Black Holes and Baby Universes: And Other Essays: Amazon.ca: Stephen Hawking: Books

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From Publishers Weekly

In 14 pieces, the author of A Brief History of Time examines astrophysics, current events and his own life.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Hawking is quite probably the most admired and recognizable figure in science today. His A Brief History of Time ( LJ 4/15/88) was a surprise best seller that stimulated a public fascination with this man who, although stricken with a debilitating neurological disease, is widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. This new collection of essays and lectures will no doubt attract a large readership, but it is somewhat unbalanced. The biographical pieces are digressive and not particularly enlightening. Most pointless is the concluding piece, an interview in which Hawking expounds upon the eight records he would want if he were shipwrecked on a desert island. The scientific essays are much stronger and offer insight into a variety of cutting-edge issues in contemporary physics, though much of what is presented can be found in Brief History. Readers interested in Hawking's life are better advised to read John Gribbin and Michael White's Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science ( LJ 5/1/92). Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/93.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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31 Reviews

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3.8 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Stimulating, Jun 5 2011

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B. Breen "Canuckster1127" (Sterling, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Black Holes and Baby Universes: And Other Essays (Paperback)

Like others who have reviewed this work, I can endorse it as a stimulating and thoughtful book. It is in essence however not a coherent book with a single theme. It is a compilation of articles and as such there is much in the book that is repetitive. Hawking acknowledges this and disclaims it at the outset. Even with the forewarning I found that element to be a tad annoying.

I listened to the audio version of the book while commuting and I found it overall to be a fascinating read. The biographical material about Hawking helped to put a "person" to the personality. Hawking is, without doubt, brilliant. His ability to reduce difficult concepts to listener sound bites speaks to that brilliance. I came away with an appreciation for his brilliance and abilities as well as the field of cosmological science that I did not have before.

Of particular note, I found Hawking's treatment of metaphysics to be interesting but ultimately no more valuable than anyone else's opinions in that area. Physics will never answer the question of why the universe exists or whether God in fact exists and created this universe. Science can only answer how the universe works and what laws govern its behavior. Hawkings admits this himself so I took no offense to his words, I just found it interesting that his position did not make his insights in that regard any more valuable.

The final segment of transcript from a radio show read by the narrator struck me a an opportunity missed to allow Hawking to finish with his own voice and presence. I was disappointed they did not use the original sound feed and chose to read the transcript.

Well worth the read or the listen. Entertaining. Already dated though and perhaps his more recent works would be of more value to most listeners.

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4.0 out of 5 stars The History of the Universe and Stephen Hawking, Jun 11 2004

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Kevin Seeger "DudeSeeg" (Woodland Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Black Holes and Baby Universes_and Other Essays (Audio Cassette)

I listened to this audio tape on my drive to Vegas. It did its duty in keeping me awake and interested. I have read much of Stephen Hawkins's theories, but never much about his life, so this was interesting in that in included some biographical sketches of the scientist before his brain was wired for genius.

It took this book to remind me that Hawking is in fact a Brit, and that the American accented voice we associate with him is due only to the American programming of his vocal synthesizer. Hawking says that he identifies so much with that voice now that he could never trade it in for a proper accent.

Hawking was a standard guy who could have gone in any number of professional directions. He choose cosmology, but was rather undistinguished it seems until his body began deteriorating, causing his mind to come into sharp focus. His really is an interesting story.

Many of the ideas encompassed in this volume can be found in other works of his, but like a trusted friend, they are always worth revisiting. Some of the witty lines have been used before. Hawking never shies away from his ability to turn a phrase, so when he turns a good one, as if delivering a stump speech, he anchors his future dissertations around the worthy analogies crafted for past lectures.

I really enjoy reading and listening to Hawking. He has a good mind and a nice enough grasp of the language to present his thoughts to a mass audience.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Science, but for non egg-heads., Oct 6 2003

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Jayson (Rancho Santa Margarita, ca, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Black Holes and Baby Universes: And Other Essays (Paperback)

It's kinda hard to review a book that has no plot per se, but more of an explanation on the theories of space, time travel, our universe and its creation and demise, and of course black holes.

What is really nice about this relatively short scientific book, is that Stephen Hawking makes his research and theories very accessible to the everyday reader. His explanations are not overly complex and deep that it leaves you with a headache afterwards. In other words, you need not be a rocket scientist or have and alphabet soup degrees to catch on.

Mr. Hawking keeps his chapters relatively short and not mired into too much techno-babble, but gets straight to the meat of any said topic and presents wonderful layman analogies that we can all identify with. It's also pleasant that he interjects a certain degree of wit and self humor into his style so as he doesn't come across as a stiff scientist.

The book ends with a transcript of a wonderful radio interview he did when he was 50, which surprisingly depicts a very human side to Mr. Hawking while still presenting his thoughts on creation, God, dark matter, time travel, and what exactly 'may' happen if one were sucked into a black hole.

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