Rating: 
Summary: Excellent conjectures, but partly out-of-date.
Review: Paul Davies gives us brilliant speculative descriptions of different possibilities of the end of the universe. But as one of the former reviewers states, the latest scientific data indicate that the universe will continue to expand forever. So, part of this book is obsolete.I believe that the author is also too optimistic about the fate of mankind in the universe after the dying of the sun. If mankind doesn't commit suicide, he predicts not less than a colonization of the entire Milky Way. As always with Paul Davies, the different stories are told in a clear and easily comprehensible vocabulary. This book is written in a swinging style and is as fascinating as a dazzling thriller. A very interesting and stimulative read.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great book for the Theoretical Physicist wannabes
Review: Sorry, but I don't agree with you 'hwhitney@sprintmail.com from St. Louis'. This is a great subject for Mr. Davies to expound upon. He does what he does best here, makes you think, gives ideas and the tools to come up with your own philosophies on life and the Universe. Many people say this is a doom and gloom book but I found it quite refreshing to know the Universe may actually continue to exist forever and Humankind may find a way to exist along with it. This is not just a cut and dry here's what'll happen book. It begins like a great Novel that ties you up in suspense and not just another physics textbook. Great EASY reading for anybody curious about our possible future. Some understanding from his previous books is helpful, but NOT a prerequisite. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK MR. DAVIES.
Rating:
Summary: A bit dry in the middle..
Review: The book starts with what I might consider a fake-out: Davies starts by recounting a situation where some asteroid has been found to be on a collision course with Earth and the final minutes in our existence considering that we know we're going to be hit by a "global killer". While this is interesting, it's a bit of fiction. We were scared for a bit that later this century we would be hit by something heading our direction, but it was found to be missing us by just a little bit later. After considering the possibilities and probabilities of these happening for some pages, he notes that even if we do die this way, it's not exactly the last three minutes of the <em>universe</em>, just life on earth. Going on, he discusses the possibility of heat death, seemingly unavoidable by the second law of thermodynamics and something which depressed scientists to no end after they found it out. He also covers the possibility that the universe may stop expanding and start contracting at some point in the future.
Davies seems to work very hard to make the material not as dry as a AA member at a monastery by connecting most of the theory to what would actually happen, assuming that human life exists at that point. Unfortunately, the evaporating power of the material seems to take over, and I couldn't really get through this book all the way without forcing myself through long sections on black holes that I really didn't care much about. After the long discussion of black holes and how we could possibly get energy out of them stops, Davies got to the meat of what I was actually looking for: heat death or contracting universe. The last third of the book was actually much easier to read than the middle and much more intersting than most of the rest. Contracting and "Bouncing back" universes are discussed along with an actually interesting tangent about artifically creating universes by tricks with false vacuum. One other thing I really like about this book - Davies seems to go out of his way to make sure you know where to look up more information about the situations he talks about - even without resorting to looking at the notes in the back.
The book is actually better than many I could have read on the subject, and did increase my knowledge of the possibilities for the ultimate fate of the universe fairly extensively. It definitely gets my recommendation for geeky reading over the summer, at least if you can get through to the really interesting parts. At 176 pages, it is actually more reading than it looks like at a paltry paperbook size. If it weren't for the dry section in the middle, it wouldn't be B grade material.
Rating:
Summary: Mind Expanding... (or is it contracting?)
Review: This book overviews the current major ideas of cosmology and sets them against a logical background of ultimate fate. What happens to the universe ultimately depends upon whence we came. Davies takes several theories and then logically extrapolates the possible fates of the universe.
One of the things to keep in mind is the fact that "infinity is a long time" and this reoccuring theme is central to the ideas he develops. If the universe is expanding, what eventually happens to matter? If the universe is contracting, what will eventually happen to matter? Where does matter come from? Can matter be created or destroyed over infinite amounts of time?
Such ideas explored are the steady state theory, the expanding universe and "cold heat" death. The contracting universe and the eventual ceasing of all time, matter --- everything... The oscillating universe where matter can be created from "nothing" .
Some of the info is a little dated -- I suppose this applies if you are a graduate student in the Astrophysic department of Cambridge University. But for the average bloke with an interest in cosmology, one need not be worried about reading "old" materials. In fact the popular science, current considerations about the universes initial inflation stage -- that fraction of a secong when expansion and matter may have formed --- is well described and should serve as an intro to other reading.
The one thing that I really like about Davies is that his writing is clean and does not become a political tract: eg. Dawkins, Pinker and Dennet.
This trend towards writing "polically" based appreciations of scientific theory is based upon two things in my estimation: 1) the rise of the irrational, Voodoo Science and stark raving mad religious fundementalists --- scientific authors often rightly feel that they are fighting a rear guard action against the forces of darkness, and: 2) amazing egos that need to be assuaged (Dawkins and Dennet) so they feel that they must always address all potential attacks, however inconsequential, to defend their "good name."
Davies is clean and can present contrasting and even illogical ideas (Bede's "Darwin's Black Box") in a non-political way -- and still make the guy look irrelevant to modern science.
That is why, along with Matt Ridley, Davies is the best writer in popular science, worthy to assume the mantle of Carl Sagan.
Rating:
Summary: FASCINATING
Review: This book takes you the end of the universe. Paul Davies' descriptions of the various potential fates for the universe are both engrossing and easy to understand (which is not always the case with this genera). He describes the implications of both a closed universe, one that will eventually re-collapse in on itself, and an open universe, which will continue to expand forever. Although current studies performed by the international "BOOMERANG" consortium indicate that the universe is likely to be flat, Davies' accounts of the various potential fates of a closed universe remain fascinating. Moreover, as nothing in science is ever certain, new observations could turn the tables on this cosmic debate. Paul wrote this book with the knowledge that only one of the theories described in his book will be applicable to the universe in which we live. I think that anyone with a curiosity about the universe will find this book intensely satisfying. When people heard the news that "The Universe Is Flat," many breathed a sigh of relief, mostly because the idea of the universe collapsing in a giant fireball doesn't sound like much fun. But, if the universe is flat, and if the universe does not collapse, what will be it's ultimate fate? What will life be like in such a universe? Paul Davies has some answers to these questions. And when you learn what life would be like in the inconceivably distant future, you may decide that a flat universe is not the best place after all.
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