The Physics of the Buffyverse

November 27, 2006
There's science beneath the fantasy in the beloved television series about a teenage girl battling monsters in her California exurb, insists this lightweight pop-science primer. Science writer Ouellette (Black Bodies and Quantum Cats
) hopscotches through the fictive world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
and its spinoff Angel
to rationalize their outlandish goings-on and mine heuristics that illustrate scientific principles. She compares exotic demons to real animals, draws lessons on Newtonian kinematics from Buffy's kickboxing, susses conservation laws in Buffy's economy of magic and compares Buffy's fight against evil to mankind's doomed struggle against entropy. Many Buffyverse plot devices (teleportation, time loops, alternate dimensions) lead Ouellette to advanced physics concepts (wormholes, relativity, quantum entanglement) that are equally weird and esoteric. Here, unfortunately, the author's sketchy disquisitions fall back on strained metaphors ("Just like the couplings... between the various characters in the Buffyverse, each iteration of string theory is connected to another through various dualities") and opaque analogies ("t's best to think of imaginary time as a direction of time that runs at right angles to real time") that laymen will find as baffling as a runic scroll in a dead language. Too often, Ouellette's treatment comes across the way science does on Buffy
—as a breezy, jargon-filled, unenlightening gloss on some fanciful spectacle.

November 15, 2006
Winnowing science from magic, history, mythology, and fiction, science writer Ouellette ("Black Bodies and Quantum Cats") looks at physics through the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" TV series. Despite the focus on physics, Ouellette also deals with monster biology, robotic technology, the mathematics of entropy, and a variety of other issues. Her science writing is strong, and her discussions of history and folklore interesting; however, readers who are not fans of "Buffy" or "Angel" are likely to tire of the extended descriptions of series episodes. The complex scientific descriptions and serious tone will also turn off fans who would rather simply suspend disbelief and enjoy the show. That said, there are many dedicated fansamong whom books like Lawrence Krauss's "The Physics of Star Trek" would be popularwho might enjoy picking apart the scientific details of their favorite sf and fantasy shows. Ouellette's book should attract a similar following. An optional purchase for public and academic libraries.Barbarly Korper McConnell, California State Univ. Lib., Fullerton

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2006
Vampires and demons might be regarded as the stuff of fantasy writers' imaginations, but science writer Ouellette finds that real-world science can indeed be applied to the universe of the cult TV shows" Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and " Angel." Despite the title--which owes a debt to the 1995 tome " The Physics of Star Trek--"Ouellette doesn't limit herself to physics; she also takes a look at the biological and chemical workings of the Buffyverse. Ouellette explains the ins and outs of vampire physiology, discusses why Buffy's fighting techniques are successful, and even delves into robotics and AI technology as seen on the show, and in our world. Not everything is scientifically sound--Ouellette argues against the possibility of telekinesis based on the amount of energy it would require--but she presents a strong case for many of the seemingly impossible aspects of the world Buffy and her friends inhabit. All the while, she makes the science accessible, guaranteeing that fans of the show will be receptive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)