THE GRAND DESIGN

The true achievement of the authors is in having written these beautiful abstract concepts—from quantum theory to relativity, multiple universes, and the existence of life—with such simplicity and clarity. The cosmologist and the physicist provide often-humorous analogies and examples that enhance comprehension of the complex models and theories, as do short sentences free of esoteric words. Narrator Steve West gives this reading an appropriate measured pacing. Listeners sometimes need a few seconds to mull over the concepts, and West provides them. Infinite cosmological propositions—imagining time/space, the Big Bang, and beyond—are weighty stuff, and West delivers accordingly. As to the work's controversial aspect—a Grand Design minus a Grand Designer to spark the process—such considerations seem moot when Hawking often refers to the origins of our known universe and life on Earth as "miraculous" and "serendipitous." A.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2010]