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Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos | 
| Author: Michio Kaku
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £6.99
You Save: £3.00 (30%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 3125
Media: Paperback
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0141014636
EAN: 9780141014630
ASIN: 0141014636
Publication Date: January 26, 2006
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Fascinating but heavy going November 5, 2008
The topics covered are profound, mind bending and require a fundamental shift in thinking from what we are accustomed to regard as normal. Kaku has set himself a difficult task in attempting to explain them to a general readership. Some of his explanations are good, but I found parts of book heavy going, especially string theory which is his specialism.
The book falls between two stools, being too hard for the amateur but not a textbook for physics students.
 KAKU IS GOD November 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If your already a physicist: buy this, but dont expect TOO much
if your not: expect TOO much
in terms of knowledge etc, kaku has the wisdom of a 16,000 year old tortoise. but this book focuses on the "fun" part of physics. its more of an introduction to everything.
it goes through the simpler side of black holes, higher dimentional space, wave functions etc. it also gives some backgrounds about himself and other physicists.
when i say it focuses on the fun part, i mean it explains in a casual sense, no equations, or anything like that.
so if you want to get into physics, or just wanna know everything, then deffinitely buy this book.
and if your going to read any more kaku books, get this one FIRST, because the others focus on a point in-depth, whereas this gives a simpler knowledge of EVERYTHING. so its good to use Parallel worlds as a "foundation" for future knowledge.
5 stars!
Life, the universe and everything July 14, 2008
I love documentaries that start talking about the quantum world. Of course there is part of your mind that is shouting "this makes no sense" but instead I listen to the bit that says "I must know more". If you are turned off by phrases like M-theory or cosmological constant then this is obviously not the book for you.
If, like me, you love popular science and want to push things a little further without getting bogged down in mathematical formulae which mean NOTHING to me then this is the book for you. Kaku is a great guide through the physics of the very big like red dwarfs and black holes to the subatomic world of gluons and string theory. Whenever there's a danger of losing the reader he uses a simple analogy to help the information make sense. His style is light but serious and his ability to pack so much in without losing a layman like me is impressive.
This is a fabulous book about science for the casual adult reader which will get you to look at the world in a very different way. Enjoy the ride.
 Beyond Worlds July 6, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Parallel Worlds is a highly readable account of some of the most advanced and exciting aspects of cosmology and its related disciplines today. Covering everything from Einsteinian relativity, through quantum mechanics and on to the most-favoured current "theories of everything" - string theory and its new variant M-theory - Kaku guides his readers through a potted history of the universe, from its fiery beginning to its cold dark end ... and possibly beyond.
The journey is an exciting one, full of sound and fury - from the pattering of quasars and cosmic background radiation to the roar of supernovae - signifying plenty.
There are one or two editing mishaps - "googol" becomes "google", Jodrell Bank becomes "Jordell Bank", "Brownian motion" becomes "Browning motion" (leading me to wonder what would have happened if Terrence Rattigan had written "The Brownian Version" - in which a retired schoolteacher must confront his failure as a continuous-time stochastic process relating to the movement of a particle in a gas or liquid) - and someone needs to explain to the prof that "enormity" is not the same as "enormousness" but, these very petty cavils aside, this is an entertaining and informative guide to the nature of our universe and the universes that may exist alongside it.
accessible January 10, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
a GENUINELY accessible book, written in layman's (or layperson's as it must be these days) terms. the logic of the format flows easily and the topics covered are fascinating, highly speculative but also logically probable. a book to come back to again.
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