This really isn't very good. The attempt to make cosmology accessible leads to oddities like Hawking explaining imaginary numbers without using exponents of any kind (or square roots), but going on to use the concept to try to explain the shape of the universe in imaginary time! I can only account for its popularity by its combination of a superficial treatment of interesting topics, an absence of any explanations of true depth, and a rather tired obsession with the theology of cosmology.

There's really only so many times you can read the structure "a thousand million million (one followed by 15 zeros)" without thinking, "introduce scientific notation and get it over with!"

Meanwhile, his attempts to be colloquial tend to be just silly, and his references to "science fiction" suggest that his knowledge of what science fiction is like were formed by watching Star Trek in the 60's.

There are better books on cosmology. They'll be more challenging, but you might actually learn something. Try Brian Greene. ( )

A very excellent read for anyone interesting in physics or space. Easy to read, to the point, well-illustrated. Great as reference material. You'll definately feel smarter after reading this. ( )

http://www.amazon.com/review/R38VQ60A... ( )

This book is amazing! If you like science but can't understand all the math, this is one for you! The illustations are so unusual and can be contemplated over for hours. This book has special meaning for me because my 11 year old autistic son read and immediately explained it to me (in his words) after I had spent half the night trying to understand its concepts. I finally knew there was a person in there. ( )

http://www.neilfein.com/2006/06/brief... ( )