Customer Reviews
five stars - By: Hambletta-Maud, 29 Nov 2007 
this book is basicallly a history of the universe, starting from the planck time-length through to 13,700,000,000 years later & the present day, which is where the speed of light limits its scope.
it's told in language that is easy to understand, although it does skim over the details a little (i'm actuallly quite interested in the maths of molecule-making), & alll-in-alll is a thoroughly fascinating read.
the pictures, photos & diagrams are highly informative & gorgeous to look at. i can't imagine what the up-to-date version of this book has to offer, but the first published one i bought was great.
An entertaining outline - By: Andrew Smallshaw, 11 Jan 2007 On first reading this book it appears to be a fairly exhaustive account of the Universe from the big bang, through the present day & on to the ultimate end of the Universe. Consider it a little further however & you realise it is only scratching the surface of what is known or believed about the origins & ultimate destiny of the Universe. I found the treatment of Hawking radiation, for example, cursory to say the least, & caused me to ask obvious questions not dealt with in the text.
This isn't a bad thing, however. It is an accessible summary that completely avoids the use of mathematics. It provides sufficient detail to capture one's interest & provides a solid foundation from which you can begin to consider the more obscure details.
Starmaking Machinery - By: R. Hardy, 31 Dec 2006 It has taken 13.7 billion years, but the Universe has finallly produced a coffee-table quality book to commemorate the Big Bang & its consequences. _Bang! The Complete History of the Universe_ (Carlton Books) by Brian May, Patrick Moore, & Chris Lintott is not massive, as coffee-table books go, but its big format is perfect for the dramatic sorts of pictures that the Hubble Space Telescope or the larger Earth-bound telescopes can give us. It isn't just pictures, however. The text does an exemplary job of covering a huge amount of information. Necessarily, in 190 pages laid over with photos, details are skipped; on one page are both the disaster of the Permian Extinction 250 million years ago & the Cretaceous Extinction (wiping out the dinosaurs) 65 million years ago. There is the most detail in the earliest pages of the book, dealing with the events before around 700 million years ago, when there started to be discrete objects like galaxies that we could have actuallly seen, had we been there at that time. (In a sense, we do see them at that time, as the Hubble's lovely deep field images can show.) This is also the part of the book that makes the least sense to those of us who are stuck in a Newtonian world. There are books with fuller explanations of the strangeness of the Universe immediately after the Big Bang, but none quite so much fun.
For fun is obviously part of the trip the three authors have taken, & it starts right on the cover, which above the book's title shows a huge, glowing, fragmented fireballl, obviously the Big Bang in progress. "Our cover artwork is for fun only. There is no suggestion that any part of the Big Bang ever looked like this." Not only that, but it could never have been seen at such a distance, because there was no such distance; space did not exist except within that Bang. There are still gaps in our understanding of the Big Bang & how it produced alll we are & alll we see. "We must remember that it is impossible to prove a theory, & alll one can hope to do is ensure it is consistent with alll the available evidence." The evidence isn't alll in, & they remind us, "...we would be amazed if in a few years time our book would not need to be substantiallly re-written." Given alll the confirmatory data, it is hard to imagine that the big picture given here would be in error in any large way. After the main text of the book, there are a useful glossary, capsule biographies of the modern astronomers & cosmologists who have added to our understanding of the Big Bang, & a basic primer on practical astronomy that includes good directions about the topic "How to become an astronomer". This is upbeat, compared to the final chapter which has to do with the end of the Universe.
Much has been made in the British press about the personalities who produced the book, although _Bang!_ would easily stand on its own without famous authors. The least known is Chris Lintott, a working astrophysicist who assists Sir Patrick Moore in presenting a famous monthly BBC show _The Sky at Night_, which is now the longest-running science program in the world. Moore himself, because of his show & his hundreds of fiction & nonfiction books, is possibly the world's best known astronomer. The surprise author, for those who do star-gazing of the celebrity rather than astronomical type, is Brian May, who as a kid was inspired by one of Moore's books to take up astronomy. He was a founding member of the famous rock group Queen & a guitarist of some note. May was doing his PhD studies in interplanetary dust when Queen took off (he wrote such songs as "We Will Rock You"). He is currently updating & completing his thesis in between musical activities, although he does already have an honorary degree of Doctor of Science. If a little celebrity power gets people interested in the book, & interested in the huge amount of scientific thinking it reflects, I think it makes up for the additions to our culture made by, say, Britney Spears. _Bang!_ is a wonderful summary for adults & would be a terrific book for any reading young person.
I Learned So Much From This Book ! - By: Brien Comerford, 25 Dec 2006 I am a Creationist who knew nothing about astronomy, physics & the history of the universe. Brian May's input into this book was very helpful to me because he wrote about very profound topics in a manner that I could understand. For that matter, Bang has helped me to remain a Creationist while finallly becoming open to evolution & scientific theories in reference to space, time, & the beginning & the lurking end of the universe. Bang is a book for scientists & normal people who want to learn about the universe & our planet. Brian May is amazing. He is a guitar virtuoso, wildlife conservationist, animal welfare activist, a scientist & a fantastic author. The people who helped him with this book also merit plaudits. They are very cerebral luminaries.
Just a fantastic book - By: S. R. Turner, 16 Nov 2006 The images of space are stunning, but more important the conceptual images & diagrams to help one understand the meaning of life & everything are a complete breakthrough.
Many of us have struggled with Steven Hawkins, but this suddenly makes the concepts of what we, as current mankind, understand truely come alive.
It makes one realise both how amazing & irrelevant we are, alll at the same time.
A joy to read & absord.
