This book was wonderful. A bit of a review in some parts but superbly enlightening in others. I will admit to having to reread certain parts because it sounded all too alike to a DC Comics summer crossover event when discussing multiverses and alternate histories. It was even worse to have to shed those comic misunderstandings to grasp the beginnings of understanding regarding what they actually mean and how they affect humanity.

Another part I think that may have been a bit overblown, or sensationalized, in the media to help sell the book is what Hawking does and does not say about the existence of God in his work. He begins with the goal to answer two questions: "Where did the universe come from" and "How/why can humans exist within the laws of the universe?"

It is a scientific book, no religion bashing like you'll find in a Dawkins, Hitchens or Harris book. Hawking isn't saying that God does not exist, what he does say is that there is no need for God to explain the universe. As for the human life part, he explains that many other universes were created spontaneously from nothing and all the universes have different laws of nature and we happen to live in one that has laws that are friendly to our existence.

I love that we have a brilliant astrophysicist who can explain complex material in a way that a neaderthal like me can understand.