Beautiful book revealing the thoughts of a great mind. It is written in a way that makes it understandable to the layman without thorough background in physics. Of course, it does not give definitive answers on the questions treated, which was certainly not the purpose of the book, but it enriches your understanding of the world and you read it with a great pleasure.

I bought this book because I admire Stephen Hawking and wanted to learn more about science. He asks questions in this book that I haven't thought of like what is in a black hole. There is no definitive answer to this question, but I did learn that a black hole is a collapsed star that does have gravitational power to suck in a human being. I learned that a black hole does trap in light and emit a lot of heat and radiation. Hawking supported living in space, and he supports his belief by telling readers there are ice caps in the craters on the moon and volcanic activity on the planet Mars. This may be old news to most people, but this is new information for me. It gives hope that people will eventually live in space and build colonies there. I really like the chapter where Hawking questions whether or not God exists. He did not believe in God, but he does asks readers what question they would ask God if they believe in his existence. This is a question that got me thinking about what I would ask. There are written tributes in this book by his daughter Lucy, actor Eddie Redmayne that all show how revered Stephen Hawking is. I admire the optimism he had and enjoy this book very much.

But please read carefully his arguments...that's the rational way to see if he has reasonable arguments. It's hard to hear something we don't want to hear. But that's where our knowledge and understanding about the world renew.

As a teenager with good grades in maths and science at school, "a brief history of time" seriously rocked my brain and made me fall in love with physics in the late 80s. Currently I hold a master's degree in physics and I am now in my mid 40s. I am thankful to Prof Hawkings for once again creating this masterpiece where he has summarized his life long research into a book so easy to understand and appreciate.Set your mind free and travel through the grand cosmic time and space as Prof Hawkings reveals answers to puzzles and paradoxes set to us by our universe. Does he have THE ANSWER? Maybe not but you can't go wrong getting some insights into the mind of one of the greatest pioneer in physics of our lifetime.

Although 270.4 deg. C is 518.72 deg. F, -270.4 deg. C is NOT -518.72 deg. F. That temperature does not exist! Instead, -270.4 deg. C is -454.72 deg. F. I'm sure Dr. Hawking knew better, so I think it was someone else who made this egregious error, probably because they were too rushed to publish the book. I still give the book 5 stars.