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A Brief History of Time Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Stephen Hawking (Author), Michael Jackson (Narrator), Phoenix Books (Publisher)

4.5 21,166 ratings

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This landmark book is for those of us who prefer words to equations; this is the story of the ultimate quest for knowledge, the ongoing search for the secrets at the heart of time and space. Its author, Stephen W. Hawking, is arguably the greatest mind since Einstein. From the vantage point of the wheelchair, where he has spent the last 20 years trapped by Lou Gehrig's disease, Professor Hawking has transformed our view of the universe. A Brief History of Time is Hawking's classic introduction to today's most important scientific ideas about the cosmos. It is read here by the Emmy Award-winning host of The Michael Jackson Show on KABC-TV.

Listening Length

5 hours and 46 minutes
Author

Stephen Hawking
Narrator

Michael Jackson
Audible release date

May 1, 2012
Language

English
Publisher

Phoenix Books
ASIN

B0000545OB
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	5 hours and 46 minutes
Author	Stephen Hawking
Narrator	Michael Jackson
Audible.com Release Date	May 01, 2012
Publisher	Phoenix Books
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B0000545OB
Best Sellers Rank	#2,595 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #2 in Cosmology (Audible Books & Originals) #4 in Astronomy (Audible Books & Originals) #6 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books)

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4.5 out of 5

21,166 global ratings

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William Smalley

An Excellent Introduction to a Variety of Physics Topics

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2024

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Hawking’ A Brief History of Time is a great intro book into the field of physics. The book covers a lot of topics, but Hawkins’s style is easy to read and engaging. Overall a classic.

One person found this helpful

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J. Howlett

Challenging but not insurmountable.

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2023

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Interesting and detailed discussion of cosmology, quantum mechanics and even some religion and philosophy thrown in.
Well written, engaging and you can see this was written by someone passionate about what they have devoted their life to and wish to share it. More straight forward than Rovelli and less technical that Greene. It's Baby Bear of popular books on cosmology.

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Ed P.

Exceptionally easy to read book on a most difficult subject

Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2023

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I am a Sixty year old High School graduate of average intelligence. I also am fascinated by physics and nature. Stephen Hawking has a way of immersing a reader in subject matter to a depth that would have been thought impossible for someone of my limited schooling. Not only did I understand much of it, I learned a great deal more than I expected to. He is a terrific teacher! Since reading this book, I have held my own against some "highly educated" people when discussing Quantum mechanics, space/time etc. What a great feeling! I can't wait to buy another of his books.

4 people found this helpful

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TMoul1

I’ll never be a smart guy:

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2024

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This book has shown me what little I know about the small piece of the universe I can see when I’m at work at night. I see the stars and know some of their given names and wonder what it would be like to see them up close.

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armgar

The book itself is excellent. My rating does not reflect the content of ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2018

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The book itself is excellent. My rating does not reflect the content of the book or its message. It does, however, reflect the way it is presented to the reader on Kindle. The typesetting and pagination leave much to be desired. Photos and illustrations are cut part on one page part on the other. At times continuity is disturbed. If this has to do with the degree of zoom then a way should be found not to cut the captions and place them on two different pages. I wonder how close this is to the printed book.

One person found this helpful

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John Jonelis

Written with talent and skill.

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2023

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So few scientists know how to write. Hawking does. Anybody can read and understand this work. As an Evangelical Christian, I thoroughly enjoyed this atheist's book.

One person found this helpful

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Karl Janssen

A valiant attempt at a physics primer

Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2019

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Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time was originally published in 1988, but I am reviewing the 2017 ebook edition, which includes an updated afterword. This book, intended for an audience of general readers, provides an overview of physics from the astronomical to the subatomic level. In doing so, Hawking delves into such fundamental yet difficult to comprehend questions as the nature of space and time, what happens inside a black hole, and whether time travel will is possible. Through a mix of proven fact, contentious theory, and informed speculation, Hawking takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the arcane workings of the universe.

There is no doubt that Hawking was a genius and one of the most knowledgeable people in this field. Since this is a book aimed at the general public, however, the real judge of its success is how well Hawking can explain complex concepts to a lay reader. It turns out that although Hawking may very well have been the next Einstein, he was no Bill Nye the Science Guy. Though I am not a scientist, I consider myself pretty well-versed in fundamental scientific concepts, yet there were passages in this book that were quite difficult to decipher. Even after repeated readings, some of Hawking’s explanations suffer from excessive ambiguity and assumptions of prior knowledge on the part of the reader.

Hawking spells out the processes of classical physics with a methodical step-by-step precision, and he explains general relativity pretty well. When he gets to quantum mechanics, however, his explanations are far less clear, and he expects the reader to make a pretty considerable leap in understanding. His discussions of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and particle spin are particularly baffling, and he glosses over the standard model of particle physics pretty quickly. His brief description of string theory, on the other hand, may be the clearest I’ve ever read. Like any other “elementary” work on quantum physics, there is a limit to how far he will clarify, and the reader is expected to take some assertions on faith. Presumably this is because a more thorough explanation would either be too difficult for the layman to understand or would simply make the book too long and cumbersome.

Astronomical phenomena, such as the big bang, black holes, and the expanding universe, are easier for the reader to wrap his or her head around, and Hawking discusses them in a manner that is eye opening and intellectually thrilling. His explanation of time and speculations on time travel also make for entertaining and informative reading. Hawking even delves into philosophy a bit by questioning whether there’s a place for god in the universe and contemplating the validity of the anthropic principle. One of the most important points he makes is that philosophers stopped concerning themselves with cosmology once physics became too complicated for them to understand. Throughout the book, Hawking explains that the fundamental purpose of physics is to strive for a unified theory of everything that explains all the workings of the universe, one that rectifies relativity and quantum physics and unites gravity with the forces of electronuclear interaction. Once that theory is discovered, Hawking asserts, science will be easier for laymen to understand, and the average person will take a much deeper interest in the physical workings of the universe. Until then, even if some answers are yet to be discovered, and others weren’t elucidated entirely to my comprehension, this landmark book certainly did pique my interest on the subject and provided much fascinating food for thought.

20 people found this helpful

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Rasih Bensan

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2008

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Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest contemporary physicists explores in a very interesting and informative way the unresolved riddles about the universe and the structure of particles, energy, time, gravity, various forces in the universe, god and their relationship with one another. His approach is both scientific and philosophical raising questions about the meaning of human existence in the universe. Although quite detailed the questions raised and alternative explanations offered are appealing both to the amateur and the professional. Stephen Hawking approaches the fundamental issues from many aspects including Newtonian physics, Special and General Relativity of Einstein, Quantum physics, string theory etc. He compares the different approaches, explains how they arose historically and the quest for a unified theory of the universe. Of course he devotes a lot of time to the primary issue of the creation and possible end of the universe. His treatment of matter and antimatter are especially interesting. I had read the book many years ago, recently I listened to the audio CD. I recommend both as a rich source of knowledge about these topics from a leading scientist on these issues.

I also recommend The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Green which is also a very interesting exploration of the same issues.

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Amazon Customer

Far more accessible than I imagined

Reviewed in Canada on April 2, 2024

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I had not read this when it was published in 1988, and assumed it was a coffee-table book that everyone bought but no-one actually read.
Instead I found it well-written, explaining concepts in modern cosmology well to a lay readership - or at least to one with a basic grasp of science.
This edition was updated in 2017 to include recent discoveries.

Hiram Piña

Captivating reading

Reviewed in Mexico on October 25, 2023

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The pace at which this book is written is great, as it captivates you from the first page, it feels like a "walk in the park" across the history (and our understanding) of Physics accompanied by the brilliant mind of Stephen Hawking. It is a must-read if you're interested on general knowledge and science.