Book Review: What if

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

by Randall Munroe

I promised myself I would write a review for every five-star book I read, so here I go.

I am a huge fan of XKCD, which should mean I wouldn’t like this book, since I read most of its content on the XKCD website. I’m also not a huge fan of Will Wheaton as a reader. Plus, with the audiobook, I missed all the pictures. And yet, somehow, I loved it.

Hearing Munroe’s insane physics (and biology, and sociology) scenarios rather than reading them proved to be addictive. The funny, disturbing thought experiments built up, and I found myself imagining force lines surrounding the people and objects around me. In my work as a science fiction author, I started looking up things like the Reynold’s number equation, so I could make sure my flying crinoids could actually fly (don’t worry, they can). That’s what science fiction is supposed to do, after all. Keep us dreaming.