realthog

Some extraordinarily generous cover quotes have been coming in for my forthcoming book Denying Science (this fall from Prometheus; buy multiple copies!). The relevant liaison of mine at Prometheus reports gleefully: ". . . and we have heard back from everyone we were expecting which hardly ever happens!" She has also given me clearance to brag about them.

So here, at the risk of appearing in any way insufferable -- moi? perish the thought! -- they are:

"Packed with damning facts and deadly wit, this book shows how we're being lied to on an industrial scale. A fine piece of intellectual anti-virus software!"
--Ken MacLeod

"A timely and intelligent dissection of all that is wrong with popular responses to science. This articulate and impassioned account of the workings of the world should be required reading for decision-makers everywhere. Hang on: that's all of us."
--Keith Brooke

"This is the book you were waiting for. Timely, encyclopedic, and compulsively readable, Denying Science makes sense of the whole sordid business. Buy two and send one to your congressman."
-- Michael Swanwick

"For the past few years, John Grant has been intrepidly documenting instances of bogus, corrupted, and discarded science. Now he’s back with perhaps the best of the lot: Denying Science. As topical and as cutting as past volumes have been, Denying Science gets to the heart of the problem in today’s world -- and does so with fascinating, brilliantly written accounts that may curl your toes but also contain elements of humor and absurdity. Highly recommended."
--Jeff VanderMeer

"John Grant is the living heir of Martin Gardner. He delivers the facts and suffers no fools."
--Gregory Frost

Obviously my bar bills are going to be a bit of a nightmare whenever I bump into any of these kind folk over the next few years . . .

AAPPL, the UK publisher which released my books Discarded Science, Corrupted Science and Bogus Science (among others), told me a year or so ago that it plans quietly to fold up its tents: it's not going out of business by any means, but, with a good backlist to maintain and exploit, it's not going to take on anything new. Kind of a shame, because they've done some great books, but I can understand how they feel.

This of course left me with the problem of finding a new publisher for future titles along the same lines. Although I was very keen to approach Prometheus, a publisher on whom I've long had a decided crush (they've published so many of my favourite books!), we assumed the US distributor of the three AAPPL books had first dibs . . . and so began a year-long process of, basically, being jerked around.

Finally we lost patience and sent my proposal for a new "----- Science" book Prometheus's way, and with remarkable speed they came back with an offer. I am absolutely in seventh heaven about this: it's kind of the realization of a longstanding dream to be published under the Prometheus imprint. You know: me and Martin Gardner sharing a publisher . . .

The book is to be called Denying Science and is, as you might guess, about the denial of science -- obviously a very topical subject at the moment, what with large-scale movements to deny anthropogenic climate change, the efficacy of vaccination, etc., etc., etc. Like Corrupted Science, it will doubtless be accused by extremists of being politically motivated because of a refusal to pretend there's some kind of valid midpoint between reality and stark, staring fallacy, as between natural selection and Creationism -- a refusal to be polite about bullshit, in other words. More hatemail will inevitably be coming my way; so it goes. But I think that, again as with Corrupted Science, this book really needs to be written as a counter to the tides of imbecility that threaten to engulf us.

Obviously I'm hoping Denying Science will be but the first episode of a long partnership with Prometheus, and they seem to feel similarly. There's been a whole lot of celebrating going on around here.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Entries tagged with prometheus

Denying Science cover quotes

sold: Denying Science

Profile

March 2013

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags