Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

This is a long, fascinating, and complex book. Greene (Columbia Univ.) begins his story about the universe— its past, its future, and its inhabitants—at the big bang and ends it in the far distant future. Three basic concepts provide common threads that inform both Greene's interpretation of the facts and his personal views. Entropy (disorder) helps to explain the direction of time. Evolution helps to explain the development of richness and complexity. Reductionism helps us to understand consciousness, free will, and meaning in the universe. Greene's extended discussion of the connection between the subjective mind and brain function is especially insightful and thought provoking. His writing is engaging, colorful, and often waxes poetic. His ability to convey his views and then to contrast them with sympathetic approaches different from his own is impressive. The final sections, dealing with conjectures and speculations with regard to the presumed "end of time," effectively illustrate how humanity and thought are both improbable accidents of the current universe as tuned, in certain places, for supporting life. In sum, Greene's text brings a wide-ranging scholarship to bear in examining notably diverse fields, and he ties them together for readers in a seamless and coherent way. This book belongs in everyone’s library. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Kenneth L. Schick, emeritus, Union College (NY)

Publishers Weekly
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Greene (The Hidden Reality), director of Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Physics, translates sophisticated science topics into an accessible and illuminating survey. His achievement is particularly remarkable given the cerebral subject—the “fundamental transience of everything” in the universe, and of the universe itself. Greene digests the latest scientific thinking on how the universe began; on molecular Darwinism, the “chemical combat” believed to have triggered the transformation of inanimate collections of atoms into life; and on the nature of consciousness. Greene effectively illustrates his points with understandable examples, as when he uses pennies, all arranged heads-up, to explain entropy; shaking the coins will flip some of the coins to tails, thus increasing disorder, but is highly unlikely to return them all to the ordered state of all-heads. He concedes that some profound questions—“Why is there something rather than nothing?”—are currently unanswerable, though he is convinced that “there is no grand design,” and that people must construct their own meaning. Curious readers interested in some of the most fundamental questions of existence, and willing to invest some time and thought, will be richly rewarded by his fascinating exploration. (Feb.)

Library Journal
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Greene (physics and math, Columbia Univ.; The Elegant Universe) takes listeners from the beginning of the universe to the closest astrophysics can take us to the projected end of it all. He covers 14 billion years of the history of the universe, explains the physical laws that produced stars and galaxies, life and consciousness, and takes listeners far into the future when everything will decay and organized matter of any kind will not be possible. Greene dips into just about all the sciences to cover the big bang, the concept of time, how the origins of all matter are all doomed by entropy, how humans have managed to understand life and consciousness, the importance of language and the power of the human mind, the development of creativity, and the current cutting edge astrophysics understanding of quantum mechanics, ending with the sobering reality that nothing is permanent. VERDICT The author's personable, friendly narration provides a steady, balanced approach to this powerful adaptation of cutting-edge theoretical physics aimed at an erudite lay audience. The work will appeal to fans of David Christian's Origin Story, Walter Alvarez's A Most Improbable Journey, and Neil deGrasse Tyson's and Donald Goldsmith's Origins, as well as Carl Sagan's classic works.—Dale Farris, Groves, TX

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The author of several bestselling explorations of cutting-edge physics turns his attention to the cosmos, and readers will encounter his usual astute observations and analysis.Greene (Physics and Mathematics/Columbia Univ.; The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, 2016) quotes from philosopher Bertrand Russell who, in a 1948 radio debate with a cleric, based his agnosticism on a scientific law: "the universe has crawled by slow stages to a somewhat pitiful result on this earth and is going to crawl by still more pitiful stages to a condition of universal deathif this is to be taken as evidence of purpose, I can only say that the purpose is one that does not appeal to me." Russell is referring to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that "everything in the universe has an overwhelming tendency to run down, to degrade, to wither." Greene explains that this is entropy, a term that is often popularly defined as a gradual slide into disorder. In the Big Bang, a supremely ordered low entropy kernel of energy expanded into the familiar universe, but entropy's steady increase will lead to a uniformly disordered cold, lifeless emptinessalthough not for a long time. The law allows plenty of local, highly organized, low entropy areasgalaxies, stars, civilizationwhose existence is more than balanced by wasted energy they produce. Having announced his theme, Greene regularly returns to it in 11 chapters that begin at the Big Bang and proceed with deeply learned, sharp, never dumbed-down accounts of what scientists know about star formation, planet formation, life's origins, evolution, consciousness, language, culture, and religion. The author concludes his engaging survey with what the future might hold for humans (very long life) and the universe (even longer); beyond a certain entropy, however, there will be no room for us.An insightful history of everything that simplifies its complex subject as much as possible but no further. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Why does the universe exist? How will it end? What does it all mean? Greene (The Fabric of the Cosmos, 2004), a leading cosmic thinker and popular science writer, attempts to tackle these questions with an eye to explaining our deep need to believe we can be part of something eternal that is focused on the central role of entropy and Darwinian evolution in the unfolding of the universe. He begins with the Big Bang and concludes with explorations of how the universe might end. He explores the development of planets and complex life, the birth of mind, language, and creativity, awareness of mortality, the rise of storytelling, religion, and our attempts to leave some kind of permanent testament to our existence. He serves broad, high level summaries of ideas from physics, biology, neuroscience, philosophy, the arts, storytelling, and anthropology. He provides enough background to follow the meat of the discussion but he doesn't water it down for nonspecialists. There's tremendous joy in witnessing a brilliant and curious mind wrestle with such profound issues. He takes readers on a remarkable journey.--John Keogh Copyright 2020 Booklist

Library Journal
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Journalist Levy (In the Plex), known for previous technology corporate histories, turns his sights on the social media platform Facebook and its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp. Covering Facebook's origination and initial growth, much of which is depicted in Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires (adapted into the film The Social Network), Levy explores the past decade of corporate acquisitions, new social features, and a culture of "move fast, break things." Many employees and division heads are interviewed or profiled, but the main arc remains focused on the successes and missteps of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. Though the author's access to these two executives is touted as the book's selling point, Levy relates events in a personable but detached tone that steers clear of hagiography, critique, or even the inside scoop. VERDICT The value of this book lies in its putting together all the pieces of Facebook's privacy troubles, algorithms, and the Cambridge Analytica affair, elsewhere leaked, reported, or divulged in Congressional hearings.[See Prepub Alert, 8/12/19.]—Wade Lee-Smith, Univ. of Toledo Lib.

Library Journal
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Director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics and cofounder of the World Science Festival, Greene leads us from the big bang until the end of time, showing how galaxies have formed, biochemical mechanisms have pushed forth life, and neurons have zapped consciousness (and finally culture) into being even as the universe tends toward entropy. Greene's first book since 2011, so fans will be swarming all over it; his works have sold over two million across formats.