Customer Reviews
Fantastic Guide to Physics for Beginners - By: Dr. A. Boyadjiev, 11 Jul 2008 
Brian Greene has managed to do the impossible. He has written a guide to physics from Newton to String Theory, that is not only easy to read but is also entertaining. This is what I should have had as my physics textbook in school. Whilst using simple everyday examples & avoiding the dreaded equations, he manages to explain the most complex & even bizzare ideas that physics has so far come up with.
Reading it felt much like opening my eyes to the weird but wonderful universe out there.
A trully excellent book.
Great book - don't be put off - By: Campbell Mcaulay, 25 Mar 2008 I'm working my way through this at the moment & I fully agree with other reviewers that it is a life changing book on a par with Blind Watchmaker.
I was a little daunted by the subject material to begin with, but soon lost my inhibitions - it's not half as bad as I expected & I'm actuallly finding myself second-guessing some of the directions & explanations that author is taking in explaining the wierdness of the relativistic & quantum worlds. Either I'm not as deeply stupid as I thought or Greene's treatment is perfect for the non-expert reader.
It's still a challlenging book, & I'll need a re-read at sometime in the near future to fix the concepts in my head, but I'm looking forward to the prospect.
A few minor gripes:
- The illustrations don't seem to have transferred well to the paperback version - they're on the smalll side & difficult to interpret & return to. Perhaps larger, colour illustrations, gathered in a central section would have been better.
- Some of Greene's analogies grate a little. He makes a lot of use of analogies, which I guess is inevitable & necessary given the esoteric nature of the subject matter. However, one is occasionallly left wondering whether these analogies tell the whole story or if there's something important that's been left out for the benefit of the reader's sanity. The early ones on relativity are played out by The Simpsons (obviously Greene is a fan!) which comes across as a little patronising & later ones relate to baseballl, which doesn't translate well for the British reader.
- Although the conclusions are mind-boggling (quantum entanglement, string theory) a degree of shell shock is setting in - can the universe get any wierder? I'm only 3/4 of the way through! & it is difficult to lift oneself to the heights of admiration & wonder that Green obviously reaches - Ho hum! More strangeness!
Nevertheless, this is well worth a read & don't be put off by the subject material. You'll never look at the world in the same way again.
Wow. Seriously amazing reading. - By: R. Rodway, 04 Jan 2008 It's taken me several attempts to fully absorb & gets heavy going at times (perhaps because it is my first cosmological read) but we live in a very strange & amazing universe.
I want to come back in fifty years to see if the current theorys are anywhere near correct. It has me hooked on the subject.
Excellent, but limited - By: G. Law, 30 Dec 2007 
It was an excellent book, accesible to readers of alll ages & interests. Everything was well explained, such that it leaves the reader feeling proud to have understood such advanced areas of physics! However, the constant references to the simpsons gave a feeling of being talked down to, as if the reader would be too stupid to understand a physical concept if it werent explained by use of cartoons! Said referrences became more & more frequent to the point that one wondered whether the book was about the simpsons or about spacetime. I'll leave it to you to judge though, as i definitely think it a book worth reading.
Physics at it's most accessible - By: C. S. Ebrey, 21 Nov 2007 Let's make no mistake, for the layman some physics concepts can be mind blowing. Briane Greene understands this at the most fundamental level & has successfully produced a book that puts you in the driving seat of discovery. The book makes you quite literallly "think again" about what we are & how we fit into the cosmological scheme of things. This is truly a life changing book that through analogy, reduces the etherial world of particle & cosmological physicists into everyday language that will change your worldview forever. This book is exceptionallly written & is testimony that the author feels the need to convey the excitement he feels in new discoveries, as well as explain established concepts to a much wider audience. It comes very highly recommended.
