Hilary Sycamore

This was an incredibly fun biography of arguably the biggest personality in physics. Feynman the joker; Feynman the sage; Feynman the lover... Feynman the man.

Failings, successes, ideas, the man's life is well-covered in an engaging, interesting way. The writing is accessible, although I must note that you will get some science. You won't have to parse any equations (though you'll see some), but you will be exposed to some philosophical and scientific concepts that aren't... light-weight. show more But with visuals!

Anyway, this was one of the most engaging biographies that I've ever read and I am supremely happy that it turned up (I hadn't even been looking for anything like it). A graphic novel biography of a physicist! Huh.

If you find this, open to the first scene, titled "Some Fool Physicist" (just before the scene with the Tyrannosaurus Rex crashing through the little boy's bedroom wall) and give it a read. Just a few pages of comic book. For me, those first few pages hooked me into Feynman's life's adventure. show less

Before I picked up this book I didn't really know who Richard Feynman was. I mean I heard the name, but it didn't really mean lot to me. And then...I picked up this book. And within 4 pages I was captivated by him and what he meant not only to our understanding of science, but our understanding of the world at large. I didn't even get 15 pages in the book and I started looking to see what other books my library owned about Feynman, just so that I could learn more about him. That's how well show more this book is put together.

Ottaviani weaves together this coherent and captivating story from Feynman's own words. Instead of feeling like we're being talked to by some anonymous narrator, Feynman himself talks to us. It feels like we're sitting next to him, maybe with a good meal or a couple of drinks, just shooting the breeze. It's a masterful way of letting us hear Feynman's story. And the artwork works perfectly. We can see the frustration on Feynman & other scientists faces as they face the challenges before them, from the atomic bomb to why one wheel of color seems to move faster than the other on a spinning plate.

I can't imagine a better book to hand a high school student to help them understand the world around them better. Or a better book to give to anyone. This book needs to be on every library's shelf. show less

Huge Feynman fans like me won't find much new here- but there's so much worth revisiting that it's well worth picking up. I loved the stories, I loved the recreations, and I frankly loathed the illustrations. This loathing took away no little enjoyment for me, but since it's a book about RPF, well, I still loved it. 3.5

What is most interesting about this book, the biography of one of the world’s greatest scientific minds, is how little science it actually contains. It presents the story of a brilliant physicist in an accessible, and user-friendly manner. The medium, using a graphic novel, is particularly beneficial to this cause, because it allows all the ideas to be accompanied by pictures, and it humanizes the subjects by drawing them in ridiculous settings. While the context of the novel is scientific show more discovery, it is in fact a book about romance, identity, love of learning, morality, finding joy in life, and the heroic journey.
What stands out most to me is how, unlike many biographies, which detail the accomplishments and tribulations of its subject, this book is about a person, and it contains real human emotion, to which the reader can directly relate.

I have only read a short number of scholarly graphic novels, but this book stands out among them. Not because it is a graphic novel, but because it is a compelling story. Many people would find this more complex than a standard book, but for the right audience, it is a definite winner. show less