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Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places
An adventurous ride through the most blisteringly hot regions of science, history, and culture.
Melting glaciers, warming oceans, droughts-it's clear that today's world is getting hotter. But while we know the agony of a sunburn or the comfort of our winter heaters, do we really understand heat?
A bestselling scientist and nature writer who goes to any extreme to uncover the answers, Bill Streever sets off to find out what heat really means. Let him be your guide and you'll firewalk across hot coals and sweat it out in Death Valley, experience intense fever and fire, learn about the invention of matches and the chemistry of cooking, drink crude oil, and explore thermonuclear weapons and the hottest moment of all time-the big bang.
Written in Streever's signature spare and refreshing prose, Heat is an adventurous personal narrative that leaves readers with a new vision of an everyday experience-how heat works, its history, and its relationship to daily life.
Melting glaciers, warming oceans, droughts-it's clear that today's world is getting hotter. But while we know the agony of a sunburn or the comfort of our winter heaters, do we really understand heat?
A bestselling scientist and nature writer who goes to any extreme to uncover the answers, Bill Streever sets off to find out what heat really means. Let him be your guide and you'll firewalk across hot coals and sweat it out in Death Valley, experience intense fever and fire, learn about the invention of matches and the chemistry of cooking, drink crude oil, and explore thermonuclear weapons and the hottest moment of all time-the big bang.
Written in Streever's signature spare and refreshing prose, Heat is an adventurous personal narrative that leaves readers with a new vision of an everyday experience-how heat works, its history, and its relationship to daily life.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2013
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691 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
May 19, 2014
“Mr. Madison Streever, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
I was very much looking forward to this book. I truly enjoyed Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places. I learned so much, and was so excited about what I learned, that I was nearly stopping people on the street to talk about how houses in Alaska are built to try and withstand shifting permafrost, and how Moose start sweating at 20 degrees above zero, etc. Streever’s authorial interjections about his own adventures, used most frequently as a set up for the next chapter, occasionally annoyed me but they were few and far between.
And then…. And then there is this book.
Its really terrible. I mean, I almost feel bad about how much I didn’t like it, but it was so BORING and AGGRAVATING. There was almost nothing about animal or human adaptations to living in the heat, but there was what felt like an infinity of chapters about pipes on oil rigs. The first few chapters are interesting, and I was kind of excited to read the book. I mean, who doesn’t want to know that a camel’s poop is so dry it can be burnt as fuel immediately upon defecation? THAT’S AWESOME. The information on fire was old hat to me, but was still probably new for a lot of people- but this is where the author starts allowing his personality to shine through, and then he never puts it away for the rest of the story. And this should probably be a spoiler alert, but the author is kind of an ass. He gets lost in Death Valley, and while his companion (is this not his wife?) starts to suffer heat exhaustion he decides it’s totally time to go exploring in some caves. He tries to hold his hand over a candle until the pain register an 11 in hopes to commune with the pain of firefighters (at least in this case he ultimately feels foolish). There are just so many instances that are ridiculous.
He specifically mentions stealing from two museums (sure he left a generous donation, but seriously? You just don’t!), while his son was present, and makes what seems to me to be very judgmental criticisms of other nationalities such as describing Germans "their mouths stuffed with bratwurst.". Agh!
But more than that the writing is just bad. Gone is the enthusiasm that we saw in Cold. Now we are left with sentences like this:
And
It’s just horrifically boring writing. You really have to slog through it. You read more about the hike on the way to a destination than how the destination embodies one of the Earth’s hottest places. Then on top of the overly simple sentence structure that just drones on, he is constantly running on about fire walking and carbon emissions. Now, I could almost totally see where he was going with the Carbon emission discussion, but he never concludes or fleshes it out… so it’s a running meter in the background of the book that is distracting rather than enlightening. The problem with the fire walking is similar, it’s just thrown in willy-nilly, it seems to not have a point in the book other than something the author could do, and his delivery falls flat here as well.
In the end I would give it zero stars, but that counts as a non-rating, so you get one Bill, just one.
I was very much looking forward to this book. I truly enjoyed Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places. I learned so much, and was so excited about what I learned, that I was nearly stopping people on the street to talk about how houses in Alaska are built to try and withstand shifting permafrost, and how Moose start sweating at 20 degrees above zero, etc. Streever’s authorial interjections about his own adventures, used most frequently as a set up for the next chapter, occasionally annoyed me but they were few and far between.
And then…. And then there is this book.
Its really terrible. I mean, I almost feel bad about how much I didn’t like it, but it was so BORING and AGGRAVATING. There was almost nothing about animal or human adaptations to living in the heat, but there was what felt like an infinity of chapters about pipes on oil rigs. The first few chapters are interesting, and I was kind of excited to read the book. I mean, who doesn’t want to know that a camel’s poop is so dry it can be burnt as fuel immediately upon defecation? THAT’S AWESOME. The information on fire was old hat to me, but was still probably new for a lot of people- but this is where the author starts allowing his personality to shine through, and then he never puts it away for the rest of the story. And this should probably be a spoiler alert, but the author is kind of an ass. He gets lost in Death Valley, and while his companion (is this not his wife?) starts to suffer heat exhaustion he decides it’s totally time to go exploring in some caves. He tries to hold his hand over a candle until the pain register an 11 in hopes to commune with the pain of firefighters (at least in this case he ultimately feels foolish). There are just so many instances that are ridiculous.
He specifically mentions stealing from two museums (sure he left a generous donation, but seriously? You just don’t!), while his son was present, and makes what seems to me to be very judgmental criticisms of other nationalities such as describing Germans "their mouths stuffed with bratwurst.". Agh!
But more than that the writing is just bad. Gone is the enthusiasm that we saw in Cold. Now we are left with sentences like this:
We drive through the refinery. We look at columns. We look at pipes. We look at valves. We do not see oil. All the oil is inside the columns, the pipes, the valves.
And
The forty-niners created landscapes as barren as those of Death Valley, or more so, but wetter.
It’s just horrifically boring writing. You really have to slog through it. You read more about the hike on the way to a destination than how the destination embodies one of the Earth’s hottest places. Then on top of the overly simple sentence structure that just drones on, he is constantly running on about fire walking and carbon emissions. Now, I could almost totally see where he was going with the Carbon emission discussion, but he never concludes or fleshes it out… so it’s a running meter in the background of the book that is distracting rather than enlightening. The problem with the fire walking is similar, it’s just thrown in willy-nilly, it seems to not have a point in the book other than something the author could do, and his delivery falls flat here as well.
In the end I would give it zero stars, but that counts as a non-rating, so you get one Bill, just one.
February 23, 2013
I read this because I liked Cold, which was a better book than this one.
The first parts about the desert and fires were good. The history of oil drilling in the northeastern US was somewhat interesting. But, too much time was spent on it. It felt like it became the focal point of the book, when I'd be more interested in reading more about the volcanoes and nuclear research. His repeated references to fire walking were a weak attempt to glue the parts of the book together. When he finally does firewalk the description of the experience was so anti-climactic, it made me wonder why he bothered talking about it so much.
Streever's attempts to create a voice that combined Ed Abbey and a Physicist came off to me as unoriginal as he was unable to effectively synthesize the two perspectives. His experiments with disposable lighters and microwaves didn't impress me either.
I felt a little bamboozled by the title of this book. I probably won't read his future works about windy, wet, dry, scratchy, smooth, dark, bright......
The first parts about the desert and fires were good. The history of oil drilling in the northeastern US was somewhat interesting. But, too much time was spent on it. It felt like it became the focal point of the book, when I'd be more interested in reading more about the volcanoes and nuclear research. His repeated references to fire walking were a weak attempt to glue the parts of the book together. When he finally does firewalk the description of the experience was so anti-climactic, it made me wonder why he bothered talking about it so much.
Streever's attempts to create a voice that combined Ed Abbey and a Physicist came off to me as unoriginal as he was unable to effectively synthesize the two perspectives. His experiments with disposable lighters and microwaves didn't impress me either.
I felt a little bamboozled by the title of this book. I probably won't read his future works about windy, wet, dry, scratchy, smooth, dark, bright......
March 30, 2017
I really enjoyed Streever's earlier book "Cold" and looked forward to reading this follow up. Not only did it not disappoint, I loved it.
The books are stylistically similar so what I'm about to say applies to both: the sentences are short and punchy; the books are loaded with interesting science and history facts; dry, irreverent Onion.com-like humor is woven throughout the books; Streever often comes back to subjects throughout the books to tie concepts together in seamless and fascinating ways; he's like the kid who can't take the teacher's word for it, he has to try things on his own (usually to great comic effect); the science is understandable but still interesting.
The Acknowledgments section is the best I've read in a long time. It seemed truly genuine, a rarity. (And it cleared up the nagging question about the identity of his unnamed companion.) If you read the book don't skip the Notes section, they're informative and interesting and written in the style of the book.
The books are stylistically similar so what I'm about to say applies to both: the sentences are short and punchy; the books are loaded with interesting science and history facts; dry, irreverent Onion.com-like humor is woven throughout the books; Streever often comes back to subjects throughout the books to tie concepts together in seamless and fascinating ways; he's like the kid who can't take the teacher's word for it, he has to try things on his own (usually to great comic effect); the science is understandable but still interesting.
The Acknowledgments section is the best I've read in a long time. It seemed truly genuine, a rarity. (And it cleared up the nagging question about the identity of his unnamed companion.) If you read the book don't skip the Notes section, they're informative and interesting and written in the style of the book.
August 29, 2013
Thanks to goodreads and the author for this First Reads giveaway!
I never would have thought a book about heat would be so boring. "Adventures" is certainly misleading.
I never would have thought a book about heat would be so boring. "Adventures" is certainly misleading.
August 21, 2013
Pretentious. Not so much a science book as musings about vaguely scientific topics
December 8, 2012
I received this book free from Goodreads' first reads.
This book started out by describing what prolonged exposure to heat does to the human body. The second chapter talks about wild fires. I feel a warning is needed, these two chapters are quite graphic. The squeamish beware. I'm not squeamish and found all this fascinating. I'd also like to add that whatever we pay firefighters is not enough, it couldn't possibly be enough.
Streever goes on to talk about cooking, fuel, volcanoes, nuclear weapons, and even supercolliders. This book was fun, informative, and very well written. It has convinced me to read his previous book about cold.
This book started out by describing what prolonged exposure to heat does to the human body. The second chapter talks about wild fires. I feel a warning is needed, these two chapters are quite graphic. The squeamish beware. I'm not squeamish and found all this fascinating. I'd also like to add that whatever we pay firefighters is not enough, it couldn't possibly be enough.
Streever goes on to talk about cooking, fuel, volcanoes, nuclear weapons, and even supercolliders. This book was fun, informative, and very well written. It has convinced me to read his previous book about cold.
February 27, 2013
This book really drags toward the end. Worth reading for the chapter about the man who got lost in the desert. While the affects of heat on the body are not pretty it is probably something we all should know.
February 24, 2013
Bill Streever is a weird guy. But I like the way he writes about science and history. Kind of like if Bill Bryson were crazy.
August 21, 2018
Bill, man! You don't have to put your hand in a candle flame or drink a spoonful of petroleum or play with hot lava or walk barefoot on coals or stay out too long in Death Valley in summer just to get our attention! Your writing is good enough to reel us in without that. Still, maybe that's just the kind of guy you are.
The result is a sometimes fun, sometimes disturbing, always interesting assortment of scientific topics under the heading of "heat"--Death Valley, volcanoes, wildfires, petroleum and other heating fuels, nuclear bombs, firewalking--which taught me, A Layperson, lots of things I didn't know. I'm giving copies of this book as a gift to my dad and dad-in-law, who both are into science and nonfiction.
Now put the hot coals down, Bill! I mean it!
The result is a sometimes fun, sometimes disturbing, always interesting assortment of scientific topics under the heading of "heat"--Death Valley, volcanoes, wildfires, petroleum and other heating fuels, nuclear bombs, firewalking--which taught me, A Layperson, lots of things I didn't know. I'm giving copies of this book as a gift to my dad and dad-in-law, who both are into science and nonfiction.
Now put the hot coals down, Bill! I mean it!
September 3, 2019
The author has also written "Cold". I will be looking that one up somewhere down the line. Heat is a mix-up of hot things and hot places underlain by the author's desire to try firewalking. Even though he says he didn't feel any heat on his feet during three passes of the fire pit, it's not a sport I am going to take up! The rest of the book wanders through Death Valley, the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania and how the Supercollider works with stops in between for history and information. It worked well as a car book to be read at traffic stops and other travel delays.
December 6, 2021
Streever is a science writer who wrote a book called "Cold" about traveling to some of the coldest places on earth. He sort of reprises it in "Heat," but also talks about things that generate heat and not just hot places. The book meanders as a result. Some vignettes are interesting. Many are not. His writing style doesn't help and his effort to use anonymous terms for people (and then name them all in the afterword) is off-putting.
May 18, 2017
I have no idea where I got this print ARC, but it's old. I mostly read this on the island, and several people commented on the appropriateness of the title as I read and basked in the 80-degree sunshine. I'm always cold.
This is not a must-read, but it is fairly interesting, combining a fair amount of well-explained, well-incorporated science along with history and travel information.
This is not a must-read, but it is fairly interesting, combining a fair amount of well-explained, well-incorporated science along with history and travel information.
January 19, 2018
I would have enjoyed this a lot more if the guy's writing style hadn't been so irritating. As an editor, I longed to get rid of his conjunctions ("The pumps and drills and head frames and barrels of the early oil industry ...", too-short sentences (should have been combined with the NEXT too-short sentence!) and his fatuous repetitions. I felt like I was a child being lectured to.
April 2, 2018
The title is a bit misleading - it's not really a travelogue of the geographically hottest places, but rather a scientific examination of different kinds of heat, with an eye toward global warming. The author is ever-so-slightly snotty, but otherwise good.
March 10, 2021
I read "Cold" ten years ago, and found it fascinating and entertaining. "Heat" held my interest just as well. A well-rounded collection of expeditions into the worlds of (nuclear) physics, history, energy, geography, culinary arts, human mind, and more.
June 29, 2021
I have learned a lot of interesting scientific and historical things, but the prose is very choppy and stylistically uneven. This book has a very odd flow that made it take longer to read than it should have.
December 7, 2017
This eclectic mix of scientific fact, odd anecdote, and poetic language was fascinating to read. I finished it and immediately searched for more by Streever.
November 22, 2018
Not an exciting fiction book but interesting to learn about volcanos, whale oil, petroleum, equator living. Sometimes I would get lost in the technicality of it but overall a book worth reading.
April 17, 2019
This book seemed to me to be about the author trying to see how much heat, or flame, he could endure at various places on the planet.
July 18, 2019
Very very poor
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2020
I read this because I enjoyed Cold but this just seemed forced and not very interesting
April 8, 2022
This book had a lot of interesting information but seemed like it went all over the place which made it difficult to follow. Also, for an intelligent guy, he seemed to take a lot of foolish risks.
March 26, 2023
Some of the descriptions in this book convinced me that warming is the part of climate change that ] is underrated.
April 13, 2025
Really didn't connect with author. He starts the book by describing self harm, the deliberately sets off in the desert without enough water. What a dumb ass.
December 21, 2020
I would recommend any book by Bill Streever and this one is certainly no exception. His writing style flows perfectly and the material is always a fascinating combination of the physical/elemental (weather, chemistry etc) and the biological.
Just a great read.
Just a great read.
February 26, 2016
I didn't enjoy Heat quite as much as Streevers previous book Cold. It seemed like cold was written out of passion for the subject but Heat was written because it made sense as a follow up. It could be that I am mis-judging that, and it's actually that the subject matter isn't as interesting, but that was the impression I got. I loved Cold, and read through it quickly, but Heat didn't grab me in the same way.
My favorite parts of Cold were all the descriptions of different cultures of people and animals that had adapted and evolved deal with cold weather, and Heat had a lot less of that. It's still an enjoyable and enlightening read and I wanted to like it better.
My favorite parts of Cold were all the descriptions of different cultures of people and animals that had adapted and evolved deal with cold weather, and Heat had a lot less of that. It's still an enjoyable and enlightening read and I wanted to like it better.
September 10, 2015
This is probably the only 5 star rating I would give to a science book. However, this guy is amazing. I wonder where he was when I was taking Astronomy, Biology, Botany, Genetics and especially Physical Science when I was in college. This book is an in-depth look at heat and its sources. He is able to bring the very technical aspects of heat whether it be from a grass fire or a particle collider into layman's terms. If you aren't afraid to read a bit of science I definitely recommend this book. He has also written a book called 'Cold' and I must admit I am intrigued.
March 30, 2013
A mostly enjoyable, interesting read. I really loved Streever's book COLD because I love Ant/Arctic history and facts, so I tried HEAT. My favorite parts of the book were learning about people dehydrating or getting sunstroke or dying in fires, and the bits about coal mining, oil-drilling, and atomic bombs were just frosting. Less exciting were Streever's meditations on all of the above and his build-up to firewalking, which I skipped.
March 13, 2013
Although the book was interesting, it was not at all what I expected. The fact that the author is a biologist is very evident throughout. When I read the subtitle "adventures in the world's fiery places" I expected this to be more of a travel-based narration. Although there was a lot of travel, there were also full chapters on the use of coal and gas mainly centred around the US. I finish this book having learned a lot, but not having learned what I expected to.
March 11, 2017
I won this through the goodreads first reads program. I thought it was pretty good. I liked the chapter on volcanoes the best. Well written, good imagery, and interesting. It did take me a while to read it, I kept putting it down in favor of other books.
He does pull some stupid stunts, see the other reviews on this book for details.
He does pull some stupid stunts, see the other reviews on this book for details.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews