Author's note: This review is my work and has appeared in Online Book Club as well. The link for the OBC review: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=392967&p=2394217#p2394217
Verdict: A must-read. (Rating 4/5) I have given this rating as the book was well written, well edited, and presented the material in an interesting and accessible manner.
Overview: This is the first book I’ve read by Matthew Emmanuel Weinberg. You’ll understand the title once you read the book, but on a surface level, there are no dragons in this book.
Apart from the very alluring title, this book is about fractals. I could explain what fractals are at this point, but the author does a much better job than I could in a very elegant way. I’ll oversimplify and mention that it’s a math concept. I’m not from a math background. I’m not particularly good at math beyond the basics, and math books are the last thing that I would normally pick up to read. That being said, I’m so glad I did.
The reader would get the most out of this book by giving it a chance and being willing to explore the concept on a large-scale level.
I Enjoyed: While fractals aren’t a difficult concept to explain on a surface level, they wander in the deeper end of math, especially if one wanders out of dimensions that are seen/felt – think 4th and above dimensions. The absolutely glorious thing about this book is that after an easy-to-understand explanation, the author takes the time to encourage the reader to imagine bigger dimensions and explains some very cool practical applications that the reader can loosely identify with. This is how math should be explained! A curious reader would also enjoy taking the time to contemplate how many places they can see fractals displayed in the world and a bit of the math that nature does naturally. Well written and well explained, the author also has an obvious passion for the subject and makes a conscious effort to pull the reader into the subject and give it life.
Suggestions for Improvement: The flow was a little confusing for me. While I very much enjoyed that the author went into history and different areas where fractals are used/displayed, I needed a bit more of a structured story line. I also felt that photos of different fractal patterns would have been helpful while reading – I chose to look them up on Google to enhance my understanding. I also felt that there was a lot of repetition. I am not able to tell if this is just to ensure comprehension, or if the author was trying to create a certain fractal of his own in the work. I suspect both are correct, but it was simply too much repetition for me.
Summary: I think very few people read math books for fun or general knowledge building. I guess this is so because mathematical concept books take a lot of effort and time to read and appreciate. Not only does the author make this approachable, it’s fun and quite amazing when one takes the time to contemplate it. I would highly recommend reading this book.
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