A non fiction book pimped heavily by Ira Flatow on NPR, Hiding in the Mirror is an overview of cutting edge cosmology and particle physics by Lawrence Krauss.

The full title of the book is: Hiding in the Mirror: The Quest for Alternate Realities, from Plato to String Theory (by way of Alicein Wonderland, Einstein, and The Twilight Zone)

In reality, Plato, Alice, Einstein and the Twilight Zone are hooks for Krauss to investigate and discuss higher dimensions, string theory, particle physics, cosmology and a host of related subjects and digressions underneath that umbrella.

Starting with a memory of a Twilight Zone episode ("Little Girl Lost"), Krauss explores the ideas of extra dimensions, eventually getting into particle physics, quantum gravity, and string theory. Having written about and clearly being a big fan of Star Trek, Krauss is tuned into popular culture and uses examples from science fiction as vehicles for discussing some very tricky subjects. He's not a devotee at the church of String Theory, and so his view of it is somewhat more skeptical than other books I've read on the subject (eg, Brian Greene's work).

Krauss does a good job at balancing the material. Its difficult to make these esoteric subjects accessible to everyone, and perhaps only someone like Carl Sagan could have done much better. Equations are at a bare minimum in the book. I did take away a better knowledge of some of the corners of particle physics. Since reading this, I picked up the latest Scientific American, and a discussion of some particulars of bosons in an article made me think "Aha! Krauss discussed *that*!"

I think its a good primer on these subjects for intelligent readers who want to know more about some very tricky subjects. ( )

The subtitle expresses it all: "The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions".

We start with a recap of special and general relativity, setting the stage for the claim that physics has, legitimately, changed how we think about space and time.
This is followed by a brief discussion of Kaluza-Klein theory, and an even briefer discussion of Weyl's gauge theory.
These set us up for the bulk of the story which is the ever crazier claims of the string theory crowed. I've no idea if their ideas make sense when expressed as mathematics, but, expressed as prose, this book was as unsatisfactory as all pop physics books.

It's nice that the author expresses skepticism about the claims of string theory, but it would be even nicer if he were to write a book that book explained the subject and was not targetted at the retarded. ( )

Good subject, but unclear (and often ungrammatical) writing make the later parts on contemporary physics pretty hard going.