I finally finished The Romance of Reality by Bobby Azarian. It is one of those books that I feel I will need to read a few times to start to get a better understanding of what he is talking about. He does do a great job of presenting some very technical scientific theories in a way that I could at least follow. That I think is the book’s main strength.

I especially enjoyed the first 60 pages or so where he explains how life could have evolved naturally on Earth and quite probably on other planets as well. Also, it seems likely that increasing complexity is a natural function of the universe. All fascinating stuff. But also felt like this book often wandered deep into wild speculation, pseud-science, and even New Age woo woo. And the author seems to have grudge against some very prominent scientists who he apparently considers reductionists because they, I think rightly, question the idea that the universe is anything but objective. This and shit like using religion, spirituality, and Gaia to seriously describe what the universe is and what it might become nearly ruined the book for me several times while I was reading it.

I do plan on reading this book again, but I feel like I will have to cherry-pick my way through it and focus on the interesting and plausible parts while making a list of the other books The Romance of Reality mentions that maybe give more detailed, and hopefully far less woo woo, descriptions of some of the theories that caught my eye.

I so wanted to love this book, but in the end, while parts of it are fascinating, much of it was also frustrating. If you write Sci Fi like I do though, it is worth a read for nothing else, writing prompts and ideas.