3 out of 4 stars
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Of Zots and Xoodles is an informative and thought-provoking book. This science fiction is compact, straightforward and entertaining despite being heavily tainted with physics.
One Tuesday (If Tuesdays truly exist) Theodil stands in a room of rooms within a space of space before a doubtful and criticizing committee. There, Theodil creates the universe with nothing but zero parameters that will develop time, light, space, gravity and spots that look like dots which he calls zots. Eventually, the zots plow into each other when they dance and swirl, as a result, the dots look similarly like noodles and so, he calls them xoodles. Will Theodil amuse the committee with his theory? Will he capture the attention of a muffled and partisan crowd?
Of Zots and Xoodles is written by Zarqnon the Embarrassed or JW McLaughlin in real life who has deep curiosity in chemistry, biology, physics philosophy, music, religion, sci-fi, and other subjects. He found out that he is in the autism spectrum at 40 years old. The illustrator Frank Louis Allen is also in the autism spectrum and is legally blind.
I am not a sci-fi person therefore, I am fascinated that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The writer managed to put across what may seem like a complicated subject to others imaginatively and aesthetically. It is light and fun. Theodil is an intriguing, intelligent and humorous character. I can only wish that my chemistry and physics teachers were as charming and clever as Theodil. I love reading poems so the witty and poem-like dialogues such as “They look like spots. Let's call them zots. We’re so impressed by these dot - like zots” consequently drew a smile on my face. Initially, I thought that the illustration was chaotic, however, as I ponder the art together with the story, it became beautiful chaos.
I found this book inspiring. It encourages us to think outside the box, to be creative and to reflect on facts. Moreover, challenge and explore things or knowledge that we already know rather than simply settling on the story given to us. Absolutely, like the committee and the crowd in this story, there are people who will ignore, doubt, criticize and question us. They will try to agitate us, but like Theodil, we should persevere and stand by our newfound learning.
As much as I would like to give this book a perfect score, I will rate this book 3 stars out of 4. Noticeably, one of the unique features and charm of this book is the choppy storyline, however, as the story progressed it made me confused a lot. Nonetheless, I would like to recommend this book to everyone, especially those who like science fictions and those that are interested in creation theories.
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Of Zots and Xoodles
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