Rating: 
Summary: The Iceman Cometh!
Review: A marvelous blend of scientific journalism and detective novel, Iceman takes us on an investigative spree to the Tyrolean alps where the frozen corpse of a 5,300-year-old man was unexpectedly found in 1991. Surrounded by controversies--national, scientific, touristic and financial--the Iceman promised to open up new vistas of our understanding of human life in prehistoric times. He also promised to bring fame and wealth to those who could claim him as their own, whether through the accidents of discovery or geography, or through the accomplishments of scientific research that would decode the secrets hidden within his well-preserved body, clothing and tools. Following the progress of members of the international research team dedicated to preserving and studying the Iceman, Fowler lays bare the rather scandalously unscientific manner in which much of the research was (or wasn't) coordinated and explanatory hypotheses proposed. The suspense builds as she leads us from one dashed theory to the next, finally arriving at the research and hypotheses she finds most plausible to date. Both the science and the accounts of the scientists--few of whom come off in a very good light--are presented clearly and intelligently in a well-researched, often humorous and always compelling narrative. Highly recommended!
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Summary: Iceman the book also a fantastic find!
Review: Brenda Fowler's Iceman takes the reader on a beautifully described journey into the Austrian and Italian Alps where hikers unwittingly discover what could be, what SHOULD be, one of the most interesting sociological and scientific finds to date -- the 5300 year old mummified corpse of a man. Fowler is able to shed intriguing if glaring light on the unsavory combination of ego, politics, money and science. She gives readers an intimate portrait of the behind the scenes struggle to find a balance between preserving this historic find and uncovering meaningful information about him. Iceman reads more like a suspense novel than scientific text book and is captivating from page one. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a great story.
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Summary: A Frozen Mummy Comes Back To Life!
Review: Brenda Fowler's training as a journalist pays a handsome reward in this thoroughly-researched and well-written account of Ötzi's discovery on September 21, 1991, his well-intentioned but badly flawed recovery, and his archaeological importance, as well as the academic, political, legal, and financial intrigue (almost always petty) taking place behind the scenes. For eight years, Fowler interviewed everyone involved with Ötzi to uncover the truth about the sometimes misreported and confusing "facts" published in the media. She also has taken a discerning look at the various personalities involved: from the austere Konrad Spindler (who became the main spokesperson concerning Ötzi--and the main recipient of the financial rewards) to the Simons (who first found the body and later wanted to be paid for their discovery) to Klaus Oeggl, a young German botanist, whose brilliant studies of Ötzi countered Spindler's own (fairly unscientific) theory. Her hard work clearly shows: this is as much an archaeological mystery (set both in the Copper Age and the modern scientific world) as it is a record of the facts and speculations about an archaeological wonder named Ötzi. I highly recommend this book. You won't stop turning the pages--and when you're done. you'll want to go visit Ötzi at his Bolzano, Italy home. Eleven chapters, a prologue and epilogue, as well as detailed notes, a lengthy bibliography, and a thorough index. 313 pages, with 33 black and white photo plates inserted in the center of the book. The photos show Ötzi, his accessories, and many of the personalities described in the book. These are not National Geographic quality photos, but that's not the point of Fowler's book. You won't go wrong by reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I had hoped that this book would be a worthy successor to Konrad Spindler's "The Man In the Ice", but I was terribly disappointed. Fowler seems to care more about all the politics & bickering involved in the recovery and subsequent research than about the Iceman himself. She even seemed to attack Spindler, who did a FABULOUS job in his book, as a second-rate, money-grubbing charlatan. While some of his conclusions are indeed speculation, at least his book was sensitive, scholarly, VERY informative and respectful of the Iceman. Fowler's style would be better suited to investigating Clinton's follies. The only good thing I can say about this book is that Fowler provides some of the more recent theories about the man and his circumstances. Not even the pictures are good. Too many of the people involved, not enough of the Iceman and his equipment. If you want a good read about the Iceman, with GREAT pictures, try to pick up a copy of Spindler's "The Man in the Ice" at your favorite used bookstore. If you want tedious, boring gossip, read this.
Rating:
Summary: Iceman, or how not to do researach
Review: I originally bought the book hoping to learn something about the enigmatic, prehistoric mummy found by hikers in the Alps during the early 90s. When I started reading the book, I realized that it possessed a very chatty, narrative style not usually characteristic of the professional archaeologist and looked at the vita of the author. Seeing that Ms Fowler was a journalist, I rather clenched my teeth and prepared for a "readable" account of an archaeological discovery by an interested amateur. Much to my surprise, I found it a very skillfully written and researched expose on how not to do scientific research!! The story of Otzi the Iceman is a parable of our times. Science, enshrined in most of our minds as a clinical, abstract, and apolitical method of thinking and problem solving, is in fact a human activity. As such it is encumbered with all of the frailties attendant upon that condition. The Iceman reveals the political, professional, financial and personal pitfalls that a rare and unusual find of this type create for the individuals involved in its discovery, its preservation, its study and its display. The unfortunate man himself was probably never the focus of this much media and public attention in his entire lifetime. Certainly after his discovery none of the lives of those involved with his mortal remains would be the same again. The drama of the discovery is the center of Fowler's work, which questions the degree to which scientists as people can really be as divorced from the realities and pressures of life and as neutral in their perspectives as the discipline in theory demands. It certainly points out that there are differences in quality among various scientists, and that their personal motives can not be entirely ignored in evaluating the work they do. The book also points out the value of open communication between individual researchers and of peer review. It will be interesting to see if the discoverers of the Andean mummy, Jaunita, who are also mentioned in the book, will have learned from the mistakes of their predecessors.
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Summary: A Constnatly Fascinating Book
Review: One year ago I read this book, transfixed by the writing. Fowler clearly got the science of the subject material better than "The Man in the Ice" (which I bought as soon as it came out.) As an engineer, and student of the development of both the sciences and the technologies, it is often amazing how little purity exists in new developments. Certainly, if one of the large projects - I've been on a few with international media coverage - is analyzed from the inside, it looks VERY different than the media hype or soundbites. Fowler wrote a book so filled with hooks that it will affix itself to anyone with a scintilla of curiosity, but whether she consciously considered this or not, her result was not only the history of one man dying high on a mountain glacier several thousand years ago and how he lived, but the story of how WE live in the same environs NOW, and how institutions of science can be rendered impotent by their own internal dynamics as amplified by the various needs of individual researchers. The Iceman's society was clearly fragmented and very rudimentary. There is no way to know if he even had much of a language, but we who live in the 21st century have benefitted from thousands of years of written history, the development of science, technology, and government/society... and, quite frankly, we almost botched this incredible discovery. It's a wonder that the Iceman wasn't sold to a rendering plant and turned into food pellets for mad cows! I guess if you don't want to know anything about the present state of our world society and why people would even BE in that area now, this would be pretty disrupting to you. It would require skimming through many pages of 'inconsequential' information to get what you'd really want: a time travel experience without knowledge of the society that produced the time machine or the technology of the time machine itself. It's rare enough to find a book that GETS the story of a present day development correctly, but one that gets the overall structure of something like Iceman... is... well, almost as rare as the Icemen himself.
Rating: 
Summary: Otzi
Review: Otzi A book review It was on the first day of Fall in 1991. On September 21st a duet of hikers in the Austrian Alps stumbled upon a strange site. They had found the body of someone encased in the high alltitude ice. That discovery began a fascinating series of additional events and studies reported in Iceman, a new book by Brenda Fowler. A Chigagoian, Fowler's journalistic work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London and other publications. Published this year by Random House, Iceman (subtitled: Uncovering the life and times of a prehistoric man found in an Alpine Glacier) reads somewhat like a mystery in that Fowler follows a time line from the moment the body was found to the apparent end of things; she doesn't jump ahead to the end & back track, filling in details. The body was discovered in the Otztal Valley between Austria and Italy, in the Tyrol Province. The body was given several names, mostly meaning 'the man from the ice,' or 'the man in the ice," but Otzi (which sounds like tootsie, in English) seems to have stuck,..and has the obvious connection to where the corpse was found. Fowler has taken the time to properly identify the main characters in this event, one which brought to the attention of the world the body of a man (and it is male) who lived over 5,300 years ago. The book reveals the many problems Otzi caused, from determining if he was found in Austria or in Italy (maps of the area were, at the time, a little inaccurate) to who he was, where he lived, how he died. The importance of where he actually died or where he was actually found had emmense economic interest to the respective countries. As the media came into play, it becamse increasingly obvious that many, many people might be interested enough in Otzi that tourism would benefit. Fowler's book is fascinating, not only for the details of this man from years ago, but to learn more about the way in which science works, or is supposed to work. Many disciplines were involved in this research project, all trying to contribute something significant to the question: who was he? This, alone, makes the book a worthwhile read, especially to anyone not busy in the day to day life of things scientific. It was especially revealing to note how greed and pride came to play roles in this investigation. Aside from the nearly obligatory evolutionary nonsense in most books of science today, the book's 270 pages of text provides insights to life in that part of world, shortly after the worldwide flood associated with Noah. If anything, understanding those times can contribute to a better appreciation for what we have today. Although Otzi has fallen from much media attention today, he did draw considerable attention around the world for several years. During the time of this interest, until he was housed in a special building, many specialists looked at him and the artifacts found in the ice with him or near the body. Using high tech equipment, specialists were able to discover a lot about this man, much more than he could have imagined. It was learned where he was from, where he secured the wood to make his arrows, the source of the copper for his axe, even to the extent of knowing what he ate a few hours before his demise. It is interesting to realize that so much can be learned without a victim saying a single word. In the course of things someone suggested that Otzi was a hoax, not unlike Piltdown man which fooled the scientific community for many years. This fear about the Iceman was effectively set aside but the episode. if anything, revealed the necessity to do careful research and document everything. Fowler shows that even careful researchers can be persuaded to sometimes say more than what the research shows. Otzi today resides in a specially constructed, temperature controlled room at a museum in Bolzano, in South Tyrol. He had been kept at Innsbruck but was finally put to rest in January 1998 in this special room, in a museum which had been restored mainly for him and the things found with him. The book has an extensvie bibliography for those who may wish to do additional research. Otzi has not gone unnoticed on the Internet...
Rating:
Summary: Iceman: Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man
Review: Since Konrad Spindler's book "The Man in the Ice" (1996) has been shown to be more flight of fancy than fact-based reconstruction, those interested in this subject have been awaiting the scientific revelations the Iceman's well-preserved corpse undoubtedly embodies (pun intended). Although I found Fowler's journalistic narrative both well-written and interesting for its behind-the-scenes peek into the events following the sensational discovery of this 5,300-year-old mummy, I found the subtitle misleading, and the book, ultimately, disappointing. Though not an archaeologist by profession, I am deeply interested in the subject and count myself among thousands of well-educated laypeople eager to share in the discoveries of our more formally qualified brethren. Both the promise of the book's subtitle ("Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man...") and its recent publication date had me thinking that Fowler would be presenting the very latest findings and drawing on these to create a vibrant portrait of daily life in Alpine Europe during the Copper Age. Alas, Fowler is first and foremost a journalist, not a prehistorian. This is evident throughout her work, as she insistently focuses on the political maneuvering and interpersonal politics between the various scientists and institutions involved in research on the Iceman, almost to the point of ignoring what we have learned about him and the world in which he lived. The paucity of illustrations is another strike against the book. What few there are, are blurry b/w photos and a handful of line drawings. Any reader hungry for insight into what this man's life might have been like is sure to come away unsatisfied. Still, what Fowler does have to say is of interest, if only for revealing the petty infighting and blunders that have overshadowed what little research has been done on the Iceman.
Rating:
Summary: Iceman: Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man
Review: Since Konrad Spindler's book "The Man in the Ice" (1996) has been shown to be more flight of fancy than fact-based reconstruction, those interested in this subject have been awaiting the scientific revelations the Iceman's well-preserved corpse undoubtedly embodies (pun intended). Although I found Fowler's journalistic narrative both well-written and interesting for its behind-the-scenes peek into the events following the sensational discovery of this 5,300-year-old mummy, I found the subtitle misleading, and the book, ultimately, disappointing. Though not an archaeologist by profession, I am deeply interested in the subject and count myself among thousands of well-educated laypeople eager to share in the discoveries of our more formally qualified brethren. Both the promise of the book's subtitle ("Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man...") and its recent publication date had me thinking that Fowler would be presenting the very latest findings and drawing on these to create a vibrant portrait of daily life in Alpine Europe during the Copper Age. Alas, Fowler is first and foremost a journalist, not a prehistorian. This is evident throughout her work, as she insistently focuses on the political maneuvering and interpersonal politics between the various scientists and institutions involved in research on the Iceman, almost to the point of ignoring what we have learned about him and the world in which he lived. The paucity of illustrations is another strike against the book. What few there are, are blurry b/w photos and a handful of line drawings. Any reader hungry for insight into what this man's life might have been like is sure to come away unsatisfied. Still, what Fowler does have to say is of interest, if only for revealing the petty infighting and blunders that have overshadowed what little research has been done on the Iceman.
Rating: 
Summary: The Politics behind the Iceman
Review: The book is a good read but I expected more. The focus is on the people and the micro politics of academia and the politics beyond and, for my taste, too little on the Iceman and what we can learn from him.
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