A good book, very well explained, but heavy going at times ( )

The first thing to say is that this is probably a very good book if you’re able to have the figures out in front of you. Trying to read this book as an audiobook I think was a mistake on my behalf and I think it can’t really be read as an audiobook. I understand that you can get a PDF with the figures on which probably would’ve helped. I found the mathematics at times probably would lose most people and as somebody that’s done quite advanced level mathematics I could just about keep up.

All of that said it’s difficult to spend my time complaining about what is ultimately an extremely fascinating book and one that I think really is state of the art with regards to knowledge about this fascinating aspect of nature and the universe. I think having some experience of the theories of space time and Einstein before starting this would be of some help. Certainly worth looking at but probably only for the dedicated reader or somebody who has had experience of this field. ( )

Deeper than I expected and quite to hard to follow the descriptions of Penrose diagrams and what one would see whilst tipping into a Black Hole. Enjoyable never the less, and I am now intrigued to read the authors prior book; why E=Mc2. Last few chapters give a good explanation of the more recent ideas around holographic equivalence and the conservation of information in a black hole. I especially liked the last chapter on quantum information redundancy and the link with quantum computing, even if I didn't understand much of it! ( )

Excellent and exhaustive book entertainingly written. If you’re not good at maths I would avoid it. A lot of geometry and algebra, a little calculus. ( )

Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe, written by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw, is an excellent introduction that falls into an area of popular science books that can be misleading.

Let me first talk about the broad area of popular science books. This is not, as some people treat it, a single level of science texts, but a spectrum from very basic to something that still requires effort but is not academic. The difficulty is that often books that require some effort and perhaps some familiarity with mathematics gets lumped in with academic books. If we are going to say that academic books are definitely not popular, or that there is no overlap, then we have to be open to shades of popular books. This is, as far as I'm concerned, a popular science book but one that requires some effort and, for a deeper understanding, some math background.

Since I am not an astrophysicist and my last classroom experience with advanced mathematics was a couple of decades ago, I consider myself a layperson with respect to this topic. So I am approaching this book as popular science. My preference, since I have done some reading in the area and taken a few MOOCs on the topic, is for a more rather than less challenging popular science book. If, for whatever reason, you want a challenge and not simply a less nuanced super-basic introduction, this is the book for you.

I found the explanations and examples/analogies to be very effective in discussing the concepts. The analyses using the formulas were, with some effort on my part, very helpful as well, though admittedly some remained just beyond my grasp (for now). I will also say that I think this is one of those books that can be read without too much close attention paid to the math. What I mean is that while the explanations centered on math certainly offer the opportunity for better understanding, they can be skimmed, and the concepts still understood because of the wonderful explanations.

I would highly recommend this for those who are willing and want to put in the effort, or for those with some formal education in the area. My first introduction to relativity was with the Brehme diagram way back in 1976 and seeing how graphic representations have evolved was fascinating. For those who don't mind skimming the math in order to get to the conceptual explanations, this will be a good book for you. If you want a very basic, relatively math-free explanation and don't really care for any nuance, this might not be the one for you.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )