The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe [Hardcover]

Eventually History remembers the great books - "The Road to Reality" is a true work of art, destined to be a classic - It is the first genuine attempt to cover in one book the state of theoretical physics today. Where other popular science books attempt to simplify the theory and omit equations, thereby reducing themselves to talking about the theory ... "The Road to Reality" PRESENTS the theory. It is a subtle, but important difference that I will try to illuminate in the rest of this review.

"The Road to Reality" makes the modern theories of physics easily accessible to mathematicians and layman alike, in a self-contained text. It achieves this by virtue of being the first popular science book on theoretical physics to devote its first 16 chapters to introducing the reader to the pre-requisite Mathematics and `Philosophy of Science' necessary to understand the theoretical physics presented in chapters 17 to 34. The book is littered with necessary equations, but all are introduced in a logical, intuitive manner and provided with some of the best explanations in words and pictures that I have seen to date.

As such the equations can be viewed merely as markers in the text if reading as a popular science book. Conversely they can be used to guide the serious theoretical physicist in attempting the minimal but carefully chosen and difficult exercises, and any mathematical investigations the reader may be inspired to conduct themselves upon reading the beautiful exposition of physical theories of our universe.

As justified above, the best thing about the book is its 1094 pages can be read at various levels .... from a cursory glance (genuinely constituting popular science, albeit a difficult read) or as serious academic study (taking you well into a post-graduate level appreciation of mathematics and theoretical physics). For the academic, it will accelerate your path to becoming a rounded theoretical physicist. Every school should own this book and every potential student of maths or theoretical physics should attempt to read it pre-university.

There is no room for dubious analogies in "The Road to Reality", which removes the scope for confusion. Apologies to those readers who like analogy, but there is no place for it in theoretical physics - Communicating an understanding of what the theory is really about, to a level that it seems intuitive to the reader, is the goal of this book.

It's my favorite book of all time. I can't recommend it more highly than that!!

When choosing the rating for this book I doubted between 5 and 1 stars. Why?

Well even for someone with some mathematical background (although it's been quite some time ago) this book is tough. If you're not mathematically minded you're better of with a book with less formula's and numerical examples. Although Penrose states many times one can just read "over" the more difficult parts and still get the gist of the story, I tend to disagree. His is a beautiful treaty on the most important mathematical theories that we have at the moment and that are used in physics or more specifically cosmology. He builds a well thought out "story" that should give the reader a thorough insight in the building blocks of physical theories. If you skip over the mathematical explanations you miss the basis upon which the rest of the book is leaning. I think some understanding (more then just basic) is necessary to appreciate the wonders of cosmology, at least as presented in this book.

If on the other hand you have a firm grip on maths and are not afraid to extend this knowledge, then Penrose will keep you busy for many weeks and lets you peek at the wonders of cosmology.

So depending on your scientific background and appetite for maths, this is a great adventure or frustrating Herculean task.

I agree with other reviewers that this book is not appropriate for anyone without a degree in the physical sciences. However, people who have done a degree, even in physics at a prestigious university often come out not really knowing what's going on. Courses almost exclusively focus on examineable material and so the beauty of the whole thing is lost in routine calculations and derivations. If this sounds unhappily familiar, this book is probably for you.

For me, it was probably the most engrossing book I have ever read. Penrose explains how all the various theories and theorems interact to form a beautiful and coherent whole, but does so by building on the maths rather than the broken analogies pop-science usually uses.

It is probably worth bearing in mind that he does have a rather unusual interpretation of even the most basic physical theories. The interpretations come directly from the maths, so there is certainly no crackpottery going on, though it can be a bit of work to connect back to what you already know from university. But when you do, it is the most fantastic feeling in the world, and the reason this is the only book I have ever bothered to review on amazon.