THE UNIVERSE

A history of the universe in 122 pages? Is the fashion for short books out of control? Well, it might be 122 pages more than you would read otherwise. It would certainly be a good present for a teenager who might think the subject too daunting.

Richard Osborne's style is relentlessly chatty and cheery. "This is the funny thing," he says. "Here we are wafting around in the middle of nowhere and we try to make the Universe fit our bug-eyed small-brained view of everything." Or "Thales of Anaximander is credited with pointing out that an eclipse of the sun was not a mystical thing but probably due to the movement of the planets - and bingo! you have the beginnings of a scientific theory of the Universe." Or again, in a breathtaking series of mixed metaphors, "Space is like the glue in which time sloshes about and sometimes it sticks in different ways; it gets bedy like when you're really really drunk."

However, if this sort of writing is the glue in which difficult concepts slosh about and somehow get stuck in the mind of the timid lay reader, that must be to the good. Since "in the last 50 years, almost everything people had thought about the nature of the Universe has proved to be wrong", therer is the excitement of some very open-ended questions. Richard Osborne has the frankness to admit that he can do no more than introduce the various scientific and intellectual controversies. If it's true that very few of the many thousands who bought Stephen Hawkins' A Brief History of Time actually read it, then Osborne's may be the book to catch up with.

Certainly, this reviewer ended the book a good deal wiser.

This is the perfect introduction for those who would like to understand the vast space that is our universe, but who might not be completely confident with their grasp on scientific terms. Examining the history of human thought on the topic and then going on to explore the creation, current state, and future of our place in space. Osborne sets forth an encompassing portrait of how human understanding of the universe has evolved through politics, great thinkers, and scientific advancement. Written in a friendly, understandable tone, this book is sure to shed light on what can be a baffling, mind boggling subject. Pleasurably enlightening.