Anyone who has completed advanced level courses in physics in high school and with a penchant for physics, will find this book a great read. This book clearly and in simple terms explains some very complicated theories and discoveries in modern day physics. Overall, a strong recommendation to read this book

My educational background is largely in biology and chemistry, but I have always found physics the most intriguing of the sciences. I have studied and read a lot of physics books over the years, and having seen Brian Greene discuss some of the more confusing of the subjects in this book on television, was immediately convinced that I must read "The Fabric of the Cosmos". I truly applaud Greene's effort to produce such a comprehensive, up to date, and comprehensible book with no mathematics to speak of.

The book is largely a success, and covers the history of physics and physical thought, and brings the reader all the way through a groundbreaking explanation of string theory and M-theory. The book is quite well written and is generally easy to follow. I appreciated especially his explanations of the conflicts between general relativity and quantum mechanics, and the potential that string theory has in regards to a unified theory. I was somewhat unconvinced by his arguments about the symmetry of entropy in spacetime, though to be fair, I am unconvinced by some of Boltzmann's thinking on the issue, which is the ultimate origin of the philosophical predicament. Regardless of this and similar minor issues, I think most discussions are quite lucid and relatively logical and easy to follow.

The book falls down in a couple of ways: though relatively easy to read, it is extremely long. I have no problems with a lengthy tome, but this book sometimes labors under myriad examples and analogies which become redundant and very monotonous to read. Perhaps, for instance, the seemingly endless discussion of Newton's spinning bucket of water warranted a couple of pages, but here it just went on and on. The book could have been equally lucid and grasped just as well with many fewer extended analogies. It's obvious that Mr. Greene loves certain shows on television, as seemingly endless references to "The Simpsons" and "The X-Files" are common throughout the book. I hated this cutesy touch.

I happen to like math, but its absence here is wise as the book would obviously reach far fewer people if mathematical reasoning was added to the already cumbersomely long text. I did very much appreciate the notes in the back of the book which were very useful and delved somewhat deeper into subjects discussed in the text. On balance I recommend the book to people who want a basic introduction to historical and current physical thought, and who don't mind a degree of redundancy in the text.

How these scientists even conceived of the ideas about the cosmos is beyond me. Greene does an excellent job of walking the non-physicist reader through concepts that may otherwise be inaccessible.

I am a layman who has been curious about the concept of Sting Theory for some time. I found Greene's book a window into the soul of the universe. He has helped me comprehend (to my limits) the fabric of the cosmos. I echo the other rave reviews and will go back to this book time and time again.

How awful. I wrote a long and interesting review of Greene's book. But then I had to go to another page to fill out your Tag idea, and when I came back the review had vanished. No, I'm not going to write it again; the designers of this web page ought to write it themselves if they can write.