When I found out that Singh has a new book, I knew it was only a matter of time before I put my hands on it. From "Fermat's last theorem" and "The code book" it was obvious that he has a real knack for writing well about interesting topics in science and mathematics. The "Big Bang" is not different. It is very well written and tells the story of cosmology with such flair that the book reads like a thriller - it's actually hard to put down (for other people, that is, I don't like thrillers). The story is told as a gradual development of theories, from the times of the Greeks to the 1990s. As always, Singh makes an emphasis on the people behind the theories and equations, which is probably what makes the book really readable, but he doesn't forget to present enough interesting scientific facts to make the book interesting from a scientific point of view as well as a historical one.

Another interesting thing about this book is the attempt to explain what stands behind scientific discovery. In particular, the complementing roles of theory and experimentation in the progress of human knowledge, and how these two aspects advanced in an interleaving manner to expand our understanding of the universe.

I noted that the book delved deeper in the simpler topics but left much of the more complicated theories (which arose in the second part of the 20th century) on a conceptual level. I guess this makes sense because the later theories are so complicated it would ruin the book's "pop-sci" quality to explore these topics more thoroughly. Still, I'd like to get a better understanding of this topics, to see more "meat" (i.e. equations) in the last part of the book.

All in all, very highly recommended.