Since so many books about science, space, and nature write from a place of awe, I was intrigued by this book's irreverent reversal -- to write from a place of "hate" or disdain or dread. Of course, it achieves the same goal, inspiring awe at the very implausibility and precarity of life on Earth. The book's irreverence veered toward crudeness too often for me, though, and I had to put it down. I'm sure I'm the exception and the book's potty humor will be appreciated by most.

I requested this book because of the title (of course) and being a person of a certain academic persuasion, I always enjoy an opportunity to nerd out, even if at times, things out there can be a bit, well, dark.

One thing most academics have in common is a certain sense of humour and this is found in abundance in this book.

I really enjoy books that dismiss with the jargonese of science and instead adopt a more relaxed rhetoris. This makes learning a lot more accessible and less intimidating for a lot of students. It aso primes them for more academic texts as they are already armed with a solid grounding in the subject

I would absolutely reommend this book to teachers, academics, students, mutants, aliens etc, You know you will live it really. And don't forget your towel. IYKYK

Thank you to Netgalley for this wonderful insight to hating the universe and a great reason not to. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

This book is great fun. The "science" part is fine; each brief chapter actually has a factoid or two that's interesting, or at least a novel take on something you probably already knew, (like, say, the Great Filter theory). But the star here is the fact that the text is honestly amusing. And I don't mean jokey or at the Dummies books level. The writing is clever, a bit dry, and often surprisingly witty. The overall tone is congenial, and the authors do a decent job of carrying off the premise/conceit that everything in the universe is trying to kill you. I don't think I'd sit down and try to read this through from cover to cover, but in bite size 5-6 page chapters it's just right as an amusing diversion.

“The Universe cares about you, but only inasmuch as it wants you dead. Once you take the rose-colored glasses off, you soon realize that the Universe really wants nothing to do with you, and often it is trying to kill you.”
———
This book is trying to explain to the optimists what we, cynical pessimists, have known all along — the Universe is a jerk. And a murderous one, too. We humans, those soft squishy apes who need perfect conditions for merest survival, have no chance in the long term. We’re screwed, scientifically speaking.

The 42 ways in which we are screwed start right at home — and the authors mercilessly mock the hurt feelings of those readers who, like me, expected the cool space stuff from the get-go. But before you get to the black holes you need to sit through the very brief chapters on microbes, oxygen radicals (yeah, antioxidants are indeed just as much bullshit - but pricey bullshit - as the cynics stated from the start), pollution, human biases, the dangers of future nanotechnology going rogue, ionizing radiation, bad diets, autoimmune diseases, poisonous environment, earthquakes, volcanoes, sex (yeah, humans are surprisingly not the grossest Earth inhabitants when it comes to sex, just ask the antechinus or a horny bedbug), and all kinds of deadly animals (“Wherever you go, mosquitoes are the same—jerk-offs with hypodermic needles strapped to their face, prepping to inject you with pestilence while you sleep.”)

But then - finally - the book turned to the stuff beyond our atmosphere and my long-suffering attention span finally perked up. As it always does once one casually works the very scientific term “spaghettification” into any conversation because, let’s face it, you know it’s awesome in the most gruesomely funny way.

Living on Mars seems fun (yes, I do own a t-shirt that says “Sign me up for the Mars colony”, duh!) but apparently I’m wrong about it. Black holes and star deaths are pretty deadly as well. Expanding universe, entropy, miniature black holes, living in a simulation, vacuum decay, quarks and strange matter. Not to mention outer space — there’s a good way to sour - I mean, soil - my future dream space hike:

“Clearly we are in the future, so perhaps long space hikes will be a thing. It could be romantic—a low-gravity expedition with a loved one across a distant moon, listening to the sound of them shitting in their space suit through your earpiece.”

The chapters are short and the ways in which the universe can make life difficult are plentiful. And here unfortunately is the weakness of this book — it scatters its attention too much among all of it. It’s personal preference, of course, but I would have much rather seen it focus on fewer things (and most of it for my liking would have been the space stuff outside of the bounds of Earth atmosphere, even if that causes the authors to make merciless fun of my expectations - but “cosmic chlamydia” just sounds more fun than the plain earthly one) and go a bit more in depth about those instead of short and playful overviews. (But maybe they really really wanted to get the number 42 here, which is obviously the answer to the question of the life, universe and everything, and if I have to explain that to you, then my head just may explode all over my living room).

It’s written very colloquially, with puns and jokes and a huge dose of crass humor. Usually I love this, but even my immature sense of humor had to admit that at times Ferrie and co. may be trying a bit too hard to be constantly and enthusiastically funny. Perhaps reading this books in small chunks, one short chapter a day, would help dilute the eventually somewhat overwhelming irreverent humor onslaught.

(Although I’m always happy about unsubtle mocking of astrology in any form:)

“The photo you’ve probably seen (as it is the only one ever taken at the time of writing this) was from the Event Horizon Telescope of M87*, the black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87. This galaxy is in the constellation Virgo, which makes it hardworking, funny, and a great lover. It also means that it is super-compatible with objects in the Taurus constellation, which are graceful, diligent, but stubborn at times. Just watch out when the Sun passes through Aquarius, which if you haven’t rolled your eyes yet means you’re a fucking idiot.”

And now I’m realizing that the voice of this book is exactly what *my* inner voice sounds like, so screw it — I’m rounding my 3.5 stars to 4 because crass nerdy dorky humor is the best.
——
“Oh, and if you are the Universe, the jig is up—we are calling you out. From extinctions to murderous artificial intelligence, all the way to the collapsing of space and time itself—this is bullshit! Sure, many of the shitty things you have in store for us are preventable, and there is a perverted sort of beauty in staring into the darkness of your infinite depths. You may have fooled people with your pretty space dust and golden ratios, but these things are just a front. We have science now, and we are watching you.”

——————

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Do you feel anxious because of global warming and war and everything else that's happening to destroy the planet? This book will give you some perspective. Things are so much worse than you imagine.
I love books where a great science communicator can so clearly explain complex concepts. This book breaks down so many interesting ideas!
In the end, after explaining how terrible everything is, there is something almost like optimism.
There is also a lot of humor here, and it was a really fun ride.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

42 Reasons To Hate The Universe by Chris Ferry, Wade David Fayerclaw Anburn la Ginestra is a book that is exactly what the title states 42 reasons one should completely have nothing but distain for the universe with a sardonic tone the authors give us all the facts we need so we too can have animosity towards this world we live in. They cover everything from the atmosphere aliens are fellow humans Lightning strikes that cost fires to little transistors and just FYI I love the ignorant comments they bring to light out people said years ago that turned out to be so dumb it made me laugh this is a very intelligent book and although most of it is told in humor it is all based on fact and head glaring off into the distance at times especially during the chapter about DNA in the double helix having said that for the most part like 99% of it it was entertaining informative humorous and just an all-around awesome read by the time it’s over you will be more in awe of this world we live in as opposed to disliking it if you love amazing facts or just useless information you would definitely love this book because you could view it as either/or but whatever you label it you will definitely enjoy it I certainly did. I want to thank Sorsa Books non-fiction and Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I loved this book. The approach is great. Instead of the usual the universe is great sort of thing, the approach here is that the universe is terrible. The book then explains in a clear and conversational tone, how the universe operates. While there is an undertone of humour throughout the book, at times the book is laugh-out-loud funny. And some of the passages are so well-written that I would re-read them. This is a great way to teach science.and to communicate a message. This book is well worth reading even for people who already have a background in science. Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the advance reader copy. .