PositiveNew York Timesa tough-minded portrait of the theoretical physicist ... the title accurately captures the book’s iconoclastic spirit ... deeply researched and richly sourced. It incorporates fresh interviews with many people who interacted closely with Hawking, including students, collaborators and intellectual rivals ... Seife succeeds in serving up something of the flavor of those difficult and rather esoteric ideas, which are the heart of Hawking’s contribution to science, in a way that won’t give general readers indigestion. But it may leave you hungry for more ... It’s worth noting Seife’s odd choice to narrate his story using reverse chronology. It’s an unusual but stimulating structure ... the time-reversed narrative is not well matched to how readers usually understand stories, nor to the logical evolution of ideas. Seife has performed an important service by documenting Stephen Hawking’s life as it actually happened. It is what a great scientist deserves, and should expect.
