Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the Political Science of the Atomic Bomb

Jim Ottaviani communicates both scientific and historical fact in a comic book way. I usually shun the reading of graphic novels, as most of them communicate nothing more than good story line with little literary skill involved in its text. However, I will read Ottaviani because, whereas he does communicate through a graphic novel, he communicates fact and he does it very well. Fallout is no exception to his writing talent. I would heavily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys graphic novels and I would recommend this book to one who do not enjoy graphic novels. This book is a superbly written with very good pictures. Without a doubt this book scores a five out of five and the author scores a five out of five as well. Along with Alan Moore, Jim Ottaviani is one of the best graphic novelists.

Just received this book, haven't read it yet. I find it hard to believe that this copy of "Fallout" is a NEW book (which is what I paid for). The back and front covers have worn, curled edges and bent corners. Amazon's return/replacement link will only offer me a refund, not a replacement = not happy.

I really like this author, Suspended in Language was amazing as well as Feynman. But this book was just ok. I would of liked to learn more of the process and physics of making the bomb. But it is an amazing story. I reccomend Trinity. A graphic novel on the same subject.

Got this for our 11 yr old son who loves physics and he really enjoyed it. He finished it quickly, so I was a little concerned that he was just skimming but he remembered details about the scientists and events and it inspired him to do a little more research on his own. Love the personal details about the scientists.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. Initially I bought it intending to use for an 8th grade classroom, but upon reading found the content and writing style to be more academically mature - a greater level of basic understanding of the background issues is assumed, and the historical aspects of Oppenheimer's trial were nicely portrayed in my opinion with use of actual documents and such. So in a way I was pleasantly surprised to find that the novel was a bit over the head of my students and intended for a HS-level and above audience. The illustrations are nice and while there of course is plenty of info that was not included that I'm curious about, the authors had to pick and choose and I think they've done a fantastic job. A quick and fun read.

This is the complete review as it appears <a href="http://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2014/11/fallout-by-janine-johnston-jeffrey.html">at my blog dedicated to reading, writing (no 'rithmatic!), movies, & TV</a>. Blog reviews often contain links which are not reproduced here, nor will updates or modifications to the blog review be replicated here. Graphic and children's reviews on the blog typically feature two or three images from the book's interior, which are not reproduced here.Note that I don't really do stars. To me a book is either worth reading or it isn't. I can't rate it three-fifths worth reading! The only reason I've relented and started putting stars up there is to credit the good ones, which were being unfairly uncredited. So, all you'll ever see from me is a five-star or a one-star (since no stars isn't a rating, unfortunately).I rated this book WARTY!This graphic novel is a pictorial representation of events leading up to the development of the atomic bomb which was used to almost literally erase the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 and (along with the second bomb on Nagasaki) precipitate the end of World War Two. The bomb slaughtered some sixty thousand people, including twenty thousand Japanese troops, and it destroyed a munitions factory. That seems like a huge number of deaths and it is horrific without a doubt, but more destruction was rained down during Operation Meetinghouse, when the US napalmed helpless civilians in Tokyo, some one hundred thousand people died, and Tokyo was all but leveled; however, nothing has ever been built that's as fearful, as iconic, or as singularly destructive and pernicious as an atomic bomb.This novel describes the work of the scientists who finally figured out how to bring uranium to critical mass so that it set off a chain reaction and so graphically demonstrated the immensely powerful principle of E=mc². The work began long before it was decided to use the bomb, and it was driven not by a desire to defeat Japan, but out of fear that the Nazis would develop such a weapon.The black & white artwork is not that great, quite frankly. It's very inconsistent since it’s apparently drawn by more than one artist, and the story, believe it or not, is rather boring. How you can make a story like this boring is a mystery to me, but I had a bit of a time of it in reading this. I gave up about two-thirds or three-quarters the way through where the format changed to one featuring much more more text and a lot less imagery, in some sort of epilogue, which lost my interest completely.The novel is quite technical in parts, which was interesting to me, but it was also boring to read an almost endless account of some aspects of the story, while other topics flashed by with barely a mention. For example, the obsession with recording the tediously on-going need to build-up a graphite barrier around the core of the nuclear reaction in early testing, was weird and pointless! Depict it and move on already! There also seemed to be some confusion about the atomic number of Plutonium - with 94 being confused with 49. Plutonium had no name back then, and was known only as a number. I'm not a physicist, but there is, trust me, a huge difference between Indium and Plutonium!So, in short, I can’t recommend this graphic novel.

Although Fallout is in a comic book format it is serious history. The portraits are accurate. The events leading up to the bomb are covered in depth.The account of the government's digraceful treatment of Oppenheimer is chilling, reminding us of how the people at the top here were much like the leaders in the USSR.

great product

Basée sur l'histoire vraie de la génèse de la bombe atomique, ceci est une excellente reflexion sur la place de la science dans notre société.Traité sous la forme du roman graphique, fourmillant de détails sur les caractères des personnages clés de cette entreprise (Fermi, Szilard, Oppenheimer, Gal Groves, President Roosevelt, etc.) ce livre en anglais se lit et se relit avec un grand plaisir. Highly recommended!!!

I didn't realise that this was a cartoon and was at first inclined to return it (there was no clear information on the web page that this was a comic that I remember).However more so than most 'serious' books it does give a more accurate story The idea for "chain reaction" came to Leo Szilard, the letter to the President was signed by Einstein, but written by Szilard. Much of the scientific thinking came from Szilard and it was he who fought to ban the bomb afterwards.In reality Szilard is the greatest scientist ever not Einstein, but, hey, who's going to change a myth?So I quite liked this comic though the art work is crude and some times puzzling.