Boy, do I feel smarter! I just finished listening to The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe, published in 2006 by Recorded Books, LLC. It was read by Dr. Stephen W. Hawking who, interestingly, has not endorsed the book and tried to block its publication.
Dr. Hawking is arguably the best known physicist in the world, not only due to his brilliant work with black holes and other phenomena, but also due to his compelling life story. He suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which confines him physically to a wheelchair and requires him to communicate via a computer, while mentally he roams the vastness of the universe, all of time, and every microscopic particle.
Among the books he does claim credit for are A Brief History of Time (1998), The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), A Briefer History of Time (2008), and The Grand Design (2010). Such narrow topics! He’ll have to strive for a more all-encompassing title for his next book.
Whether authorized or not, The Theory of Everything touches on the Big Bang, black holes, the relationship of universe theories to religion, the ultimate fate of the universe, string theory, and the search for the Grand Unified Theory. Yep, just about everything.
Needless to say, I can’t comment on the validity of any of his contentions, but I will critique the other aspects of the book. In the lectures that form this book, his meanings are clear to this layman without Hawking coming across as condescending at all. He uses easy-to-understand analogies–globes, balloons, water glasses, etc. Moreover, you might think you’re not interested in black holes or the Big Bang, but Dr. Hawking’s lectures will leave you fascinated by them.
On the negative side, I have to say that although the lectures are semi-related, they don’t hang together as well as if he was writing a coherent, integrated book with a central premise. There’s some repetition within the book as well as repetition between it and A Brief History of Time.
Lastly, and I hate to say this, but perhaps the audiobook should not have been a recording of Dr. Hawking delivering his own lectures. Yes, I know he is known by that distinctive, synthesized voice. He even jokingly apologizes for its American accent, saying that he couldn’t get it to speak “proper English.” It’s just that some words spoken by his computer are difficult to make out. I think Recorded Books LLC should have gotten one of their staff readers to read it. In stating this I mean no disrespect to Dr. Hawking or anyone suffering from ALS.
These weaknesses, along with the fact that I discovered after reading it that it is not sanctioned by Stephen Hawking, lead me to give the book a rating of three seahorses, according to my seahorse rating scheme. Good book, but I think A Brief History of Time is more worthy of your…well, your brief time than is The Theory of Everything. Wishing I was half as smart as Dr. Hawking, I’m–
Poseidon’s Scribe