Every Bit as Good as Elegant Universe . I would respectfully disagree with those who suggest that "Fabric of the Cosmos" is just a rehash of "Elegant Universe" with little more to offer, and in fact not as well written.  On the contrary, I found "Fabric of the Cosmos" to be equally as engaging as "Elegant Universe" and to offer a great deal of new material.  It is true that some of the background material on relativity and quantum mechanics is covered in both books, but I for one preferred it that way.  I read "Elegant Universe" several years ago, and although I have a general feel for the concepts, I appreciated the refresher on many of the details.  By including the background material in "Fabric of the Cosmos" I never felt lost, and I never had to refer back to another book.  The background material on relativity and quantum mechanics is similar in both books, but it is not identical, so I never felt like I was rereading the same old stuff.    Another minor issue I've seen some complain about is the use of The Simpson's (and other) television characters in his examples.  Personally I could care less what characters are used in the examples, but from a practical standpoint, I much preferred names like Marge and Lisa to names like Slim and Jim (which were used in "Elegant Universe").  I could easily keep track of what Marge and Lisa were doing in an example, whereas I was often confused about what Slim and Jim were doing.  The similar sounding names drove me crazy.  So from a practical standpoint, I preferred the names used in "Fabric of the Cosmos".    Now what about the content of the two books?  For me "Elegant Universe" was more of an introduction to string theory, whereas  "Fabric of the Cosmos" was much more an exposition on cosmology.  In "Elegant Universe" roughly the first 130 pages gave a background on relativity and quantum mechanics, and then the remainder of the book, some 250 pages, was about string theory.  In "Fabric of the Cosmos" roughly the same space is devoted to background info on relativity and quantum mechanics, (about 120 pages) but with more of a cosmological slant related to questions of "what is space" and "what is time".  Then roughly the next 200 pages give an outstanding description of where we're at in terms of cosmological theories about the origin of the universe.  If you want an excellent description of inflation theory, Higgs fields, and the like, this is the source.  And then only in the last roughly 120 pages does Greene bring string theory into all of this, and then with the same overarching cosmological slant which is a common thread running through the book.  Bottom line is "Fabric of the Cosmos" provided me with a terrific overview of cosmology that I did not get from "Elegant Universe".  Both books are outstanding, and I would certainly recommend both.  The point being simply that these are different books, and "Fabric of the Cosmos" is not just a rehash of "Elegant Universe".    Finally, as in "Elegant Universe", Greene takes the reader very logically from one step to the next.  I've read many books that make broad statements about how one thing relates to another with zero explanation of how that relationship was derived.  In Greene's book this is never an issue.  Sometimes this can make the writing a bit long and dense, but I would much prefer a book that I can logically work my way through, albeit sometimes with a bit of patience, than a book with logical gaps that no amount of patience is going to resolve.  Don't get me wrong though, even though the book can sometimes be a bit dense, I never found it to be dry.  Greene does a great job of making the book engaging and enjoyable to read throughout.    Very highly recommended
Output: POS