Black Holes
by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest, illus. by Luciano Corbella
DK Publishing, 1996
hardcover (oversized), 45pp., illus.
ISBN 0-7894-0451-6
US$16.95

Black holes are one of the most intriguing subjects of modern-day astronomy. They're also one of the most difficult to understand, given some of the complex physics which goes into their formation and existence. Thi s makes writing a book about them aimed towards children difficult, but Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest succeed in the task in the fine book Black Holes.
     Rather than dancing delicately around the topic, Couper and Henbest plunge into the top from the very first pages. One the first two pages of the book (beyond the table of contents) the reader is introduced to black holes, su pernovae, Einstein crosses (multiple images of a distant object formed by the lens-like action of a black hole's powerful gravity) and more. This might seem like a poor way to introduce a topic, but the simple, well-written text, combined with the excelle nt illustrations of Luciano Corbella, make it succeed.
     In later pages the reader is introduced to the birth, life, and death of stars, the concept of escape velocity and event horizons, wormholes, time travel, quasars, and how black holes themselves can live and die. On every lar ge page, the text and illustrations work together to explain the complicated phenomena in simple, understandable terms.
     No age range is given in the book, but given the content of the book it would be best appreciated by children about age 10 and up, especially those interested in astronomy. The best part about the age range is the "and up": t he book could be as easily appreciated by an adult interested in the field but knowing little about it as a young child. Kids interested in astronomy will love Black Holes... if they can get it out of their parents' hands long enough!

Discovering the Universe: Fourth Edition
by William J. Kaufmann III and Neil F. Comins
W. H. Freeman and Company, 1996
softcover, 436pp., illus. with CD-ROM
ISBN 0-7167-2646-7
US$54.95

Astronomy textbooks designed for students not majoring in the field have to walk a fine line. Get too technical, include too many equations, and you lose much of the potential audience for the book. Stay too general and your textbook becomes little more than an expensive picture book that covers only the very basics of the field. The fourth edition of Discovering the Universe by Neil Comins and the late William Kaufmann III manages to stay on that fine line an d is a book useful in or out of the classroom.
     The book is designed for an introductory college-level astronomy course, taken by students not necessarily planning to major in the field. Thus the book starts with the very basics about the night sky and our place in the uni verse, and works out from there. From some background into the nature of light and gravity the book covers the solar system, stars, and galaxies and the rest of the universe, concluding with a chapter on the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
     The book doesn't avoid using equations, but those are generally relegated to separate sidebars ("The Astronomer's Toolbox") that can be skipped without losing out on the content of the rest of the book. There are many color i mages and illustrations throughout the book, which add to, instead of distract from, the text of the book. The book includes a CD-ROM readable by Windows and Macintosh computers that contains a hypertext version of the book, study aids, and links to Inte rnet resources.
     It's clear this book is designed for the college textbook market, but the clearly-written book can also be used outside of the classroom by someone interested in the field and looking for a reference work to look up and learn about concepts in astronomy. Inside or outside the classroom, Discovering the Universe is a useful, readable reference work.

Introduction to Space Sciences and Spacecraft Applications
by Bruce A. Campbell and Samuel Walter McCandless Jr.
Gulf Publishing Company, 1996
hardcover, 237pp., illus.
ISBN 0-88415-411-4
US$45.00

Aerospace engineering is a diverse discipline, calling upon expertise in a number of other fields in order to successfully design, build, and launch spacecraft. Thus it's difficult to make an introductory text in the field that can cover all these areas. Bruce Campbell and Samuel McCandless Jr. attempt to do this in Introduction to Space Sciences, but only partially succeed.
     Despite the title of "Space Sciences", the focus of this book is not on physics or astronomy but on the principles of launching and operating spacecraft. The first section of the book covers some of the theory of orbital mech anics and propulsion and discusses the often-harsh environment of space. The second discussion discusses spacecraft applications, such as communications, remote sensing, and navigation. The final section goes into the details of the various systems in a t ypical spacecraft and how spacecraft are designed.
     Campbell and McCandless try to do all of this in just over 200 pages, excluding the appendices and the index. To cover all these fields in such a limited space means only the very basics of each subject are introduced; there is no time to go into details. This provides a broadbrush introduction to the field but leaves a reader interested in a particular area wanting for more. Even the appendix titled "Manned Spaceflight Summary" is too basic: is covers manned American and So viet mission up to just before the first shuttle launch, ignoring the last 15+ years of manned spaceflight.
     For someone who has little general knowledge of aerospace sciences and applications, Introduction to Space Sciences and Spacecraft Applications will serve as a good introduction. To anyone with more than a very little knowledge of the field, though, this book will be of little use.

The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era
by Michael J. Neufield
Harvard University Press, 1995
softcover, 367pp., illus.
ISBN 0-674-77650-X
US$15.95

More than fifty years after the end of the Second World War, attention is still focused on Nazi Germany's efforts to build and use the V-2 rocket against the Allies, largely because the V-2 and its designers, especia lly Werner von Braun, set the stage for postwar missile development in the United States and the Soviet Union that opened the Space Age. Michael Neufeld, curator of World War II history at the National Air and Space Museum, provides a refreshing look at t he V-2m von Braun, and the Nazi war efforts in The Rocket and the Reich.
     The reason why this book is so refreshing is that Neufeld attempts to provide a largely unbiased look at the development of the V-2 and role von Braun and others played in its development and their relations with the SS. Othe r writers have taken clear sides in this argument, trying to either vilify von Braun for becoming an SS officer (a position which he accepted grudgingly and never took very seriously) and the role slave labor played in the construction of the rocket. Othe rs have all but tried to whitewash these concerns, portraying von Braun as an innocent rocket designed caught up in the Nazi war effort but really wanting to build spacecraft.
     Neufeld's work points to the good and bad aspects of von Braun's and others work, and attempts to neither exonerate von Braun nor blame him for some of the darker aspects of the design and construction of the V-2 rockets. Ins tead, Neufeld takes a broader view, and shows that the V-23 project was a massive failure of the German war machine: it sapped critical resources that could have been used on other projects that would have had a much larger impact on the war effort than the V-2 ever would have. Neufeld points out that all the Allies killed by the V-2, two out of every three were killed during the production of the rocket (prisoners who labored on the rocket), whereas only one of three were actually killed when the weapon was used.
     When reading the book, it becomes clear that the V-2 was a technical success (although plagued by problems throughout its development) but a strategic failure as a weapon. When you finish this book you'll wonder what might ha ve happened -- both in the war and afterwards -- had the Germans not pursued the development of the rocket. We might not be as far along in space today if that had happened.