I've spent my whole life addicted to science. From being a kid fascinated by dinosaurs, to growing up into a devotee of physics, chemistry and science in general. I see science as mankind's greatest hope, its way of surpassing biological restrictions and achieving greatness. This may sound a bit high blown but in many ways it is the history of our race so far.

As a physical species we are a bit middling. We are relatively big but put us against and elephant and we soon appear small. We are reasonable fast but will easily be outrun by cheetahs, and we are easily out-muscled by oxen, horses and many other animals. Mankind's major advantage though is intellect and an ability to outwit evolution.

If we want to move into inhospitable areas rather than having to wait for evolution to adapt us over hundreds of thousands or millions of years into a new species capable of surviving into harsher realms we use tools and our own ideas to make it happen in single lifetimes. At its core this is what science is.

But as long as we have been using science, we have also been abusing it. This book looks into many of the misuses of sciences - whether as justification of great brutality, or to fraudulently support any number of points of view (be they religious, political or otherwise), or even to just as lies by scientists to gain further research grants. This book contains an enormous amount of cases of misuse in its six sections.

Section one ("Fraudulent Scientists") starts the book in a very insular fashion - that of scientists misrepresenting their fields. It includes people claiming credit for work that was not theirs, the Vinland Map and claimed cures for cancer amongst others. In placing this first Grant has shown this is not a diatribe totally against non-scientists but admits that scientists are just as human as anyone else.

Moving on we have "Seeing What They Wanted to See", a section dedicated to self-delusion, numerous instances where scientists have overridden their analytical natures and objectiveness in pursuit of a desired outcome - including the most famous of these, Schiaparelli's Martian "canali".

Third up is "Military Madness" - surprisingly the shortest of the sections. In many ways this is merely an extension of the second in that it chronicles those instances where military men saw the benefit of an advantage so clearly they completely missed the fact that the science they were being sold was ludicrous.

From section four onward we start to see a definite bias in the book, for now we turn to religion (and ultimately to politics). Section four ("The One True Book") and section five ("Ideology Trumps Science") can pretty much be taken as one, for they contain two sides of the same doctrinal coin. Science here is attacked when its results are not according to belief or twisted to support those beliefs (religious or otherwise).

And finally we reach section six, the book's longest, "The Political Corruption of Science". This is where Grant becomes his most polemic. For this section he breaks into three parts detailing the science misuses perpetrated by the governments of Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia and Bush's America. Including today's America with these others is controversial. It will gain Grant and this book many fans but equally will alienate other potential readers.

As a book it is heavy going. I cannot imagine many people would pick this up and read it cover to cover. It just isn't that kind of book. However as a book to pick up and read a small section on a periodic basis it is perfect - and very interesting. At a glance this book would seem to be the perfect book for conspiracy theorists, and may well be perceived as limited to that group alone. But anyone with an interest in science would find much in this.

Synopsis
This book is for film-lovers of all ages. Of all movie genres today, sci-fi probably has the highest profile, and certainly has a dominant position in the box office - from blockbusters like the latest Star Wars episode or The Day After Tomorrow or Spider-Man or War of the Worlds, with numerous other sci-fi movies released each year. The high-tech gloss and the massive budgets all seem a far cry from the sci-fi movies of that previous Golden Age, the middle of the 20th century, when for the most part the appeal of sci-fi cinema was its low-budget cheesiness. In this book the renowned writer on fantasy, sci-fi and animated cinema, John Grant conducts a lightning survey of the best - and the worst - of the world of sci-fi movies. Here you'll find the celebrated masterpieces as well as the beloved turkeys, along with separate sections on remakes, sequels, award-winners and even sci-fi erotica. A must for any fan of sci-fi cinema, and an ideal book for settling pub arguments! Award-winning author of many non-fiction books on Science Fiction and fantasy and of some 50 fantasy novels. Scottish-born John Grant lives in New Jersey., USA. He is pretty well-known in sci-fi circles around the world.