Rating: 
Summary: Best Book I've read in years
Review: This book answers questions that I never even knew enough to ask. It broadens the mind and makes physics and the mysteries of the universe accessible, even to me, a nonscientist. I'd never heard about quantum entanglement (distant things influencing each other without anything travelling between them) and the discussion was so thrilling that that chapter alone was worth the price of the book. There is so much here, cosmology, M theory, universes on branes but the author pulls it all together in a totally coherent and entertaining way. Physics is developing rapidly and this book provides a foundation for understanding today's breakthroughs. It's a great read.
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Summary: The Fabric of the Cosmos
Review: Brian Greene within his book will take you into the unknown and where most people would say you could never go, but a lot of those same people have very closed minds. We must open up our minds and look beyond what we know as true to day, for tomorrow will unlock doors we never knew existed. Mr. Greene has the type of mind that we all need, without it, we would all be stuck in the past without a tomorrow.The book is a must read-Larry Hobson- Author "The Day Of The Rose"
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Summary: A good continuation to "The elegant universe."
Review: I went to Mexico on holiday with 4 books and returned only with this and the travel guide.
I had good days in the beach watching the ocean and reading about universe.
This book is enough good to let you feel near scientific research everywhere you are.
It only should need a good surgeon to become perfect:eliminating Mulder and Scully , and above all Lisa and Bart could make it a damn good book.
To undertand why I can recomend you to read this book.
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Summary: No Wrinkles Here
Review: The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene is a wonderful addition to anyone's cosmological library. Not light reading, The Fabric of the Cosmos stirs the imagination and is worth the effort it takes to read it.Brian Greene is not new to trying to make modern science understandable to the lay reader. His prior effort, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory spent several weeks on the New York Times best seller list. While the Elegant Universe was readable to someone without much training in science, it took some study and reflection to try and grasp some of Greene's explanations. The Fabric of the Cosmos is similar to The Elegant Universe in that regard. You won't be able to cruise through it like a Grisham novel. There are some interesting discussions in The Fabric of the Cosmos. Why, for example, does time apparently run in only one direction (Chapter 6)? Or, what went bang when the big bang banged (Chapter 10)? He devotes all of Chapter 15 to the discussion of time travel and the use of teleporters as they relate to modern physics. It is this willingness on Greene's part ot reach out to the common reader in ways that are interesting to us and makes his books so valuable. In many ways, he reminds me a great deal of the late Carl Sagan. Sagan had the ability to reach out to those of us who are untrained in science but still have the thirst to know about the greater universe surrounding us. If you're looking for a good, sturdy read, then this is the book for you.
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Summary: Magnificent
Review: I just sat down to write a glowing review of Brian Greene's new book, and was frankly shocked to see the few, but inaccurate, reviews among the many positive ones. I am a high school science teacher and, among other books, have been using Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe in class for a few years, so I know it extremely well (the students love it--the book has even inspired a couple of our students to study physics in college). I just devoured The Fabric of the Cosmos, so I now know it well too. It is a fresh, original, highly creative presentation of a tremendous amount of material, most of which is not covered in The Elegant Universe. To say otherwise is wrong. The retired physics professor who sent in a review a few days ago said it really well: in this book, Brian Green tackles the "big" and most puzzling discoveries that were not part of his first book. For example, I've been searching for years for an understandable and complete explanation of the Einstein-Rosen-Podolski effect (if you don't know what this is, you are in for a treat when you read the book). The Fabric of the Cosmos finally gives one. I've read many attempts in previous books (and articles too), but no explanation I've ever read comes anywhere near the clarity and fullness of the one given in The Fabric of the Cosmos. After years of people trying to explain this effect in layman's terms, this book finally succeeds. The chapters that talk about whether time flows and why it has a direction, whether space and time should be thought of as physical substances, and experiments on quantum time, are equally lucid and entertaining, as are the chapters on recent advances in cosmology, Superstring theory, teleportation, and even the charming discussion of speculations on time travel. (None of this was in The Elegant Universe. I know this for a fact, having read The Elegant Universe with my class every year for three straight years.) In summary, this is a true marvel of science explication. I am now adding it to readings for my class. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Highly instructive writing about space and time
Review: Before buying a newly published book, I almost always read reviews on it. However, I bought this book as soon as it was published without following the usual procedure, because the previous book by the same author, "The Elegant Universe," proved Brian Greene's high ability of clear writing on cutting-edge physics. This new book even exceeded my expectation. Greene, who made a number of important discoveries in superstring theory, explains about the present understanding of space and time starting from historical ideas from Newton's days and reaching the possible experimental confirmation of extra dimensions predicted by theoretical models as well as future allusions. The book is written for laypersons without using equations in the main text, but includes about 40 pages of notes for the expert reader. Thus scientists and engineers can also enjoy it very much. The author makes good use of analogies, among which I liked the one about Bell's inequality best. Expert readers may find explanations in earlier chapters a little too lengthy, but this book has the following instructive feature: Greene's explanation often made me have a small question, but on reading ahead, I found that the author had expected the same question and had given the answer to it in the text or in a note! I believe that many of the young readers of this book would be interested in becoming a physicist or a cosmologist to study the deep mysteries of space and time.
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Summary: Time--Absolutely relative or relatively absolute?
Review: No one could read the first chapter and not finish this book! I savored every page of it from start to finish. Brian Greene has a unique combination of talent that you JUST DON'T SEE in such an outstanding scientific mind. 1) He can write! 2) He is clearly one of the top physicists in the field of Superstring/M-Theory. 3) He is a born teacher. 4) Did I mention he can write? Through brilliant use of analogy, Greene makes the most mind boggling concepts easy to grasp. This is a book for lay people, as evidenced by the absence of equations in the text...they are included in the notes section at the end along with more robust theoretical details. The book takes you through the usual history of quantum physics and cosmology, as it must do to provide the background necessary to understand where we are now. He moves from the earlier understandings to the most current developments in a manner that makes very difficult subjects accessible to everyday people. The question of why the arrow of times moves relentlessly forward is answered in this book, and that is no mean accomplishment. In fact, the infusion of knowledge is so gentle that after 500 pages I was amazed at how much was covered and even more amazed that I understood it. The subject matter itself is fascinating. Greene's writing ability makes it enjoyable at the same time. His injection of humor put the icing on the cake. A small example: "...Ordinary experience confronts us with two types of phenomena: those that have a clearly delineated beginning, middle, and end...and those that are cyclic, happening over and over again (the changing seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, Larry King's weddings)." Now some might find his highly imaginative analogies can get a bit corny, but I saw them as brilliant--and they do the job of illuminating complex ideas. I really can't recommend this book highly enough to those who want to learn! One last thing...you can read the whole book without consulting the notes at the end. This is great for continuity and readability. Just don't fail to read the "Notes" section when you finish. It serves as a brief refresher to cement the new ideas into your head, and expands on the more complicated concepts. Whatever happened to the 10-star ratings? 5 stars are not enough!
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Summary: The One Book to Read
Review: I loved The Elegant Universe. I loved The Fabric of the Cosmos even more. In showing the state of the art of unified theories, The Elegant Universe explained alot of physics with unsurpassed clarity. Yet, there were discoveries I had read something about in other books that The Elegant Universe did not discuss, and I longed for Brian Greene to bring his powers of explanation to these subjects too. (I even wrote him an email saying so). The Fabric of the Cosmos answers my longing in abundance. This book not only covers relativity but also the long debate about Mach's principle and what "space" means. It covers quantum mechanics, but goes further by taking on the debate regarding observers and measurment, and provides the clearest, most understandable discussion of quantum entanglement (the "EPR paradox) that I have ever seen in print or any other format. The chapters on cosmology are equally great, and the final sections bring the work on unification and string theory right up to the moment. I can't say this is an easy book, perhaps a little easier than
The Elegant Universe, but definitely a challenge. It is worth it. By the end, the poetry of the universe is yours to behold.
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Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: I don't typically write reviews...just too lazy, I guess. But this book demands an exception. It is simply the best modern physics book I have read in many years. Expect to read it slowly; there is so much to savor! Greene is a master teacher...I rarely have encountered such clarity in any teaching venue. The man is a gift to anyone that is even a bit stimulated by the fantastic explorations that have occurred in the past century. What the mind of man can accomplish!
(I personally believe Greene and his compatriots are bordering on the proof of God's existence. Consider his discussion of the very low entropy in the unvierse in the moments after the big bang. I'd never encountered such a concept before, and it just one of many such thrilling considerations.) Stop what you're doing and contemplate life in the most expansive way for a while!
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Summary: greene turs his attention to the "othe rstuff".
Review: I think Mr. Greene is, to a certain extent, a victim here of his own success. His previous book-The Elegant Universe-- was brilliant. His expertise is super strings and multi-dimensional space and that was the focus of that book. It was a surprise success in the mass market and I suspect he and his publishers were so enamored of that success that a follow-up was required as a matter of course. Unfortunately, Greene had pretty much exhausted the superstring thing so a different concept was needed. Thus, this more expansive, less focused tome was produced. It's not so much that this book is bad-its not. It's just that it suffers considerably when compared to The Elegant Universe. Here Greene delves into areas he clearly is not as well versed in as string theory, areas that obviously don't hold the same fascination for him. This leads to problems. The book is characterized by a significant unevenness. There are topics where Greene examines things thoroughly: others receive short shrift. Many of the allusions are clearly inferior in terms of presentation and thoughtfulness as compared to the Elegant Universe. Having said all that, green does indeed have a knack for creating illustrative vignettes that relate many of the obscure and arcane concepts covered here in a way that is accessible and understandable. Through his narrative he presents a good-though very basic-historical overview of the development of these ideas and those who drove these areas of inquiry. I think this tome will be better received by those unfamiliar with his first book. For those of us who read and admired that work, this one will be somewhat disappointing. Still, it's well worth reading, even so.
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