The Ascent of Gravity

The Quest to Understand the Force that Explains Everything

By: Marcus Chown

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh

Why the force that keeps our feet on the ground holds the key to understanding the nature of time and the origin of the universe.

Gravity is the weakest force in the everyday world yet it is the strongest force in the universe. It was the first force to be recognized and described yet it is the least understood. It is a "force" that keeps your feet on the ground yet no such force actually exists.

Gravity, to steal the words of Winston Churchill, is "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." And penetrating that enigma promises to answer the biggest questions in science: what is space? What is time? What is the universe? And where did it all come from?

Award-winning writer Marcus Chown takes us on an unforgettable journey from the recognition of the "force" of gravity in 1666 to the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015. And, as we stand on the brink of a seismic revolution in our worldview, he brings us up to speed on the greatest challenge ever to confront physics.

Well written interesting story.

only gripe is the reader using a unbelievably annoying accent for every quote that is books only major grinding feature.

great narrative overview

really solid introduction to basics of newtonian revolution, then relativity, touching on quantum mechanics and then discussing the future.. only complaint is the narrator's use of accents when reading quotes... I personally found it off-putting, especially the nasal sounding American accents (that's not what we sound like, is it?!)

hit and miss

About a quarter of this book is very well written and easy to understand. About half is average, the remaining quarter is like a decent writer is trying to make their book interesting by writing in a way that doesn't suit them. Overly descriptive, repetitive etc. But this is all dwarfed by the fact the narrator for some inexplicable reason thinks she can do accents. This is highly distracting to the content, partly because they are so inaccurate, and partly because they are exaggerated and jarring. What makes it worse is she has a very pleasant voice and natural accent. Nevertheless I did feel like I learned from this book.

Great Overall Introduction

Very well done as an introduction to Gravity, concise but informative. Highly recommend to scientific and non-scientific readers alike.

One of the best Audiobooks ever

I loved everything about this. It greatly exceeded my expectations. Highly recommended. Both the narration and the content were excellent.