Negative Positive
Title: A Fine Story, but Stretched Too Thin
Review: Some times a great story belongs in a book, and sometimes it just doesn't have the heft to sustain a full book and should be relegated an extended magazine article. This is one of the latter.The story is interesting and worth knowing. The dedication of Seth Carlo Chandler to his avocation is inspiring, the theory behind the solution is elegant, and the political intrigue is evocative. But to stretch the story to booklength required a trivial prologue, superfluous biographical details for secondary characters, and technical details that were rather opaque to the lay audience, this writer included.I'd still recommend the book to a friend with an interest in astronomy, but I'd rather recommend a streamlined 80-page version of the story.
Is the review positive or negative? 