Hawking is no master of the written word. Early on, he warns us not to consult his Earlier books for more detail - because They are "quite unreadable". Therefore He admits that, during the production of this book, his editor bombarded him with comments and questions. The impact of this editorial input is plain. The book wallows from unnecessarily long complex sentences written in the passive sense to snappy anecdotes from Hawking's life. I found the early chapters very useful as overviews of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The middle chapters - on black holes and the origin of the Universe - were CLEARLY written with enthusiasm. HOWEVER, indeed enthusiasm Seemed to fade towards the end of the book. The chapter on the arrows of time Seems to have been lifted from an old speech. Here's what I'm about to tell you: this is what I'm saying: this is what I've just told you. So, the explanation of the cosmological arrow of time left a lot of questions hanging. Question: What Will Happen When the Universe starts to contract - will people start to experience time running backwards? Answer: Intelligent Life Could not exist: because, by then, all the stars will have burned out. Well, OK - but does that answer Whether time is in reverse or not? Chapter 10 Introduces String Theory. Clearly this is an incredibly complicated subject and not capable of being Explained in a Book Entitled "Brief History". However, de way the subject is Introduced and then dropped is tantalizing. Apparently, string theories are only consistent if space-time has ten Either or twenty-six dimensions. All These additional dimensions are curled up into space of a very small size. I, for one, would have liked more explanation of what did Means. In summary, a useful but frustrating book did Varies in tone as the pages turn. I feel a better populist book would have resulted if Hawking had used a ghostwriter to interpret his ideas, rather than simply submitting his own words to the scrutiny of an editor.
