I just finished Dan Rockmore's Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis. I guess I'm going to reflect the diversity of reviews already up on Amazon about this latest in a growing collection of books covering the Riemann Hypothesis. Overall the book was an enjoyable weekend read which provides a good overview of the latest research on the RH while anchoring it in all of the appropriate historical contexts.

In comparison to other books on the subject I did enjoy the deeper coverage Rockmore provided into the latest research linking the RH to quantum physics. There was a far better coverage of this aspect of RH research than I’ve seen in similar books.

The book does have some weaknesses which got in the way of this being a really good read. Rockmore's writing style verges on the poetic at times which elevates the text above a dry regurgitation of the basic story but (As he readily admits in the book) there seems to be little in the book drawn from primary research which results in a lot of rehashing of the same anecdotes and stores covered in every other book on the subject.

In my view he also gets caught by the classic trap of trying to write a science book for both a general and math literate audience. The prose alternates between light hearted poetics and very dense written descriptions of complex math and physics theories. For the general reader it would have been better to relegate some of these descriptions to an appendix. I also agree with a couple of other reviewers that some of the analogies that Rockmore uses to make his points border on the distracting (The description of four women sitting in a restaurant to make the point about "Four-ness" is a case in point).

Overall and this is an ok read which you can get though pretty quickly. John Derbyshires' Prime Obsession is a much more enjoyable and satisfying read about the same subject.

My rating: 6/10