I'm going to have to read this again to understand everything Hawking writes. He elaborates on a lot of incredible concepts like the multiverse (10^500 possible universes?!), quantum theory, and so on and so forth. I can't rate it higher because I didn't capture a lot of what he says. He did inspire me to learn more about physics and chemistry, though!

A parte il solito riassunto di tutte le teorie scientifiche dall'inizio ad oggi, non mi è molto chiaro come l'eventuale scoperta di una teoria M che unifica tutte le principali leggi e forze della fisica porti automaticamente alla scomparsa di Dio, voglio dire magari chi ci crede non lo faceva per la poca fede nell'elettromagnetismo ma per soddisfare altri tipi di bisogni, comunque tra me ed Hawking non sono certo io il genio, quindi mi tengo le mie perlessità...

I listened to this audio book in the car and there is a good chance I'm knocking off a star simply because of the laconic reader. In anycase, the book presented a nice, quick overview of physics and how it's led us to where we are. It is unapologetically an treatise on atheism - and his points do have weight.

Overall, the science is well explained, the jokes are ... forced but the knowledge is sound and interesting however I didn't think there was any new ground covered or new thoughts added to the dialogs.

The first half of the book was reasonably well presented, albeit very brief (most non-specialists would benefit from a lot more more background), but the remainder left me wanting. This is not a book for scientists, and unless the reader is willing to accept all that is said at face value, trying to find supporting information within these pages is largely futile (the motivated reader might search for such support elsewhere). And the punch line, that M-Theory (undefined) may answer all questions about the origins and nature of the physical universe, is pretty much left undeveloped. The book is nevertheless interesting if only to glean a bit of insight into some (pretty counter-intuitive) alternative explanations of reality.

Really illuminating read. I knew nothing about quantum physics before reading, but the explanations are so well written I was able to follow along. You won't be ready for your PhD after reading, but you'll be able to nod along if you meet a physicist at a dinner party.

I learned some new stuff (mostly meta stuff about models and so on), but I've read better popular astronomy/physics/universe books. For whatever reason, this one felt somewhat disjointed. Rounded up from 3.5.

Quite enjoyable but very short.

This book gave me a better understanding of current universal theories. It was an enjoyable read, but felt like it only scraped the surface of the subject.

Made me feel intellectually underprepared but incredibly curious and excited about absurdly complex issues