The follow-up to The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene's book paints a wider picture of current cosmological thought than its predecessor, focussed as it was solely upon string theory.

Starting with an analysis of Mach's question "What does the water in a revolving bucket revolve relative to?", Greene uses that as a springboard to explore the very nature of space, time and reality, visiting Newton, Galileo and Einstein as he takes us on a riveting journey to the very heart of reality.

Personally, I found this book far more accessible than its predecessor, which seemed to me, at times, to be veering dangerously close to angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin territory in its examination of string theory. Greene is on much firmer ground here, dealing with established fact much more. Not that The Fabric of the Cosmos does not contain speculation: far from it, and the over-riding thought that one is left with after reading Greene's ideas about the nature of reality is that we understand so little of it, despite the enormous strides forward we have made in astrophysics and cosmology. But on the other hand, within a few years we stand to learn so much more, from the experiments at the LHC and upcoming space observatories. Greene's tone is one of carefully-guarded optimism that one day we might begin to glimpse the very roots of existence, but reaching that point will require decades of dogged observation and theorising.

Greene's writing is lucid and entertaining, and certainly not at all technical. This book is essential reading for anybody interested in cosmology and the nature of spacetime.