Book Review: Visions of the Multiverse

I recently came into the possession of a book called ‘Visions of the Multiverse’, which I had the pleasure of reading, finishing it just a few days ago. This is not a paid post in any way, it reflects my opinions on the book, and anything positive or negative regarding it is just my opinion.

The idea of a multiverse is no longer only science fiction – it is a serious concept, and this book treats it like a serious concept. At least most of the time. I absolutely loved how the book starts from almost zero knowledge and slowly builds up towards the multiverse theory, with examples all along the way (comparing quanta to M&Ms, for example). Sophisticated concepts are lengthly discussed, and thoroughly explained; supermassive black holes, event horizon, tidal gravitational forces, and then multiverses – it’s this kind of words you’re going to deal with, and trust me, after reading this, they won’t seem that complicated.

The declared purpose of the book is to answer questions such as “What is a multiverse?”, “Is it possible to determine if we live in a multiverse?”, and even tackles some issues with religion – though I’m not sure why; but what I really liked is that it explains the physical concepts needed to understand these questions, which is something that many publications miss.

The author, Steven Manly, is a PhD in high energy physics from Columbia University who works at energy accelerators, probing the structures of matter, and in 2003, he was named the N.Y. State Professor of the Year. That being said, I really like his writing style; as far as I’m concerned, it would be useless to go into a more in depth review, not because there isn’t anything worth writing about, but because I probably won’t be able to explain as simple and elegantly as the book does. A perfect book for the average Joe interested in physics or the sci-fi reader, but even a physics graduate will have what to enjoy here.