A Briefer History of Time

By: Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow

Narrated by: Erik Davies

Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of the most brilliant minds of our time comes an audiobook that clarifies his most important ideas.

Stephen Hawking’s worldwide best seller A Brief History of Time remains a landmark volume in scientific writing. But for those who have asked for a more accessible formulation of its key concepts - the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, and the history and future of the universe - A Briefer History of Time is Professor Hawking’s response.

Although “briefer”, this audiobook is much more than a mere explanation of Hawking’s earlier work. A Briefer History of Time both clarifies and expands on the great subjects of the original and records the latest developments in the field - from string theory to the search for a unified theory of all the forces of physics. Thirty-seven full-color illustrations enhance the text and make A Briefer History of Time an exhilarating and must-have addition in its own right to the great literature of science and ideas.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2005 Stephen Hawking (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Readers will come away with an excellent understanding of the apparent contradictions and conundrums at the forefront of contemporary physics....Throughout these discussions, the authors maintain the same wry, lively tone that made the original Brief History such a delight." (Publishers Weekly)

Good book.

This is an update of "A Brief History of Time". It is a bit dry in places, but it is interesting.

Great book, awful audiobook organization

The content of the book is fantastic, everything is presented in a very understandable way. The narrator is really good as well.

What I really hated is the way the audiobook was constructed. Instead of properly breaking it into chapters, it is split into 4 parts, each about an hour long, which makes the navigation through the content awfully hard. Was it really hard to split the audiobook according to the book chapters?

"Less" becomes better title than "briefer"

Definitely prefer the first addition
This version would make hardly or unsatisfactory sense without having read the first addition

My Views on Briefer History of Time

I had listened to A Brief History Of Time and had really enjoyed it. So, it was only natural that I chose to read the 2nd part. I can easily state that if you read/listened to the first book, you will enjoy this one. I would recommend it. The only problem I have with audio books is that they cannot show the charts and/or graphs that the author is reffering to. Overall, this book was one of the fastest 4 hours I spent listening to an audio book.

300 plus years of scientific history, super condensed!

I very much appreciate just how incredible Stephen Hawking's mind is where, he could take 300+ years of history and summarize it down to this short intense book, yet be so informative for any level intellect!

A good book, but the information is dated.

This book is a must read if you are interested in the subject matter. The only issue I had with the book, and it is the same with any book that deals with theoretical physics and cosmology, is that a knowledgeable reader can get frustrated by some of the information that is dated (published in 2007). Some theories in this book have been either proven or disproven for instance. It is amazing how quickly books of this genre get dated.

Great

I enjoyed. listening to this book I drove extra to finish the book. A Awesome book

Briefer

just as good as the last one. I'll be listening to them again just to fully understand their concepts.

Comprehensible Intro To Astrophysics

Four hours of cosmology, history, time travel, antimatter, strings, and more. Worth the listen, though still pretty dense. Recommended if you want to think big thoughts!

Intended for those who already know

I take full responsibility for interpreting "A Briefer History of Time" to mean "something a person without a physics background will understand." That said, I enjoyed, muddled through, listened to everything twice (which made it "a briefer but twice longer than I expected history of time"), and learned an enormous amount.