoundrel. show less

Fairy tales meet supermarkets in a humorous tale packed with adventure.

It's summer break, which should mean time to head out and play all sorts of games, but Lana's older brother, Harrison, is taking his middle grade years seriously and only wants to learn. Boring! When a new supermarket suddenly appears in town, Lana isn't nearly as thrilled as her mother but is promised a treat if she goes along. Lana's love for books draws her to that section of the humongous store, and when she finds one show more she'd like, the store keeper warns that it might not be appropriate for her. The book of fairy tales lean toward the original tales as by the Brothers Grimm, and Lana soon finds portals in the supermarket which lead to the stories...but they are dangerous.

Adventure propels this tale forward as it balances between two worlds. Lana and her family live in a very normal small town. Everything about her family, sibling relations, and daily life are normal. So, despite little on the description end, it's no problem for readers to connect to with a sense of familiarity. The grocery store connects the two worlds in a clever way, allowing the fantasy to snuggle up to reality while keeping borders between the two fairly stiff. The drama, which builds on the reality side, hits with humor and understandable frustration, while mystery layers in the grocery store, and action bounds in the world of fairy tales. So, it's a fun mix. To top things off, not only does Lana dance between reality and the world of fairy tales, but there are sections, where stories are being told or read...tales within the tale.

This is a read more for the lower end of the middle grade audience, although the length is a bit on the mighty side. There are lovely illustrations to accompany the story, and the constant add ins of smaller decorations give the read a nice appearance and touch. This also breaks up the text a bit. The writing is fine for the level, while pushing readers to increase their skills on this end. There isn't much depth to the characters, which works better for younger readers. While there are enough descriptions to build the world nicely with fitting details to let readers sink in fine, these stays on the lighter side, allowing the action and adventure to power the pages forward. And it is a fast-paced read with many surprises. I received a DRC and enjoyed the exciting adventure. show less