I was so excited to pick up the latest Brian Greene book; after devouring "The Elegant Universe" and "Fabric of the Cosmos," I was certain that I would do the same here. I was mistaken.

Without belaboring the point, two features of this book caused my interest to wane extremely quickly. First, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of "free-pass" statements from Mr. Greene. After the third time of reading "If you are reaching saturation, feel free to skip this entire chapter," I began to wonder if he had somewhat lost his previously uncanny ability to explain complex topics in a way that negated the desire to skip ahead. Second, nearly every "revelation" in this book followed up with the caveat that while it might be true, we don't (and may never have) the ability to prove it.

The book quickly went from cutting-edge research to conversation points designed to sell a book. Overall, very disappointing.