by Neil deGrasse Tyson
narrated by the author
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Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization by Neil deGrasse Tyson is a nonfiction book combining science and philosophy. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at about seven hours and is narrated by the author.
In many ways this feels like a memoir to me. Tyson covers a lot of ground here: war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race. Subtracting the end notes, this books is only a little over 200 pages, but there is a lot in here.
His two main forms of enlightenment include viewing the world with a cosmic perspective but also the grounding rationality of science. And this book is going to make some people mad. He plays some devil’s advocate, but it’s ultimately very important to look at both sides of any equation.
I really enjoyed the prose, as it feels like Tyson is sharing a pot of tea or carafe of coffee with you and talking about life, the universe, and everything. There’s some humor here as well.
The physical book has footnotes, but they’re mostly just citations and do not have additional information other than potentially a link to a full article about that topic. The audiobook doesn’t mention footnotes at all.
I received a paperback ARC of this book to review and borrowed the audiobook from my library. All opinions contained herein are my own.
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