Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Some interesting history but with clarity problems
Some interesting information from the history of science here, but this book suffers from trying to give technical explanations of scientific laws and phenomena without having the proper space to devote to those technical explanations.Also, in many places the writing is just unclear -- I've seen a lot of these things explained a lot more clearly elsewhere.

Relativity in Perspective
Relativity and Its Roots straddles the line between physics and history of science. It explores the development of an idea. You'd expect a book with "Relativity" in its title to concentrate on Einstein, especially as it is written by one of his colleagues. In fact Einstein does not enter the picture till the penultimate chapter. The story of Relativity starts with the Greeks and takes time to tell.

What I found most useful was Hoffmann's exploration of the thought processes of the scientists who advanced the theory. They often do not follow the standard stories of scientific discovery. Maxwell developed his theory of Electromagnetism not by thinking of mathematical symmetry but by following a mechanistic explanation of phenomena. He then removed this mechanistic scaffolding leaving us with the elegant mathematical theory. You come away from the book with new insights into both the way the universe works and the way great minds think.

Both the scientifically trained and the layman can learn from the book. It is written without equations in the main body. They can be found in the notes for those who appreciate them.

On Hoffmann's "Relativity and its Roots"
Many books attempt to expound the complexities of modern thinking in physics, but few achieve their objective as well as Hoffmann's "Relativity and its Roots." Hoffmann gives a superb overview of the history of thought in physics. He also gives vibrant descriptions of difficult concepts, leading the reader in the most natural way toward a solid understanding of Relativity theory and the foundations upon which it is built. In my opinion, this book ranks with the best of popular expositions both on the history of scientific thought in physics, and on modern physics itself. I recommend it for the non-initiated as well as for the seasoned scientist.

fascinating and approachable
Relativity and its Roots is more than an assembly of Einstein's work, it'sa rich volume of scientific history leading up to hisdiscoveries.Thebook starts with the early philosophical and geometrical ideas of thegreeks and guides the reader up to and beyond the breakthroughs made in themiddle ages.Complete with dozens of explanitory diagrams, it's one readthat will change your perception of our universe. ... Read more

Book Description
Einstein's astonishing theory of relativity transformed every aspect of physics-from the study of atoms to the study of stars. Relativity is described here in simple, accurate language that young readers can comprehend. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Patronizing And Verbose
This book is patronizing and verbose.For example, there is a passage in which Einstein reflects upon his appearance as he stands before a mirror.Surely this entire episode was invented to fill space since no historian would ever record such mundane private thoughts.This wasted space might have been used to discuss the physics that made Einstein famous.Instead, this book contains long passages on history and politics but only limited discussion of science.

Good bio of America's favorite wacky scientist
I read this book in elementary school and fully understood it.This book provides a good biography of Albert Einstein, a good introduction to the world of physics at the beginning of the 20th century, and how Einstein's theory of relativity changed it.The book traces Einstein's life from birth in Germany, his move to Switzerland where he made a name for himself while moonlighting as a patent office clerk, and his move to the USA to escape the Nazis.

The book balances both Einstein's scientific achievements and his political ones too.The latter include his letter to the US president on the possibilities of nuclear weapons, and his later stance of pacificism and nuclear disarmament.Another plus of this text is its willingness to address Einstein's Jewishness, how this affected his life and career, and how he dealt with bigotry and prejudice due to his faith and heritage.The book does leave out Einstein's marital problems, which is probably the best for a book addressed to pre high school students.Overall a good book.

My views on Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity is a pretty good book but I had a little bit of hard time under standing some of it. This Bibliography was on Albert Einstein who is know for his many theories and thoughts like E=mc2. Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm Germany. He was the son of Hermann and Pauline Koch Einstein. He had a younger sister, Maria, whom he called Maja born in 1881 Hermann moved the family to Munich when Einstein was two. When he was five he was given a compass and he started to become curious about how things work. Albert wasunhappy early on in school because he had been told it was a place to learn about ideas and far -away places. But it was a place to memorize and repeat lessons. A lot of his learning came on his own. He won the noble pirze in 1921 and was named TIME magazine's "Person of the Century." He was a very inspiring and impressive scientist. He did not just work as a scientist for Germany, but in many countries. It was very interesting to learn about all he accomplished and what his discoveries meant to our world.

Einstein and the Theory of Relativity
In 1879 Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. He moved to Munich, Germany when he was a baby. When Einstein was a child, he witnessed the town theater being lighted up by his father and uncle's D.C. generator. In that time his town did not have electricity. Later that night he was marveled by the power of light. He was determined to find the secret behind light and the way it worked.
As a child Einstein did not enjoy school at all. He usually daydreamed in class and was not interested in what the rest of the class was doing.He also hated the teachers and the way they taught.He thought they were like the military, strict and very unimaginative. Soon his family left for Italy and left Einstein behind to finish school. He became the class clown and was later expelled from school. The author tells all the things that Einstein went through as a child, as a young adult, and as a man.
What I liked about the book was all the theories, experiments, and the way the author describes everything so thoroughly. I recommend this book for people who are interested in famous American heroes or are just interested in Albert Einstein. I really hope you read this book.

My Science Students Say "This book is really cool"
I am a 5th grade science teacher and require my students to read and report on a scientist biography each semester.This book does an excellent job of retelling the story of Einstein's life, including his lifechallanges (personal and academic).The book deals with the Nazi rise topower of the 30's and its effects of the scienctific community.This isall done while still giving a accurate and understandable explaiation ofEinstein's work.And, most importantly, my students really enjoy it. ... Read more

Book Description

Suitable for a one-semester course in general relativity for senior undergraduates or beginning graduate students, this text clarifies the mathematical aspects of Einstein's theory of relativity without sacrificing physical understanding.

Customer Reviews (11)

Poor choice of textbook
I chose this book as the text for an undergraduate mathematics seminar, thinking that the students
would like something very elementary. Unfortunately, the book's presentation isn't simply pedestrian---
it is completely muddled. Many elementary points are presented via circular arguments which simply left the students baffled and confused. It is a real pity to see an elegant subject like general relativity butchered
so thoroughly. In retrospect, it would have been far better to first have them read Rindler's ESSENTIAL
RELATIVITY,and then give them selected excerpts from the elementary track of GRAVITATION by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.

I couldn't use it.
This book has everything I found to be correct in a text book but when I tried to teach with it I found it to have a lot of mathematics and not much of physical ideas.
Landau's Classical Field Theory book is much better but it is for advanced level, so I still didn't find a proper book.
Now I will try Schutz one.

A great first book on general relativity
I like this book because it has the best elementary introduction to the mathematics of general relativity.It starts out with simple multivariable calculus and geometric notions about vectors.It then explains the ideas of the natural basis and the dual basis, first in a plane and then on a manifold, with very helpful figures.With too many other books it is possible in a first exposure to completely miss the point of these ideas, which really are pretty simple when you come right down to it.It is true that the physical motivation and meaning of general relativity are not treated in that much depth, but these can be picked up from other sources.In my view it is the mathematics that is the most intimidating thing about general relativity -- the physical ideas are exhilirating and natural by comparison!

Great for independant study
As a person who did postgrad physics and maths over 5 years ago and has been out of the field for way too long, I found that this was a great introduction to GR, a subject I never got to do at university.It introduces the maths (tensors, manifolds and geodesics) in the earlier chapters and relies heavily on them in the introduction to GR.

The book has great solutions, or at least very helpful hints, to the problems that are given throughout the book.Though at times I was stuck with some, it generally it required me to only look at the first step of the solution to be able to solve the problem.

This book is a quantitative approach, while "A First Course in General Relativity" (Schutz) is a more qualitative approach.I personally perfer the quantitative approach, and found this book better than Schutz.If you're looking for a more verbose and wordy book, go for Schutz, while if you're going for a mathematical approach (includes the derivation of the Schwarzchild's solution and the rise of black holes coming from Schwarzchild's solution) then this book is more for you.

Useless
The second edition of this book (which is what this is) is a terrible change for the worse. The first edition tried to introduce (the mathematics of) general relativity, in the "geodesics" method - i.e., taking the shortest route possible between two points, teaching you the mathematics and basic physical postulates and nothing more. But while the first edition used modern differential geometry, this volume has been entirely re-written in coordinates!!! This means you'll be given the old definition of a tensor as a set of numbers that transform as ... and thus taking away the book's only merit, being a modern, quick, short introduction to the mathematics of GR. Sorry, but even if I wanted a sea of indices (which I don't and no one else should) I could have picked up Weinberg's book. Try Schutz's book on general relativity instead. ... Read more

Book Description
Modern physics was born from two great revolutions: relativity and the quantum theory. Relativity imposed a locality constraint on physical theories: since nothing can go faster than light, very distant events cannot influence one another. Only in the last few decades has it become clear that the quantum theory violates this constraint. The work of J.S. Bell has demonstrated that no local theory can return the predictions of quantum theory. Thus it would seem that the central pillars of modern physics are contradictory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Very clear discussion of Bell's Theorem
This contains the clearest presentation of the evidence for non-locality that I've seen. The other chapters on the implications of this are a little more challenging but worth it.

Fascinating and somewhat disquieting
This is a great book - captivating, a bit technical in places (but you can easily avoid the technical details and still understand the theses), and ultimately somewhat disturbing in the best sense of that word (it will knock away a lot of your presuppositions). Quantum non-locality (QNL) has been experimentally verified and there is no question that it exists. Particles too far apart to "communicate" at speeds less than the speed of light nonetheless do somehow "communicate". Lorentz invariance, a cornerstone of relativity, has also been well verified experimentally. Yet Einstein's philosophical underpinning of special relativity, the democracy of all reference frames, seem to be radically called into question by QNL. The author goes through every theory put forward so far to reconcile special relativity (with its philosophical underpinning intact) with QNL, and shows that none can cut the mustard. Trying to reconcile QNL with general relativity leads to even worse conundrums. Science is in a deep quandary! This book will blow your mind if you let it.

Maudlin. A Great Teacher
In this delightful read, Maudlin goes through an array of topics revolving around non-locality, relativity, and the mathematics involved. However, although I didn't find any "new" ideas in the text, I was amazed at how quickly & clearly he explained the said topics. Without exaggerating, in 80 pages of this book I attained what had taken me an entire stack of now useless books on quantum physics (particularly Bell's theorem), relativity, linear algebra, and philosophy(don't read Philosophy of Physics by Lange, you'll get it all out of this)

Anyone who has a prior introduction to Quantum theory will love this. I'd suggest Quantum Reality by Herbert, But there are lots of good ones out there.

Crystal Clear
There are many books which discuss the issue of quantum non-locality and discuss its connections to relativity theory.The vast majority of them, however, are either un-serious popular pap, or serious tomes written by professional philosophers who are at least as confused as the authors of the pap.

Maudlin's book stands out like a beacon of light in this fog of confusion and muddle-headedness.It is accessible to anyone with a basic high-school education in math and physics, yet surpasses the vast majority of technical papers on this subject in depth, clarity, and (most importantly) correctness.If you want to understand the issue of non-locality that makes some people worry so much about quantum theory and its consistency with relativity, read this book -- study this book -- and this holds whether you are a Joe Schmoe off the street or a famous Professor from (say) Boston University.

A lucid survey of the implications of Bell's Theorem
It's no coincidence that those writing the clearest books in the philosophy of physics are also those doing the best work in the field. Maudlin's book is a perfect example of this. It is also remarkably self-sufficient, providing a review of special relativity, and a brief and lucid presentation of the foundations of quantum mechanics in the appendix. As a result, it should be readable by anyone with a high school education. Those already familiar with the physics and/or the issues may want to skip parts, though I should note that I found a couple hidden gems regarding things I was unfamiliar with or mistaken about even in the introductory sections.

The bulk of the book examines whether and to what extent quantum mechanics entails four superluminal phenomena often taken to be ruled out by relativity: superluminal matter transport, superluminal signaling, superluminal causation and superluminal information transfer. Maudlin convincingly argues that only the latter two of these are entailed by quantum phenomena. The book ends with an critical examination of the various theories put forward to circumvent these difficulties, and provides a brief discussion of how these issues hold up when we move to General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Verbal Description of General Relativity
The author presents fundamental ideas of theory of relativity in a non-mathematical form using conversation approach to readers with little science background. The book is highly descriptive and the reader is bound to get bored since this is a discussion of about basic ideas about space and time using two-dimensional space-time diagrams. The first part of the book describes the notion of space and time in terms of Aristotelian and Galilean view points. The second half describes how the idea of spatial distance and elapsed time (interval) are incorporated into space time as geometrical entity. The author uses a general framework in this book for explaining general relativity. This is done by describing an event and assemble them into space-time (in a space-time diagram) and describe what is going-on in the physical world in terms of collection of events, and relationships between events is evaluated using measuring instruments such as light pulses and clocks. The intrinsic relationship between two events is described by interval (measured by physical experiences of observers). From the interval, one determines how light goes and how clock move and tick. The author eventually explains how equating intervals leads to relationship between `real' physical measurements. The interval is a sort of misty thing that stands in the background and integrates into space-time. In the final chapter the author discusses an application of general relativity to understand the properties of blackholes: It is here that the readers appreciate the importance relativity.The reader must have patience to read this book and he/she must be prepared to read chapters 5 and 6 second and perhaps third time to understand the underlying concept. If you do not have patience you will be lost and you will dislike this book

A Grand First Step.Well, maybe a quarter step..
This still ranks as one of my favorite relativity books.There is virtually no math to speak of.Yet, the author in a very descriptive way, will take you from Aristotelian view to the Galilean view and finally to the relativistic paradigm.Concepts such as events, event horizons, interval etc. are explained quite beautifully.The idea of the interval and the physics and geometry of the same is shown in a most interesting way.

The chapters are organized very well and the writing is very good.To follow the text a certain degree of concentration is required because the diagrams need to be checked as one proceeds.

This text is quite suitable for junior high and high school students not to mention college graduates who wish to know something beyond the cursory in relativity theory.

I happened to come across this book at a used bookstore in 1979.Very few of my friends were even aware of this book.It was one of those sleepers so much so that a while back this volume had gone out of publication.However, now it's back, thank God. If you want a non-technical but quite thorough peek into Special Relativity get this book.If you are one of those who would prefer a tad more math and a less wordy introduction go with James A. Smith'sAn Introduction To Special Relativity, published by Dover.

Very simple introduction
This book is not a college book on relativity. it is written for curious mind who wants to know something about the relativity and author gives a very layman introduction to it.It starts with space-time concept of Aristotelian, Galilean view and than slowly enters into relativistic view. A lot of space has been delegated to definition and explanation of the concept of Iterval and than jumps into physical meaning of the concepts. It is only as the author says from A to B and no more.

Delightfully Enlightening.
For anyone who wishes to gain a deep and true understanding the meaning of General Relativity's space-time, this a book to read.And that this understanding is gained with mathematics no more sophisticated than highschool geometry and algebratells you that the author is not only amaster,but also a superb expositor,of this subject.A highschoolerhaving a passion for Physics to a Graduate Student struggling to"internalize"the meaning of her complex equations will bedelightfully enlightenedreading this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Translated by Robert W. LawsonDownload Description
The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics. The work presumes a standard of education corresponding to that of a university matriculation examination, and, despite the shortness of the book, a fair amount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader. The author has spared himself no pains in his endeavour to present the main ideas in the simplest and most intelligible form, and on the whole, in the sequence and connection in which they actually originated. In the interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable that I should repeat myself frequently, without paying the slightest attention to the elegance of the presentation. I adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist L. Boltzmann, according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to the cobbler. I make no pretence of having withheld from the reader difficulties which are inherent to the subject. On the other hand, I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of the theory in a "step-motherly" fashion, so that readers unfamiliar with physics may not feel like the wanderer who was unable to see the forest for the trees. May the book bring some one a few happy hours of suggestive thought! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

This is a HORRIBLE Kindle Version
This was my first bad experience with the Kindle.Had I picked this book up at a store, I would've flipped through the pages and realized that it was poorly formated.There are carriage returns at all the wrong places, it's nearly impossible to read.I wish I'd paid a few bucks more and gotten one of the other versions.

If you're a kindle owner - go elsewhere.

Harder than it needs to be
This Dodo Press edition is riddled with annoying typos -- even in some equations and variable names. In addition the section numbers referred to in the text are only found in the table of contents, making navigation cumbersome.

A classic like this deserves better. Look for another edition.

Bah!
No, Einstein's Relativity IS amazingly brilliant and eloquent, I assure you of this. My review, although, is a buyer beware scenario. I ordered this exact copy of the text and the one that arrived had all sorts of horrendous typos. One? Two? No, more like...a ton. In an example of this, the 'aether' where the character 'ae' is a single one, somehow in the process of printing it, the character got repaced by a space and question mark! So when Einstein talks about the 'process by which the?ther happens...' or some such example, I translate it as 'bad' and not 'aether'.

By all means, buy Einstein's copy of Relativity, but please be cautious when ordering from this particular publisher. I'm unaware of whether or not this problem is widespread, but to those who get the one with the maddening typos riddled all over it, just bear through it and appreciate Einstein's eloquence and not the translator or publisher's, in my own personal opinion, bad spellchecking.

Clear, concise, brilliant
You know, Albert Einstein was a genius.

I mean, he would have been a genius without ever communicating a single thought clearly to any other human being.But this book makes him, like, genius squared.

The first part of this book covers special relativity.It's about 62 pages.I've never read anything like it.I'm not exaggerating when I say special relativity is a difficult topic.Einstein's presentation is clearer than I would ever have thought possible, concise but never rushed.

Some pages may require many readings.But everything you need is there on the page.

I would appreciate a looser translation; in a few places Lawson's translation reads to me like German with English words.Nonetheless: 5 stars.One of the most enlightening science books you'll ever read.

Still the Best
The first edition of this book was published just after the original paper on the general theory of relativity.In the ensuing ninety years, no one has produced a better layman's introduction to the special and general theories.

The alert reader will achieve not only a clear intuitive understanding of the important physics but will learn much about the awesome intellect that produced it.

In the centenary of Einstein's annus mirabilis, a number of reprints of this classic have appeared, some adorned with introductions by such luminaries as Roger Penrose or with additional appendices added in later editions.I have a personal preference for the Dover version because it reproduces the type face of the orginal 1916 translation that was the first science text I read at age seven.And the cover phtograph alone is worth the price of the book.

Enthusiastically recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Modern physics rests on two fundamental building blocks: general relativity and quantum theory. General relativity is a geometric interpretation of gravity while quantum theory governs the microscopic behaviour of matter. Since matter is described by quantum theory which in turn couples to geometry, we need a quantum theory of gravity. In order to construct quantum gravity one must reformulate quantum theory on a background independent way.Modern Canonical Quantum General Relativity provides a complete treatise of the canonical quantisation of general relativity. The focus is on detailing the conceptual and mathematical framework, on describing physical applications and on summarising the status of this programme in its most popular incarnation, called loop quantum gravity. Mathematical concepts and their relevance to physics are provided within this book which therefore can be read by graduate students with basic knowledge of quantum field theory or general relativity. ... Read more

Book Description
The Mathematics of Relativity for the Rest of Us provides a detailed explanation of relativity, particularly its mathematics, designed for the non-professional audience. The subject is developed from basic principles and observations in physics and mathematics, starting with algebra and geometry as taught in thorough high school courses. On the premise that this background suffices to build an appreciation and understanding of the subject, the crucial concepts are spelled out, and the key derivations are disclosed step-by-step.

The relativity of time, space, and mass is covered first, giving some attention to the history of the two main divisions of relativity, the special and the general. Once special relativity and its mathematics are established, general relativity is covered, beginning with its relationship to Newton's laws and advancing through its revolutionary concepts as well as its mathematics.

This process is carried all the way to the level of tensor equations. The Mathematics of Relativity for the Rest of Us treats topics such as: The constant speed of light, the invariant laws of physics, the basis and meaning of the equation E = mc2, the nature of curved four-dimensional space-time, the importance of non-Euclidean geometry, the gravitational bending of light, experimental confirmation of relativity, the philosophical and intellectual appeal of relativity, the nature of black holes, and the cosmologic significance of relativity -- both as concepts and as mathematical issues.

As a result the sufficiently attentive reader is set at ease with the reputedly incomprehensible but essential details about relativity. Even subjects such as "tensor calculus" and the "covariant partially differential field equations of general relativity" will be clear. For instance such a reader will know just what a "tensor" is, why the equations are "covariant," why they are "partially differential," why they are "field" equations, why relativity can be "general," and most importantly just what is meant by "relativity." Furthermore, if a reader is shown the fundamental equation of general relativity,



Rik - 1/2gikR = -XTik



he or she will understand what every term of this equation means, why each is included, what obstacles Einstein and his colleagues overcame to derive each term, what impact this equation has on modern science, and why this equation revolutionized our understanding of our universe.

The Mathematics of Relativity for the Rest of Us also devotes a chapter to the relationship between relativity and quantum mechanics. It reveals the limitations of relativity and the direction of future work in this branch of science. The chapter concludes with the role of string theory in reconciling relativity and quantum mechanics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

best book on the subject
I am a "motivated and attentive reader", trying to appreciate the meaning of relativity for so many years, with frustrating results. And yes, I'm full of books explaining relativity,from popular to technical texts, never reaching the goal. This is the book I was looking for, a book anyone can understand, a step by step guide to the mind of the Master.

Relativity review
Makes topic seem fairly simple.Much math, but most of it pretty basic.Explains well.Makes you think!Might be good as a text for a course on special and general relativity.

Relativity's not so bad after all
First time I finally see a book on relativity math that I think can be understood by just about anyone.Very clear.Diagrams a bit amateurish.Good English.Good index.Best feature I like is Q & A summary of general relativity and table pages 336 to 344.Never seen anything like this. ... Read more

Book Description
There is little doubt that Einstein's theory of relativity captures the imagination.Not only has it radically altered the way we view the universe, but the theory also has a considerable number of surprises in store. This is especially so in the three main topics of current interest that this book reaches, namely: black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmology. The main aim of this textbook is to provide students with a sound mathematical introduction coupled to an understanding of the physical insights needed to explore the subject. Indeed,the book follows Einstein in that it introduces the theory very much from a physical point of view. After introducing the special theory of relativity, the basic field equations of gravitation are derived and discussed carefully as a prelude to first solving them in simple cases and then exploring the three main areas of application. Einstein's theory of relativity is undoubtedly one of the greatest achievements of the human mind. Yet, in this book, the author makes it possible for students with a wide range of abilities to deal confidently with the subject. Based on the author's fifteen years experience of teaching this subject, this is achieved by breaking down the main arguments into simple logical steps. The book includes numerous illustrative diagrams and exercises (of varying degrees of difficulty), and as a result this book makes an excellent course for any student coming to the subject for the first time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Excellent General Relativity Textbook
This text is well written. It is less well-known than it deserves to be, as it nowhas many competitors. Needless to say, it deserves attention by the serious student and professors alike.This marvelous resource should not be collecting dust on anyone's bookshelf.

Review by author of Relativity Demystified
This was one of the books assigned when I took general relativity in college. I found several of the chapters very enjoyable to read. D'Inverno does a great job getting into some of the fascinating physics that lies behind general relativity and its development, like Mach's principles and a great discussion of the equivalence principle. Much of the book is devoted to teaching you the mathematics, and it does so in a good fashion. He has two nice chapters on tensors with homework problems that are doable. One drawback was the book didn't have anything on Cartan's equations or discuss one forms (although he talks about contravariant and covariant vectors). The first half of the book is better than the second half, I found his chapters on special relativity excellent but felt his chapters on black holes and gravity waves were a bit lacking. In any case, I recommend it. Try beefing up your education by reading it along with Schutz so you get some exposure to one forms and all that.

This is the best book for an introduction to GR
D'Inverno presents all the prerequisite maths needed for GR perfectly. The book is presented perfectly and at the appropriate introductory level for someone who has already done special relativity and wants to jump into GR but doesnt know what a tensor is. There definitly is no better introduction to GR in existence. The exercises at the end of each chapter are brilliant as well. Usually I dont do exercises as they take too long but D'Invernos exercises are a must do. You learn soo much from them and they are more easy than hard. Most books at this level give exercises which are too hard or not that important to understanding the next few chapters. But D'Invernos exercises are perfect especially the ones on the chapters about the maths needed for GR.
After introducing GR he does stuff on black holes, worm holes, gravitational waves and cosmology.

The only problems with the book are that in the first section of the book he does an introduction to special relativity for those who have never seen it before. It is a very bad intro to special relativity. For the best intro to special rel. one needs to consult "University Physics" by "Young and Fredman".
But for those who have already done SR, d'invernos intro to SR is new and interesting as a method if a bit too difficult and mathematical.
Also I would be a bit critical of the fact that after explaining the geometrical structure of GR perfectly he does not even mention how this view of gravity as a force is not exactly "combinable" with the particle physics view of gravity as a force communicated by a graviton. Just a small thought which I think is important. (Weinberg introduces GR by another method which does not use the mathematical geometrical structure throughout as he considers it "overemphasized" and a bit "misleading")
Wienbergs "General relativity and cosmology" should be the readers next port of call after D'inverno

Where's the new edition?
This is an excellent book. But I have seen a 1996 edition of it, not described above.

The best intro book on GR !!!
This is without any doubt the best book one can use for starting with GR: it is self contained, well written and moreover it is full of Physical insight. In brief: a great book. Even the introductory mathematical part (about tensor calculus) is great written: not too short and not too long. If one would like to gain an additional point of view about tensor calculus I'd recommend to compare the way followed by R. d'Inverno with that followed by Richtmyer "Principles of advanced mathematical Physics" vol 2 (the last all done in geodesic coordinates: this is a book on maths and not about GR!!). The level of Ray d'Inverno is at advanced undergraduate/1st year graduate: in fact one can find a lot of well discussed topics that are generally left out in other books on the subject. Of course this is not an advanced text like R. Wald or Hawking-Ellis, which are the right books if one wants to get a deeper insight in particular topics. The only fundamental thing R. d'Inverno lacks to treat in a fully way is the form of the Energy of the Gravitational field in GR and its related problems: no specific discussion about it. I think this is an important topic. A valuable (and probably the best) discussion about the latter can be found in L.D.Landau "Field Theory" book, or even in Sean Carroll "Spacetime and Geometry" book (a very good one, my favourite together with Landau and Ray d'Inverno), or you can also have a look about it into P. Dirac or Weinberg. ... Read more

Book Description
Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity provides a lucid and thoroughly modern introduction to general relativity. With an accessible and lively writing style, it introduces modern techniques to what can often be a formal and intimidating subject.Readers are led from the physics of flat spacetime (special relativity), through the intricacies of differential geometry and Einstein's equations, and on to exciting applications such as black holes, gravitational radiation, and cosmology.For advanced undergraduates and graduate students, or anyone interested in astronomy, cosmology, physics, or general relativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Wordy and Wonderful
This is an advanced text, but all the same it is not particularly rigorous or dense, so it is in principle accessible to the beginner.With an easy authority, Carroll leads us on a wandering journey through the mystical lands of general relativity.This is very different from, and compliments nicely, the clarity and directness of Wald.As a student of GR, I use Wald for the bottom line on any subject, and Carroll for the random physical or computational insights that I invariably find in any section of the book.Carroll's prose is like music to the ear and I always enjoy myself when I decide to open up this book.

Be warned that there are lots of mistakes in this first edition--you might want to wait for the second one.

Also, his chapter on cosmology is better than any I've seen.

BY FAR the best book on GR
I am currently on the 4th chapter of Carroll's "Spacetime and Geometry" and thus far I am amazed at how clear it is.Sure there is a lot of math in it however that also is very clearly explained.In fact, I think that Carroll explains the differential geometry material better than any mathematician has in any book on the subject.If you want to learn general relativity, there is no getting around the math; sooner or later you'll have to learn it.I'd suggest, especially if you are self-studying the subject, to rather pick up this book and go through it than pick up a more "elementary" text and a book on Riemannian geometry to look at later.

(Although I do also highly recommend Kay's (Schaum outline) "Tensor Calculus" for self study.The prima donnas don't like Kay's book because it "doesn't have enough theory."I suppose if a freshman calculus book does not have the Lebesgue integral defined in ti they'll complain about that too.)

Because, you can always skip through certain sections if the math is too heavy and go back through it later.And like I wrote earlier, you won't find a better introduction to the mathematical material than here.

Carroll should be given the Nobel prize for this book.If not in Physics, then in literature.I'd give this textbook 10 stars if I could.

A nice blend of the ideas of physics with mathematics
Kudos to Carroll.

This book is an excellent INTRODUCTION to SR and GR for the graduate physics student as well as the graduate mathematics students.

Pure mathematics often loses sight of the ideas which motivated it and physics often loses the mathematical foundations from which it is built.

This book offers some level of mathematical formalism to the physics student while exposing the ideas motivating the mathematical concepts.

I particularly like how he builds up the mathematical machinery of GR by introducing sets then topology on this set giving a topological space. Now he adds in the ideas of a manifold which make this topological space look like Rn locally with the patches sewn together smoothly. The manifold comes equipped with tangent space, cotangent spaces and their product spaces giving tensor spaces. These are defined nicely with reference to component formalism as well as the multilinear algebra approach as maps from products spaces to the reals, etc. He delves into forms and tantalized the reader with deRham cohomology although doesnt go into it. He shows how these can be differentiated ( exterior derivative ) and integrated.

Now the metric is introduced giving a geometry. To this is added a connection which is independent of the metric and leads to notions of parallel transport and differentiation of tensors ( covariant derivative ). One sees that in a special case one can derive a unique connection from the metric ( Levi-Cevita ) which is used in GR.

Fibre bundles, Lie derivatives, pullbacks etc are introduced as needed.

He then presents some introductory GR material by applying the mathematics.

Great Book But Won't Get You To The Promised Land
My comments come with a few caveats.

1. This is my fourth GR book.
2. I'm not hardcore into physics.I'm not a physic grad and I'm reading GR for fun.I have a decent graduate math background but I've been corrupted with 10+ years in working in various roles software engineering, electronics engineering and marketing.
3. I assume that since you're considering buying this book, you're goal is to get at the "real" GR, not the watered down discover channel version.

With these caveats in mind, here are my comments.

First, on a scale of 1-5, I rank Carroll at level 3 in terms of math/physics maturity and thoroughness.Here is my full ranking of authors from my limited reading:1. schutz2. hartle3. penrose3. carroll 4. wald5. physics journal articles

Second, using the rankings above, I recommend Carroll as the second port of entry.If you're comfortable with multivariable calculus, start with schutz (#1). You'll get warm fuzzies doing the toy exercises. But Schutz is tensor/math-lite.If you've had advanced calculus and geometry already, jump in with carroll (#3).But you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone else as polite to the reader.He won't prepare you for 80 percent of what's published.If you're ready to throw off the training wheels and jump dive into mainstream GR go with Wald (#4).

Note that Hartle (#2) is a good "tweener" book with feel-good exercises and some of the full-on GR equations at the end.I bet most instructors teaching a first year grad course would go with Hartle along with a dose of supplementary material.

Third, don't expect Carroll to be your last GR book purchase if you want to reach the promised land (see caveat #4).Living and breathing GR is found in physics journals and for that you'll need Wald or another advanced GR book.

good math chapters, not at beginner's level after that

I had a course based on that book and I've read chapters 1-6 (out of 9 chapters total) plus all the appendices. Also, I've solved some of the problems.

Please keep in mind my review is from a beginner point of veiw. Readers more experienced in GR may feel different but that book is supposedly written for beginners right?

The math chapters 2 and 3 are worth reading because they will teach you tensor analysis on manifolds in much clearer way than other books. The book makes a clear distinction between assumptions, choices (like working with a metric compatible connection), or derived facts. It is nice that the book makes a difference between a Christoffel connection and a generic connection. The appendices are worth reading too cause they will give you a feeling for some new to you math necessary for GR like pullbacks, Lie Derivatives, hypersurfaces etc.

Chapter 4 is worth reading too cause it makes clear that Einstein's equations are just the simplest guess out of many other possibilities. Also it shows how we generalize physical laws from special relativity to GR making it clear our choices are the simplest ones but not the only ones possible.

The chapters after that discuss applications of GR like black holes, gravitational radiation, cosmology etc. Of these, I've read only the black holes chapters 5 and 6 and I wasn't able to understand 100% what was goin on. The problem was that the book uses concepts that you still don't quite understand if you are a beginner like 'spacelike singularity' or 'conformal diagrams'. That is informative but the book doesn't provide the necessary level of detail and examples for beginners so you could really master such concepts and use them in your practise.

There are problems after each chapter but not the necessary beginners problems that increase your conceptual understanding of the theory. Instead, some of the problems are just tedious algebra of type 'find the curvature for some general form of the metric' for which specialists in the field use symbolic programs like Mathematica. Solving these by hand proves that you can take derivatives and you are a mazochist but not that you understand GR. Other problems are really relevant to your education but are not dirrectly connected to the discussion in the text. Because of that you have to solve them from scratch and it will take you ages ...

If you are a beginner like me, you should read the math chapters and all appendices of Carroll's book plus chapter 4. Then you should read a real book for beginners with a lot of examples how to apply GR in real calculations and how to understand it. For that I recommend James Hartle's "Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity" and Bernard Schutz's "A first course in General Relativity". After that hopefully you will understand the rest of Carroll's book better. My experience was that often I had to read Hartle's book in order to understand and solve a problem in Carroll's book.
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Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent book for the right audience
Previous reviewers who rated this book less than four stars have simply misunderstood the purpose of this book. It uses a novel approach to present the special theory of relativity to an audience of non-physicists who are not afraid of a few - very few - equations, as in the proverbial "educated high school graduate." Hence Bondi uses numerical examples to avoid many equations. The book is not meant to be a college textbook or complete treatise on relativity!

Bondi's approach makes relativity seem almost obvious. The earlier chapters, which some felt were irrelevant, are designed to contrast sound with light, which may be more familiar, or at least less surprising. There is a lot of physics in this book

Some may be misled by a statement in John Durston's preface: "Professor Bondi derives Relativity from Newtonian ideas." One cannot derive relativity from Newtonian mechanics. But Newtonian concepts can be used to advantage.

My only caveat is that there are several unfortunate typos, especially Eq. (20) on page 123.

An illustration of Special Theory of Relativity
This is one of the first books which use common sense approach to the understanding of special theory of relativity using illustrations, drawings and diagrams. At one time this theory was considered mysterious, which is in fact obvious and clear-cut extension of ordinary ideas to the realm of high velocities. The author first presents Newtonian ideas followed by the concept and characteristic effects of special relativity in a non mathematical language. Then he introduces Lorentz Transformation (LT) in chapter 10, which involves systems of coordinates moving relative to each other and then uses LT to establish the basics of the theory. Readers with very limited mathematical background should have no trouble in understanding the elementary aspects of the relativity. This is a cute little book (177 pages, size 7.92'' x 5.36"), which is classified into three parts. The first part introduces the classical mechanics; concepts of force, momentum, angular momentum, velocity of light and uniqueness of light. The second part deals with the peculiarities of high speeds, relationship of inertial (uniformly moving, constant velocity) and moving observers and the need for theory of relativity to understand high speed situation and a brief introduction to Lorentz Transformation. The final part discusses the consequences of traveling faster than light, acceleration (non-inertial motion) and high velocities on mass. Chapters 8 and 9 are crucial to the common sense approach to the understanding of relativity. The reader may need time and patience to read these two chapters to understand relativity. Chapter 11 discusses some interesting consequences of special relativity; for travels faster than light there is no link between cause and effect, in other words that effect could precede cause. This book is very affordable and useful; I encourage the reader to consider adding this book to his/her personal library.

Something of a con job, but interesting, even informative
The basic theme of this book about relativity and common sense is so far stretched that one could call this a con job.Like the editor must have warned Bondi to stay away from equations so as not to turn off the average potential reader thumbing the pages, but we have pages and pages of mental figuring with three characters with individual names to boot.

Where he is really caught is in a diagram that is supposed to indicate the obviousness of a 30 degree rotation around the origin. Here 1/2 and the square root of 3 divided by 2 manage to show up, with absolutely no explanation at all.Apparaently he was afraid to say sin(30) = 1/2.Thus somebody who really did not know that would have absolutely no clue about how this self-evident diagram really worked!

Thus, as I say, it is con job.A preposterous attempt to link relativity and common sense, like everybody should think in microseconds of light, not feet.(Just try to explain to some youngster how a 8.5 x 11 inch paper is in fractions of a microsecond.) Anything else to Bondi being "degenerate" thinking. I guess he manged to fool even himself.

Yet, he does have his own way of looking at it, so if the subject of relativity usually results in drawing a blank sooner or later, well, this approach has a certain merit as a novel way of approaching the subject.It is possible to learn something from him.

Time Lost Forever
There's no doubting Bondi's credentials or the potentiality of his thesis on the common-sense derivation of special relativity from Newtonian physics, but Bondi fails on two basic fronts:

1) The bulk of his presentation relies on a cumbersome supposition (graphical and otherwise) involving several characters moving through space and time to prove that time is a route-dependent quantity. If the reader wants to truly understand Bondi's theory, he or she should plan to sit down with a chalk board or a paper and pen in order to keep the character's names and their travels straight.

2) The basis for the presentation is so tedious that eventually one reaches the point of sensory overload and, as a result, ends up accepting the conceptual foundation of Bondi's theory as is -- which is no different than taking Einstein's special theory of relativity at face value. In other words, for this reader, Bondi fails to convincingly derive special relativity from Newtonian physics.

Time Dilation at Comparatively Pedestrian Speeds
Bondi has a very novel and easy to follow approach to deriving time dilation.He uses a handful of travellers / observers moving relative to each other at subluminal speeds sending light pulses to each other.Unfortunately his derivation would just as well work and 'prove' time dilation if subsonic travelers were sending sound signals to each other.

Time dilation at one milionth of the speed of light?That would regarded ludicrous even by the most fervent believer in Einsteins 2nd postulate for Special Relativity (SR).

The author just takes the 2nd postulate for granted without even saying so, much less any justification for that counterintuitive assumption.

The book, like unfortunately many others about SR or GR, requires this leap of faith on the part of the reader, although very well hidden in this case.Not that he intends to deceive, the author apparently never questioned his own leap of faith.In other words, he does not apply the 'common sense' that the title promises. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (22)

A flawed intro to relativity
This book provides a basic look at the What of relativity... but is seriously flawed when explaining the Why.And this is very problematic in a book that is constantly claiming that it's "showing" you why a fact about relativity is true.Epstein keeps "proving" things but when you really look at it he hasn't proven anything at all and you don't really understand relativity any better.For example, he loves schematic diagrams, and showing how something is true because it looks a certain way in a diagram.But just drawing something in a diagram and saying, "See, that's the way time works because that's how the line looks on the diagram" proves nothing.Why does the diagram represent reality? And why must the diagram be drawn in exactly the way he did?And the "diagram proofs" are just a symptom of the bigger problem here:a lack of valid argument to back up conclusions, and an overall lack of rigor throughout the book, from the terms used to the methods utilized for demonstration.Read this book if you are new to relativity and want to get an initial grasp of what it's about and the kind of phenomena it entails.But don't make the mistake of being fooled into thinking you're really undertsanding relativity, because for the most part you're not.

Helps developing a feel for relativity
This book is a precious aid to help you develop your intuition about both special and general relativity. If you, like me, are someone who relies and feels comfortable more with intuition then reasoning, memory and abstractions, you have probably experienced quite a bit of discomfort studying and thinking about relativity. In other areas of physics, even quantum physics, you might have been able to come up with some sort of intuitive feel, but relativity, just a big void and a sense of "what this guys are taking about?". It's just about the fact that light velocity and strong gravitational fields are so outside of our reach that our intuition has nothing to work with, not even the "little balls" of particle physics.
Well this book is really helpful in starting to develop a visual and "gut" feel about relativity. Sometimes the drawings get a bit too fancy and confused, and you should avoid the pitfall of being led to believe you areally understand relativity just because you made something out of this book, but still it's a worthy, interesting and unusual read that will surely add something to your understanding.

Einstein would have loved it
This is the best introductory book on relativity, period. What makes it different from others is how much it emphasizes a visual approach to the subject. The diagrams are not there merely to help you understand the main text; they are an integral part of the main text.

Even if you understand the basic concepts of relativity, you will probably learn something new. Consider, for instance, the following passage: "The reason you can't go faster than the speed of light is that... everything, including you, is always moving at the speed of light. How can you be moving if you are at rest in a chair? You are moving through time." Accompanying diagrams then clearly show how this is so, and how time dilation follows from it.

You will 'get' relativity after reading this book.
The theory of Relativity was Einstein's conceptual framework for explaining some weirdnesses physicists had uncovered about the way light waves, fast-moving objects, objects in heavy gravitational fields, etc. behave.Relativity is hard to understand partly because their behavior is hard to grasp -- it defies both one's normal intuition and the rules of Newtonian mechanics.So first off this book excels in explaining exactly what the weirdness is, what it was that had physicists scratching their heads in confusion and disbelief.

But Relativity is also hard to understand because of a lack of a simple explanation, a way of picturing what's going on.And this is the true value of this book, that it provides this type of concept.

By analogy, if you follow the motions of the planets with a telescope, you see them speeding up, slowing down, even reversing direction, in a way that would be hard to justify on simple principles... until you make the sun rather than the earth the stationary frame of reference.Then all that seemingly complicated motion reduces to simple elliptical orbits.And more importantly, this explanation gives you the sense of "getting it" conceptually.It's that kind of idea -- what the author calls a "myth" -- that this book uniquely provides for Relativity.

The ideas presented not only make Relativity comprehensible, they also hold up quantitatively (e.g. how much does one's clock slow down, how much does a body shrink, etc.)

Galileo's helio-centric writings got him into trouble with the Church, and he was forced to recant.In effect he said that he didn't mean that the Earth rotated around the Sun, only that the math is simpler with the Sun as a frame of reference.That the motions of the planets were calculable, but not comprehensible, was sufficient for the Church to spare his life.

To this day, Quantum physics remains mathematically rigorous and in perfect agreement with experiment, but no one understands it.It is my fondest wish that someone some day will come up with a conceptual touchstone for grasping Quantum physics that is as powerfully intuitive as what this author has come up with for Relativity.

I do have one caveat, which is that this book does not distinguish between Special and General Relativity.He never mentions uniform vs. accelerated motion.Although he does seem to explain some phenomena that I thought fell into General Relativity, I also thought I recognized one or two places where his explanation breaks down if General Relativity were taken into consideration.

Ideal introduction to relativity
I owe a lot to this book. I've since gone on to read more advanced books on relativity, quantum physics, and string theory. What makes this book special is that it will make relativity an intuitive concept. As relativity is a foundation for so many other things, I needed a book which would give me a rock solid foundation. The book made relativity so simple that a child would understand it. And not only understand it, but be utterly convinced that it is correct. I now understand how relativity works about as well as I do the law of conservation of energy, as an example.
After you read this, you will want to move on, and I recomment "Quantum Reality". It's not simple like this book, though. I haven't found any books that do for quantum physics what Epstien does for relativity. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Buy a used copy
This book is one of the first introductions to the theory of relativity that has the endorsement of the discoverer of the theory. Albert Einstein was alive when the book was first published, and writes the foreward to the book. Individuals who want to learn relativity should still take a look at this book, in spite of the somewhat outdated mathematical notation. In more contemporary textbooks and monographs the physical intuition is usually sacrificed and replaced with mathematical formalism. But here the author puts the main emphasis on the physics behind the subject. It is one of the few books still in print that discusses the relativistic mechanics of mass points and continuous matter.

The reader will also get an overview of early approaches to unified field theories. Historians of science will be interested in particular with this discussion. It is amazing how much has changed in this area since this book was published in 1942. The advent of superstring and M-theory has given physicists a view of reality that is set on a mathematical structure that is quite formidable. It now takes years for a student to obtain the necessary mathematical background to reach the frontiers of unified theories. In this book, it only takes the reading of the first two parts to be able to understand the author's overview of unified field theories. Particular attention should be paid to the treatment of the gauge-invariant geometry of Hermann Weyl, because of its relevance to the construction of gauge theories in elementary particle physics. The geometry of Weyl is constructed using a symmetric tensor representing the gravitational field and a pseudovector that represents the vector potential. When a gauge transformation is applied to this vector potential, it changes by a gradient, which, as the author remarks, is the historical reason for calling the addition of a gradient to the electromagnetic vector potential a gauge transformation. In addition, variational principles play a role in this discussion, and these principles have wide applicability to the quantization of gauge theories in modern developments. The role played by adding extra dimensions to formulate a field theory is summarized here by the author in his discussion of five-dimensional field theories and Kaluza-Klein theories. Ten- and eleven-dimensional theories now dominate modern unified theories. It would be very interesting to know what the author and Einstein would have thought about the theories of today, entrenched as they are in the most complex mathematical constructions ever applied to physical theory.

Excellent first exposure
Don't know of a superior first exposure to relativity.It starts with elementary situations and examines the conflicts with pre-relativistic kinematical viewpoints.This motivates the requirements for special relativities' postulates and their immediate consequences.

From here, the more complex issues of special relativity are dealt with in an orderly fashion; e.g. rigid body dynamics, relativistic hydrodynamics and electromagnetic theory from a relatavistic point of view.

General tensor analysis is covered in a separate chapter for pursuing the general relativity chapters of the book.Incidentally, this chapter is among the most clear expositions on tensors out there.

Finally, general relativity is covered in the same stepwise fashion as was done in the special relativity chapters.The natural introduction of more complex ideas which start from basics is perhaps, the single reason why this book is a hard to beat introduction to relativity.

After a thorough digestion of Bergmann, one is ready to spring up to the next level, the masterful Weinberg.

Making the complex understandable
Peter was able to give examples which made the complex easier to understand. The edges of the first sections in a copy in the Caltech library were black from use. I was privileged to be a guinea pig for the first edition.

A masterpiece in physics.
This book describes the foundations of relativity in a clear and concise way. The development of tensor analysis is especially clear. It is great for anyone who has studied calculus, differential equations, and classicalphysics. I highly recommend it.

Pretty darn good.
Hey, it's endorsed by big Al, himself. The math intro pretty much does it all, but it would be good if you have a firm grasp of vector calculus, and linear algebra. And intro undergraduate physics wouldn't hurt, either. ... Read more

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Stargate Command's attempts to sign a treaty with the Pack, a race of gypsy space travellers, is jeopardised by a series of attacks from an unknown enemy. While searching for the perpetrators, Jack begins to suspect that the Pack are concealing a dangerous secret. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

If you are a fan, save your money.
Chapter 1 started on page 7.On page 8 the author wrote, "I would doubt that this valley has ever seen vegetation of any kind, Colonel."Which would have been a fine line, if it hadn't been Teal'c speaking.I should have stopped reading right there. If Teal'c ever addressed Jack by rank alone, or anything other than O'Neill, I'll eat my zat. Add to the awful voicing of the main characters, the fact that the author avoided character development of several of his own key characters to try and build some kind of a surprise ending and you get a book full of new folks you really don't care about.Now, while NOT inventing a new foe is fine, if your story revisits a System Lord, rehashing a civilization who weren't all that interesting the first OR second time the TV show went there, made no sense.You could fly a Goa'uld mothership through the plot holes in this book, before even discussing the alternate timeline. And by the end of the book the Pack are fighting their uncharacteristically agressive foes, in space, with landing craft, forgetting that on page 31 the author gave them a PAIR of Goa'uld motherships. I'm not going to bother buying Halcyon.

Original and Well-Written
I've read most of the Stargate SG-1 novels from Fandemonium, and thought this was one of the best.It involves time travel and alternate timelines.Not to give too much away, but Jack meets an older version of himself. There are a few things in the plot that don't quite make sense, but that tends to happen when time travel is involved.For the most part, it holds together well, and includes some interesting twists that provide opportunities for plumbing the souls of the characters.

The author does a pretty good job with characterization, even though he is apparently not a Stargate fan fiction writer, like some of the other SG-1 authors used by Fandemonium.He makes a few mistakes that a fan wouldn't, such as having Jack refer to Daniel as "Jackson," but gets the essence of the characters right, and most of the details, too.I enjoyed this novel.

Don't Bother Unless You're Really Desperate
This is definetly not the book you should go for if you wnat to read about Stargate. The plot dosen't really pick up until around 2/3rds of the way through. The characterizations are completely off. There several important new characters, if you like those, but none of them are really compelling. several comments that seem like plot points appear throughout the book, then vanish, never to be picked up on again. The only exuse for this novel is that it was written in a rush, and if it wasn't then it was just bad all around because of incompetence.

Love Stargate
Well, all true fans of Stargate SG-1 know that you can't keep an awesome program down...if the network fails the show, the show will live on! Love the book..actually love all the books for the show!

Boring
I found this book to be the least intersting of all the Stargate SG-1 fiction books available.The plot was slow, and honestly, not that interesting.I have found fan fiction on the web that is more interesting and better written.Not to mention more intuned with the characters. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (19)

Instructive, and interesting
I found the book to be both educational, in that I learned great deal about geomtery and the history of diemsions from this book, as well as being fun to read. Both interesting and intellectually stimulating--I find this combination rare. I recommend ths book to anyone interested in the field.

With few exceptions, it is a readable, stepwise explanation of how the universe is structured
To understand relativity, it is necessary to understand geometry, specifically how a straight line can be curved. For nearly everyone, any attempt to understand four-dimensional space begins with understanding how a three-dimensional creature would appear to a two-dimensional one. One of the earliest and still the greatest of all introductions to going up a dimension is "Flatland" by Edwin A. Abbott. Quite naturally and sensibly, Rucker starts with Abbott's rendition of the properties of Flatland.
Rucker then moves on to the idea of cu