Edge Kindle Edition

I very much like this book, cover to cover. Each of the four sections reads as a single poem and the whole book as one long (but not too long) poem. It is an epic without the length of an epic. It is all here: Life, Death, the Universe, and Everything in-between! With the language of poetry and the language of science (Are these really so different?) Porteous takes us into the deep dive in asking, "What is IT all about?" Line after line of verse is simple and monumental at the same time. Image after image after image the book bursts – energy emanating and pulsating.Neal Whitman

Not all these poems immediately work for me but some are brilliantly structured with enough intrigue and suggestion and always precision of language to show a poet at the height of her extraordinary untamed powers. All the poems constitute at least the best effort imaginable to render sub-atomic physics, the solar system and the break down of symmetry at the "big bang" into poems everyone can appreciate. As Martin Doyle of the Financial Times says: "The experiment is brave, original and intriguing." There are hints and more here of how ancient myths and world-views pre-figure modern insights and the author is refreshingly honest about the limitations she finds. The book might well serve as a real stimulus to speculative thinking for science pupils and students. I relish the wrestling of words with what are often essentially mathematical concepts. Amazing idea just to attempt it!