This is a long, fascinating, and complex book. Greene (Columbia Univ.) begins his story about the universe— its past, its future, and its inhabitants—at the big bang and ends it in the far distant future. Three basic concepts provide common threads that inform both Greene's interpretation of the facts and his personal views. Entropy (disorder) helps to explain the direction of time. Evolution helps to explain the development of richness and complexity. Reductionism helps us to understand consciousness, free will, and meaning in the universe. Greene's extended discussion of the connection between the subjective mind and brain function is especially insightful and thought provoking. His writing is engaging, colorful, and often waxes poetic. His ability to convey his views and then to contrast them with sympathetic approaches different from his own is impressive. The final sections, dealing with conjectures and speculations with regard to the presumed "end of time," effectively illustrate how humanity and thought are both improbable accidents of the current universe as tuned, in certain places, for supporting life. In sum, Greene's text brings a wide-ranging scholarship to bear in examining notably diverse fields, and he ties them together for readers in a seamless and coherent way. This book belongs in everyone's library. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

--K. L. Schick, emeritus, Union College (NY)

Kenneth L. Schick

emeritus, Union College (NY)

Director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics and cofounder of the World Science Festival, Greene leads us from the big bang until the end of time, showing how galaxies have formed, biochemical mechanisms have pushed forth life, and neurons have zapped consciousness (and finally culture) into being even as the universe tends toward entropy. Greene's first book since 2011, so fans will be swarming all over it; his works have sold over two million across formats.

Greene (The Hidden Reality), director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics, translates sophisticated science topics into an accessible and illuminating survey. His achievement is particularly remarkable given the cerebral subject—the "fundamental transience of everything" in the universe, and of the universe itself. Greene digests the latest scientific thinking on how the universe began; on molecular Darwinism, the "chemical combat" believed to have triggered the transformation of inanimate collections of atoms into life; and on the nature of consciousness. Greene effectively illustrates his points with understandable examples, as when he uses pennies, all arranged heads-up, to explain entropy; shaking the coins will flip some of the coins to tails, thus increasing disorder, but is highly unlikely to return them all to the ordered state of all-heads. He concedes that some profound questions—"Why is there something rather than nothing?"—are currently unanswerable, though he is convinced that "there is no grand design," and that people must construct their own meaning. Curious readers interested in some of the most fundamental questions of existence, and willing to invest some time and thought, will be richly rewarded by his fascinating exploration. (Feb.)