The Universe in a Nutshell

Rating:
Summary: Great but difficult
Review: This book was what I hoped it would be; challenging and informative. I have to say that Hawkings does a good job at breaking the theories and ideas down to the basics, but even then, it can be extremely difficult to understand. For example; I didn't understand p-branes at all until the last few pages of the book where the simplest of ideas could have been stated before, and imaginary time I never understood. I understand time moving at parallel to real time, using imaginary numbers, but I don't understand the effect, cause, and meaning of it and this is surely a heartbreak being that a large amount of material is based on this theory.

This is more of a study book than a readthrough. While most of the diagrams are useful, some are worthless. I would highly recommend those of even moderate physics understandings to take time with this book and give study to the illustrations and statements or the meaning can easily be lost.

I don't agree with hawkings on many of the accepted theories, and I don't understand some of what is said, but I fully recommend this book because it makes one think, and discover.