Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating
Comment: I found this book to be ingenious yet accessible to the average reader, which is what I believe Hawking set out to accomplish. Great food for thought in my opinion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: TERRIBLE digital transfer by "Phoenix Audio"
Comment: It's a great book by Hawking, but this product is just a reproduction of something by Hawking/Jackson that we already know is great. So what sort of job does this product do of delivering one of my favorite audio books? Not a very good one.
The original recording sounds fine, but this production from 2005 sounds like it was converted to a low bit rate at some point during editing, and probably had a poor noise removal job done as well. For the benefit of removing possibly a little weak static in the background, we get to listen to a robotic Jackson for 5 hours. It sounds similar to an early digital cell phone with a choppy feel and many T's and S's muffled.
There really isn't any reason I can see for this to not be a perfect reproduction of earlier digital versions. Old bootlegs floating about the internet sound better. Maybe "Phoenix Audio" should have just grabbed those to print, and left all of that tricky audio work to the more competent civilian sector.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A well written classic
Comment: I have a stack of these :The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe,Cosmic Code and In Search/big Bang: /, so I can compare and contrast.
There is material on black holes here that isn't covered as well in the others. I still would wish that all these authors would put in more of the real equations and less of the dumbing down. One point is that people not able to understand this kind of book, probably won't understand no matter how simple you make the text. Maybe one should make effective use of your time in writing and concentrate on those who will understand and use the results.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: I really wanted to like this book, however I couldn't. I have had this for over a year now and have yet to finish it, it just doesn't catch my attention. I am an Electrical Engineer so I have the technical background to understand this type of material, it just lacks something to keep the attention. There is a lot of useful information in this book, and more power to you if you can wade through it without falling asleep.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible book, I couldn't put it down
Comment: I have just read this book straight from cover to cover and I was deeply enthralled the entire time. Hawking is able to break complicated concepts down to chunks that are easily digestible by laymen. I found that I rarely needed to re-read sections in order to properly decipher them. The hardest chapter for me to get through was the one on particle physics, but it was downhill from there. Every page filled me with a sense of awe of the Universe and unanswered questions that I have had since childhood have been explained clearly. I could not recommend this book more.
Summary: Fascinating
Comment: I found this book to be ingenious yet accessible to the average reader, which is what I believe Hawking set out to accomplish. Great food for thought in my opinion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: TERRIBLE digital transfer by "Phoenix Audio"
Comment: It's a great book by Hawking, but this product is just a reproduction of something by Hawking/Jackson that we already know is great. So what sort of job does this product do of delivering one of my favorite audio books? Not a very good one.
The original recording sounds fine, but this production from 2005 sounds like it was converted to a low bit rate at some point during editing, and probably had a poor noise removal job done as well. For the benefit of removing possibly a little weak static in the background, we get to listen to a robotic Jackson for 5 hours. It sounds similar to an early digital cell phone with a choppy feel and many T's and S's muffled.
There really isn't any reason I can see for this to not be a perfect reproduction of earlier digital versions. Old bootlegs floating about the internet sound better. Maybe "Phoenix Audio" should have just grabbed those to print, and left all of that tricky audio work to the more competent civilian sector.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A well written classic
Comment: I have a stack of these :The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe,Cosmic Code and In Search/big Bang: /, so I can compare and contrast.
There is material on black holes here that isn't covered as well in the others. I still would wish that all these authors would put in more of the real equations and less of the dumbing down. One point is that people not able to understand this kind of book, probably won't understand no matter how simple you make the text. Maybe one should make effective use of your time in writing and concentrate on those who will understand and use the results.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: I really wanted to like this book, however I couldn't. I have had this for over a year now and have yet to finish it, it just doesn't catch my attention. I am an Electrical Engineer so I have the technical background to understand this type of material, it just lacks something to keep the attention. There is a lot of useful information in this book, and more power to you if you can wade through it without falling asleep.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible book, I couldn't put it down
Comment: I have just read this book straight from cover to cover and I was deeply enthralled the entire time. Hawking is able to break complicated concepts down to chunks that are easily digestible by laymen. I found that I rarely needed to re-read sections in order to properly decipher them. The hardest chapter for me to get through was the one on particle physics, but it was downhill from there. Every page filled me with a sense of awe of the Universe and unanswered questions that I have had since childhood have been explained clearly. I could not recommend this book more.