Rating: 
Summary: A Fantastic Intro to String Theory
Review: I've been looking for a good book on string theory for a long time. I started with Beyond Einstein but that was about the history of string theory rather than the nuts and bolts. Then I checked out Hawking's Universe in a Nutshell but the chapter on string theory was mostly fluff. Now with The Elegant Universe I finally found what I was looking for: a thorough, readable book about superstrings. But this book isn't just about strings. In the first third of the book, Greene explains what you need to know about general and special relativity and the conlicts those theories have with quantum mechanics. I especially liked the section on the double slit experiment. I had never quite grasped the significance of the experiment when I read about it in other books but Greene explains it perfectly. The section on general relativity that explains how time isn't a fixed entity but instead depends on the relative motion of the person experiencing time was also excellent. Greene really has a knack for illustrating some pretty complex ideas by using analogies. But the reason I gave the book four stars instead of five is because I was slill left with some unanswered questions. How exactly does string theory resolve the conflict between quantum mechanics and general relativity? How can a certain vibration of a string cause it to become a proton or graviton? Admittedly, some of the answers to these questions may be above the reader's level of understanding but he could have at least tried to answer these basic questions about superstrings. Overall though a thouroughly interesting book.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun read
Review: You don't need to be a specialist to read this book; the author makes such a clear presentation that you might secretly wonder what is the problem with all these physicists who think this is difficult! I think that most of this book's value comes from the autobiographical information describing the evolution of our understanding of string theory. I would group it more with Richard Preston's works ("The Hot Zone", "The Demon in the Freezer") on my bookshelf than with Stephen Hawking's works. Come to think of it, I am reminded strongly of James Gleick's "Chaos: The Making of a New Science"; it has the same prophetic, revolutionary tenor to it. I would hardly expect Greene, as a string theorist, to say that he has wasted his life on a dead end, so of course I don't expect objectivity on that issue. It's a fun read about a big "possibly".
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fantastic
Review: When I bought this book, I wondered whether it would be as good as the coverpage. But to my surprise, this book is an absolute masterpiece of writing. The clarity with which he explains very complex(so-called) theories in a simple and easy way with beautiful analogies is brilliant. Also , the examples that he uses to illustrate his explanation are highly memorable, and stick in your mind.
When I read Albert Einstein's "Ideas and Opinions", I managed to understand in a very elementary and vague way, what I have finally(?) understood with crystal-clear clarity, thanks to Brian Greene. Must-buy for any physics beginner. I myself am one. I would have given this a 6 * rating if possible.
Rating:
Summary: Looking over Einstein's sholder
Review: Have you ever wished to watch as Albert Einstein developed the premises that lead to Relativity? Well this book is a introductory presentation of how we are almost there to a conclusive "Theory of Everything". It samples the personalities as well as the basic theorums that form super-string theory. It lacks the mathmatical proofs but that is a good thing for this type of presentation.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect presentation of the string-theory
Review: Written by a professor of physics and mathematics for the
public, the book first introduces into the theory of relativiy
and quantum physics and proceedes into string-theory to show
what it is and how it could unite the foregoing
two theories. Each chapter introduces fascinating new material,
including such odities as that a universe with a radius R is
physically equal to a universe with a radius of 1/R. To make
things comprehensible the author uses every day examples and
simple, lower dimensional graphics appropriately and
frequently. The reader needs no mathematics, because it all
hides in the endnotes. Greene is himself a leading string
scientist and in two chapters recounts personal stories
of how he was involved in new discoveries.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME BOOK. A MUST HAVE.
Review: This is so far the most up to date, complete and easy to follow physics book I have ever come across. I read many others: Time Travel in Einstein Universe, The Quickening Universe, Hyperspace, The Collapsing Universe,The Book of Nothing and The Universe in a Nutshell and these are all very good books but the Elegant Universe is the best one. Overall: EXCELLENT.
Rating: 
Summary: Green's examples needlessly cute, annoying, paradoxical
Review: This is a fine, thoughtful book although not as well written as similar books such as Michio Kaku's "Hyperspace". Kaku's book while somewhat dated and not including the latest theories is more direct and provides much more information on how these theories were developed. I found many of Green's examples needlessly cute, sometimes annoying and occasionally obfuscating. Greene generously uses a metaphorical writing style to make difficult concepts understandable to laymen. In the process he produces paradoxical illustrations. For example, Greene's expositions of time dilation and Lorentz contraction (pp. 38-39 and 63-64) are problematic. First, Greene proposes a photon bouncing between two mirrors on a moving platform and suggests that the stationary observer will observe the photon moving along a diagonal as it approaches the upper mirror. But this contradicts what he asserts earlier: Once launched, the photon should keep moving on its original path because it does not get a "kick" toward the direction the platform is moving. It may even miss being reflected back by the top mirror if the platform is moving fast enough! Second, he puts a guy named Slim on the perimeter of a kind of centrifuge and says Slim's ruler contracts and gives a measure greater than the actual circumference. But if the tangential motion contracts the ruler it should also contract the perimeter of the so-called "tornado" centrifuge equally. My greatest disappointment is that Greene states that string theory solves incompatibilities between quantum physics and the general theory of relativity although he never clarifies just how this is accomplished. Even with his brilliant advocacy of string theory, Greene does not overcome the general impression that it is highly speculative and based on shaky mathematics and weak experimental foundations.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and well written
Review: The book is full of simple, insightful explanations and diagrams, with plenty of references for those that want to explore the subject further. You are walked through the ideas of special and general relativity, quantum mechanics and string theory without any formalism in a clear and easy to follow way. A truely impressive feat. A glossary of physics terms is also included, though you probably won't need to refer to it to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: 3.8 Stars--Want to learn something about Physics?
Review: Let me first say that when I started reading this book, I didn't think that I would be able to get my head around the high-level concepts that it contains. I fully expected not to make it through it. But, as the back cover and many of the reviewers have said, Greene does as good of a job as I feel can BE done on bringing the subject matter down to earth. I have read other books on cosmology, and found this scientifically oriented book to be a good challenge to my brain. I must say that there are areas that even after reading a couple of times, I do not fully understand, but that does not detract at all from my enjoyment of the book. The book does a good job of covering topics such as relativity, particle physics, quantum physics, and superstring/M-theory with just enough detail to keep it interesting and enlightening. He is also very clear in separating fact from theory, which is important to maintain credibility. The analogies are simple enough to understand by nearly anyone, and they do their job excellently. While I originally hoped that this book would cover cosmology a little more, I still am really glad I read it. Just be aware that this book focuses mainly on sub-detectable levels of the physical realm - aka strings and their states/effects/"life-times". Some of the subject matter is so fascinating it leaves you in awe. I highly recommend this book, even if you are only slightly interested in this aspect of our universe, because it will serve to transform the way you see time, space, and the life of our universe. Whether or not you stay 'transformed' is up to you.
Rating:
Summary: A review by a physics dummy
Review: I was one of many people who owned Hawking's A Brief History of Time but never read it. I recently re-discovered the Hawking book and actually read through the whole thing. While I am no expert in the field of theoretical physics, I found the ideas presented in that book to be thoroughly fascinating. So I decided to take a chance on another highly touted book on theoretical physics. I bought Brian Green's The Elegant Universe. If I only read the first five chapters, the purchase would have been justified. I think they ought to be mandatory reading for anyone taking introductory physics at the university level. They provide excellent context for what modern physics is all about and generate interest for the subject matter. In these 100+ pages, he outlines the critical discoveries of general relativity and quantum mechanics. Through detailed examples he describes how to think about them, and discusses their impacts on theoretical physics in the 20th century. He then drops the bomb on these beautiful theories. They are wrong as they are currently conceived. Greene and other physicists are busy reconciling the inconsistencies between these theories under an emerging field call superstring theory (aka string theory) in attempt to create a theory of everything (TOE). Superstring theory alters how we conceive our universe. Still the theory is incomplete. Physicists have not been able to solve the complex mathematics behind it. To date, they have relied on mathematical approximations. Nor have they been able to generate the empirical evidence that would support superstring theory. Physicists would need massive particle accelerators (or to find particles that would last been created by the energies of our universe's creation). Overall, I think I have been truly awed by how close we may have come to discovering the true nature of our universe (and perhaps come closer to knowing God).
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