Richard

I love science and physics concepts, but I can get lost with a lot of the ultra technical aspects of things like astronomy. (How someone can look at squiggles on a graph and determine the is Nitrogen frozen on Neptune is beyond me. But it's fascinating they can do it.) The author does a great job of explaining much of the technical nature of the astronomy to defend his positions without losing the listener in too much jargon. The narrator also has a very approachable voice and presentation style, instead of the professor type who is talking above you.

I especially enjoyed the explanations debunking of the moon-landing hoax conspiracies. For the sci-fi fan, the author shows you he is open to the idea of life "out there." But for the practical scientist he explains pretty well why it's not feesible to get ones hopes up for travel to the stars in the near future.

Overall a good listen

It's not uncommon for academics to write a book for "the rest of us," taking what is normally incredibly obscure data and explaining as best as possible in everyman language. This is one of those and the subject matter can be quite fascinating. That being said, be prepared for the material to still be somewhat dry. The science is fascinating, but read gets bogged down in some of the references and there are callouts to various science disciplines which, if I was reading the book I would have glanced over, but in the audio version they are read at the same pace as the main information. This not intended as a slight, but just the nature of academic based material. Also, typically the written book would have associated diagrams to illustrate the point. With science materials, there is a load of truth to the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words." Unfortuately in the audio version you have to endure all the words instead :) I liked the book, but but by the time it was over I was tired of the presentation.