Popular Science Children's Review - The Prometheus Project

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Review - The Prometheus Project - Trapped - Douglas E. Richards

These are rather different from our normal run of books. They're fiction, but fiction which the author believes manages to get across good science at the same time as a story, almost by osmosis. It's a difficult job to do, putting across science without becoming preachy - we'll see how well Douglas Richards does.

The premise of the story, featuring brother and sister Ryan and Regan Resnick, is a little far fetched (parents seem to be involved in a secret project and possibly in trouble - I know what, let's break into the top secret, high security base where they work and find out what's going on) - but if you can suspend disbelief on that, it runs along nicely, with enough tension and drama to keep things going. The writing style is fairly old fashioned as modern children's writing goes, but none the worse for that, and it's much more likely to be a problem with trendy reviewers than with the actual readership.

Along the way we've got some puzzle solving, some science information snuck in, and perhaps most importantly an explanation of the scientific method. I felt a bit cheated by one of the puzzle solutions - it's a passcode that has to be entered right first time. The clue is very much like a crossword clue 'we are in the middle of nowhere.' I got what it was meant to be, but I'm not at all convinced that the 'middle' of the word nowhere is between 'no' and 'where.'

Much of the science is slipped in quite lightly, though I felt the employment of the scientific method was a bit heavy handed (effectively 'we've got to get out of this' 'let's apply the scientific method' 'what's that, then?' - I exaggerate a bit). What might have been useful was a little summary at the back that explains which bits are real science and which are fictional, as the plot does rely on a number of made-up bits as well as the 'real' science.

Overall it works well and proves a refreshing alternative to a straight popular science book for children. I hope to see more of this kind of thing.

Only in paperback

Also The Prometheus Project: Captured

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

* Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book!

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