I recently bought a copy of 'The Invisible Universe' for myself and I was blown away by each and every one of these astounding images that David Malin assembled and finally published in an appropriate format (finally a book whose size dares to do the content justice!). I am not (yet!) an expert on this subject matter, but it also proved to be a very interesting read with lots of interesting quotes and references. The oversized images convey the beauty of the subject matter as well as the purpose of science. They're not only very precise documentary photographs of constellations, nebulas and supernovas, but also a very poetic and artistic look (some of the images even reminded me of Ross Bleckner's paintings) at the vast universe that inspired me to let my imagination run wild. I applaud the people who made this book. It's a treasure! I especially appreciate the contrast of the vivid and saturated large photographs and the historic drawings and maps (and the juxtapositions of the two), which makes it more than just a pretty book but also a great reference for people like me, who are just starting to get into astronomy. I recommend this book for everyone who looks up at the stars and wonders if there is anything else out there. Carl Sagan would have loved this one! Ps: read the appendix to find out how these pictures were taken. -> My favorite one is called 'Storm of Orion'

I gave my husband a telescope for his birthday last summer, and have since become an astronomy widow - better than being a football widow! I wanted to give him a Christmas gift of something spectacular that wasn't technological, since I know nothing about it, and saw a review of this book. So I took a chance and bought it. What a success!

The book is cumbersome because of its size, but the upside of that is that it forces you to sit down at a table and really LOOK at it - this is not a browsing book. Each image is more spectacular than the previous, and the photographs are so beautifully done, so artistic, that they look almost painterly. The realization that this stuff actually exists, is really out there, in all this color and glory, is tremendously exciting. A "normal"-sized book could never do the photographs justice - this book had to be this size. The Horsehead Nebula is so other-worldly, so amazing, that words fail me and only photos like these can describe it.

This book, more than any other I've seen, transports me off the planet and makes me realize how unimaginably vast the universe really is - and fills me with awe that we silly humans with our puny little machines can actually see this much!

I recommend this book without reservation to anyone with an interest in astronomy, art, photography... I sure am glad I gave it to US!

Perhaps the most superb collection of astronomical and cosmological photographs I've ever seen in one collection. If you have even the faintest interest in astronomy or cosmology, do yourself a kind service and buy this book. You will never look at the stars the same way again. This book renders a perspective on the universe and our tiny place in it like no other.

As for the size, it is a little large but several of the photos demand it. The person who commented on the image quality certainly doesn't have a strong grasp of astro photography or he surely wouldn't criticize. This is a masterful work.

I discovered Neil Folberg through a photograhy magazine, and I fell in love with his images and process of making them. The book is beautifully made and classy with a matte dust cover, but it got a 4 rating because it was just a little less than I had expected. The two images that I had seen over and over again are included, but they are the only ones so dynamic in the book. Others seem a little plain, but art is subjective so what I don't like about this book may not be what others dislike. Either way, I see Folberg gaining more recognition as time goes on and he will continue to improve on his style.

These photographs transport the reader to another world, a twilight zone where the universe meets the earth and mind....these are black and white photographs, powerful, transporting, wonderful....Neil Folberg has captured the mysterious power of a sacred place and made marvelous photographs. Startingly original, deep and authentic. This is great art.

If you live in a City, or near one, then this book is a must for you. If you are a romantic, or a history buff or a serious lover of photography then this book is a must for you too.

These images are instant legends. Each one is like an ancient tale of the desert or of an ancient city in the mysteries of the night under the endless veil of stars above. You can almost feel the gentle, soft warm winds off of the desert as you turn these pages. The images are profound in the tradition of Ansel Adams,
Minor White and Edward Weston. They are all long exposures at night, masterfully accomplished. All of them are strong, subtle
and enchanting. The array of stars in the firmaments of these photographs definitely border on the religious and the metaphysical. They are breathtaking to see and experience.

This is a wonderful book for cynics who need to be reborn as
caring souls. It is a great gift for friends and a must in any serious photography library.

Book based on lectures by the author.
The treatment of the main subject 'the relation between the universe and the mind' through neurology and SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is very superficial. Only roughly one half of the book covers this subject.
The construction of a central nervous system through the Milky Way seemed to me bad science fiction.
Another part of the book is based on the work of Edward O. Wilson 'The diversity of life', the DNA structure and oriental mysticism.
The book of Edward O. Wilson is a must, not this one.

This is an excellent introductory text to the place of the human mind in the cosmos. I believe that for those just beginning to think about these issues, this book is an excellent place to start. In the end, I was forced to downgrade this book a little because it is just too broad a subject. Each chapter dabbles in an interesting area and then moves on without pursuing the issues at any length. Don't get me wrong, it's interesting stuff, but all but the most casual reader will be left wanting to know more. (Maybe that's not a bad thing.)

This book is a strange mix of great ideas, written with Ferris' typical professionalism. The red line is a little bit obscured at times, which leaves the reader at the end with a mixed feeling like "hey, great, but what was it all about, again?". However, the book deserves 5 stars even if it had only one chapter, I refer to "The central nervous system of the Milky Way Galaxy". He could also have called it "The Galactic Internet", a wonderful idea how to connect intelligent life despite the gaps in time and space. It gives hope that one day we may know something more than our local perspective about the place we inhabit.

A beautiful collection of nicely explained photos from space and of space. Everything from auroras to astronauts to eclipses, paired with a few paragraphs explaining each photo.

Excellent, albeit it seems to drag in parts (for example, in his chapter on "Quantum Weirdness"). The book is a "state of the universe" or, more specifically, our scientific understanding of it -- a wealth of information and theory, presented in a readable, pedestrian style. If you like science fiction, you'll find this "science fact" even better.

It is incredible how they trust blindly in EVERY aspect of General Relativity. Space-time warpages and singularities happens ONLY in mathematics! There is no way out. It is funny how Scientific American gives credibility to such a kind of science-fiction. It is time to stop lying to the public!

Hawking and Thorne, grasp it: Time-travel is physically IMPOSSIBLE.

Time travel appears pretty impractical based on this book. Maybe it's mathematically possible to fold time and punch wormholes in it in theory, but I don't think NASA or Greyhound is going to be offering trips back and forth through our lives. However, it's always intriguing to read what really smart people come up with, because they make a lot of it seem so obvious, even though I could never come up with it on my own.

I'm usually wary of books that are collections of essays, especially essays by several different people. Like many such books, The Future of Spacetime is something of a hodgepodge. Still, when I saw that the authors included Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, Timothy Ferris, Alan Lightman and Igor Novikov, it seemed to be worth taking a look. That decision was very well rewarded.

The five essays in The Future of Spacetime were first presented as talks for a celebration of the 60th birthday of Kip Thorne, a leading theoretical physicist. Three of them, plus a brief introduction by physicist Richard Price, deal with relativity, and especially with the possibility and implications of "closed timelike curves" in spacetime--time travel for short. In addition, Tim Ferris writes insightfully about why it is so important for scientists and science writers to do a better job of informing people about scientific theories and discoveries, but even more importantly clueing them in about how science works. He points out that it may take 1,000 years for a concept to penetrate to the core of society. Since modern science is at best 500 years old, there's lots left to be accomplished. Alan Lightman, who is both a physicist and a novelist, beautifully describes the creative process that lies at the heart of both science and creative writing. Scientists and novelists, he argues, are simply seeking different kinds of truths.

The three physics essays are gems. Each sheds at least some light on the nature of spacetime, on the possibility (or impossibility, or improbability) of time machines and time travel, and on intimately related issues such as causality and free will. Novikov, for example, concludes that the future can influence the past, but not in such a way as to erase or change an event that has already happened. Hawking argues that time travel is happening all the time at the quantum level, but that nature would protect against an attempt to use a time machine to send a macroscopic object, such as a human being, back in time. I was particularly impressed by Kip Thorne's essay, in which he makes a series of predictions concerning what physicists and cosmologists will discover in the next thirty years. He explains the importance of the gravity-wave detectors that are now starting to come on line. They promise to let us read the gravitational signals of such primordal events as the collision of black holes and even the big bang itself. It is as fascinating to get to piggyback on how these great minds think as it is to read their conclusions.

In short, The Future of Spacetime is a bit of a salad, but an extremely delicious and satisfying one.

Robert E. Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley & Sons, 2002).