Rating: 
Summary: Great read
Review: While it tries to explain many very advanced theories, The Universe in a Nutshell does a good job of remaining understandable for the average person, looking for a bit of basic knowledge of the universe. Hawking has a very easy to understand style, and the illustrations do a good job of complimenting his explanations. He also throws in some humor to make the book a bit more enjoyable. This combination of intelligent humor, illustrations, and easy to understand text, makes The Universe in a Nutshell a good read, even if you aren't an astrophysicist.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Easily Understandable book about the Universe. Would also reccommend A Brief History of Time by Hawking.
Rating: 
Summary: The propagation of non-sensical theories goes on!
Review: If you want to understand our Universe, don't buy this book. It will just give you insights on non-sense theories such as string theory, big-bang and multi-verses. Why they are non-sense? Strings theory is based upon 10, 11 or even more dimensions that are curled up to "make" our Universe. Problem: there are just 3 spacial dimensions and 1 dimension of time! All these strings fantasies are mathematical equations that has nothing to do with our Universe. Big-Bang: it requires creation of something from nothing, thus it violates the law of conservation of energy (both in the "creation" AND in the issue of expansion). Our Universe was never "created" or even never "came into existence". It simply does exist since an infinity amout of time in the past and will exist forever. Multi-verses are theories based upon the issue of non-locality in Quantum Theory. This is the most non-sensical concept I've ever heard about! The Universe is the set of all things that exist. There can't be another Universes by definition. If it did, then the Universes would must be separated from each other by "something" that does not exist! It is just non-sense. Also, Hawking as usual talk about curvature of space-time as if it was something real. The curvature of space-time is a geometrical concept that has no physical meaning because space-time does not exist as a "thing"! It is kinda a mathematical interpretation of the gravitational field, but the gravitational field itself is NOT just geometry! I hope someday modern physicists will wake up and bring some commum sense and logic back to their theories. The society deserves it since we all pay for scientific researches.So, if you can not understand this book even if you read it 10 times in a row, don't worry. It is not you that is not intelligent but it is Hawking & Cia that are working on fantasy-theories that make our Universe looks weird!
Rating:
Summary: Tough Nut To Crack
Review: When I describe Stephen Hawking's "The Universe In A Nutshell" as a tough nut to crack, it's not to criticize; rather, it's an acknowledgement of the shortcomings of my own puny brain to comprehend most of it. Hawking opens the book with an explanation of why he wrote it. It turns out that he wasn't excited about a sequel to his popular "A Brief History of Time" (which I haven't yet read). But he decided that the first book was too difficult for the average layman to understand, and that this second book on the universal laws of physics would solve that. Boy, that first book must be really deep. Despite the fact that much of Hawking's book is over my head, I enjoyed it very much. Reading the book makes it clear that you are in the presence of an incredible intellect. He visualizes things that the rest of never even conceived of and still can't grasp after thorough explanation. But he makes it fun trying. It's fascinating to hear this advanced human's take on the nature on time, space, and matter in the universe; the future evolution of Man; the probability of alien intelligence and time travel; and other heady questions. And surprisingly the book is no dry tome on equations and egghead-speak. Hawking writes with great wit and salts the heavy topics with enough lighter fair (i.e., he's a Star Trek fan, and Einstein married his cousin) to keep the pages turning. This is one I will read again. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Big Ice.
Rating:
Summary: This is THE book to read.
Review: I am no genius, but I understood this book quite well, and found it to be one of the most interesting things that I've ever read. Hawking uses a nice bit of humor and logic to explain what is normally hard to understand, and that makes this book "well rounded". It is a bit difficult to read through if you are reading it too fast, but if you get into it and truly look at all of the information given to you, you will quite enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Hawking Disappointment
Review: After reading and enjoying Hawking's 'Tour de Force' in "A Brief History of Time", this book is a real let-down. The text does not really explain anything, but merely references developments and theories which are pertinent to the subject. What the book lacks in Hawking's generally fascinating expositions, is somewhat compensated by the great graphic illustrations, making this book more of a coffee-table decoration than a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Introduction
Review: Quantum mechanics. String Theory. General Relativity. These are not topics for the casual science buff, nor will they be readily grasped with one reading of this ambitious text. In his Introduction, Mr. Hawking concedes that compiling a text to serve as an introduction to the fascinating yet complex theories of modern astrophysics was no simple feat. Whether or not he succeeded is for the reader to decide, and will be determined mostly by whether or not they have any background in science, and how willing they are to commit to the material. I would assert that this book is beyond the scope of anyone without at least a rudimentary understanding of basic physics, higher mathematics, and astronomy. In the end, regardless, this book can serve as no more than an introduction that hopefully sparks an interest in the great questions of our universe and a desire to learn more.
Rating:
Summary: Bah!
Review: The only reason I gave this book two stars is that the illustrations in it are very nice to look at. Hawking is not very good at explaining all of the highly speculative theories he and those in his profession make their living off of. Indeed, the illustrations mentioned above actually do more to confuse than enlighten in many cases. His first big hit, ABHOT, was far more interesting, informative, and better written. It would seem that in "dumbing down" his material for this book, he simplified it to the point where crucial information was actually left out. Get ABHOT if you want a good read. Get this book if you want pretty pictures.
Rating:
Summary: Both good and bad
Review: Hawking's sequel to "A Brief History of Time" does a good job in explaining a number of concepts of modern astrophysics such as relativity, string theory, etc. A lot of this seems repetitive, however, especially with the release of the expanded/updated/illustrated version of his last book a few years ago. This book is lavishly illustrated as well, but be wary of oversimplification. Ultimately, the book seems centered on publicizing Hawking's origins theory which essentially allows the universe to create itself. This theory does have the same problems as most eternal universe theories, such as why was there a self-creating universe rather than none? His claim that "multiple histories" theory is a "scientific fact" seems a bit presumptuous. He uses it as a main component of his theory and the supposed "scientific fact" is nothing more than speculation. It is only with this speculation that he is able to state that the universe's initial characteristics need not be chosen with care. He seems to ignore factual evidence for the precision of the universe's creation in order to come up with a completely naturalistic explanation, regardless if it is based in reality. Yet he hints at complexity in the universe and admits intelligent life has to be rare (p. 171). While adhering to naturalistic evolution, he admits we don't know how such evolution occurred (p. 161). It seems a lot of astronomers (at least popularizers like Hawking) accept the evolution paradigm as is with out every studying it extensively. He even uses Dawkin's infamous computer-generated speciation model. One would think that Hawking would realize the problem with this. It is an intelligently designed model that relies little on chance, much on designed parameters and vastly oversimplifies biologically processes. His comments about God are the same vague and ambiguous comments he as made previously. He seems to define God has being bound by our universe, yet uses an angel as an example as a being outside of time with the ability to see along the time-line. Elsewhere I have seen him admit his theories are only that: A theory that doesn't necessarily exclude God. It seems he is either: 1. Unsure about God and/or his nature, 2. Doesn't want to publicly take a position, or 3. Wants desperately to create a naturalistic Theory of Everything because of 1. or 2., or in spite of them. Hawking admits that there "is no more experimental evidence" for some of his theories than there is for astrology. The uncareful reader may not differentiate between the real science and speculation in this book. It seems he wants to go beyond a Theory of Everything that simply reconciles various parts of science, instead he wants to explain the universe's existence and boil everything in it down to a naturalistic theory. The result is unscientific speculation that ignores the evidence for intelligent design. Better books are Greene's "The Elegant Universe" and Hugh Ross' "Beyond the Cosmos" and "Creator and the Cosmos."
Rating:
Summary: Just another brilliant book by Hawking
Review: Stephen Hawking has a rare gift for lucid presentation of difficult matters. He elucidates the modern understanding of the universe and asks imagination-grasping questions. This makes him a unique star in the scientific sky, casting bright light on the great puzzles of physics and cosmology. The latest books of Stephen Hawking are must-buy collections of his fruitful efforts to bring the mysteries of nature to the attention of the general reader. He also creates a genuine awareness of the current understanding of this world. Science moves forward by simpler and far-reaching models of nature. For example, the complex motion of planets around the Earth according to Ptolemaeus was replaced by Copernicus with their simple rotation around the Sun. The big bang theory sent the rival steady-state cosmology into oblivion by offering a simple explanation of the cosmic microwave background as a relic radiation left after the big bang. It seems that complexity originates like beauty in the eye of the observer from elusive interactions that create the picture of reality in one's mind. Hence it is very important to study the origin of complexity. This can be done by using the principle of economy as a simplifying tool and pondering at the shapes of nature. The principle of economy, known also as Occam's razor, is one of the fundamental tenets of science. It says to avoid the vanity of doing with more what can be done with less. The big difficulties in the modern understanding of the physical and mental reality imply that there are basic misinterpretations and redundancies, which hide the all-explaining structure of the universe. I strongly recommend the books of Stephen Hawking as artful descriptions of the present knowledge about the universe beginning and evolution. Anyway if you want to look at the tomorrow science you should think about the origin of complexity from simple rules and read popular books like James Gleick' Chaos, Stephen Wolfram' A New Kind of Science and the space-time background breaking THEORY OF INTERACTION The Simplest Explanation of Everything by Eugene Savov. The theory of interaction simply derives essential laws and principles of classical and quantum physics in its most general context. The science of the near future will obtain all parts of modern knowledge as cases in one discovered universal framework, which will expand the vistas perception to the revealed frames of existence.
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