There are two things I especially recall about Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time — the earlier version of this new book, eA Briefer History of Time. The first is that as a popular introduction to modern science, it simply did not work. Fortunately, twice is a charm.Time and again, one could point to instances in the first version where the author would have lost the nonscientific reader or where the new ideas were coming so thick and fast that the reader would have had literary indigestion. Not for nothing, it came to be widely known as the least-read bestseller of all time.I also reckon that the various publishers who had originally rejected the original manuscript were — strictly speaking — correct in their judgment that it wouldn’t appeal to many. Although subsequently, in the face of the enormous commercial success of the book, they must have kicked themselves.So, the first question to ask about the new version is whether there has been any improvement. The answer is a resounding yes.Here is a book I would not hesitate to recommend as a good introduction to the subject of time. In fact, one cannot help wondering why it is so…