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The Universe cover art

The Universe

By: Andrew Cohen,Professor Brian Cox - foreword
Narrated by: Brian Cox,Professor Jot Davies
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Summary

Every night, above our heads, a drama of epic proportions is playing out. Diamond planets, zombie stars, black holes heavier than a billion suns. The cast of characters is extraordinary, and each one has its own incredible story to tell. 

We once thought of our Earth as unique, but we have now discovered thousands of alien planets, and that’s barely a fraction of the worlds that are out there. And there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on every planet in the solar system. But amid all this vastness, the Milky Way galaxy, our sun and the Earth are home to the only known life in the universe - at least for now.

With a foreword from Professor Brian Cox and access to all the latest NASA mission information, Andrew Cohen takes listeners on a voyage of discovery via the probes and telescopes exploring the outer reaches of our galaxy, revealing how it was formed and how it will inevitably be destroyed by the enigmatic black hole at its heart. And beyond our galaxy, the expanding universe, which holds clues to the biggest mystery of all - how did it all begin? We now know more about those first moments of existence than we ever thought possible, and hidden in this story of how it all began are the clues to the fate of the universe itself and everything in it.

©2021 Andrew Cohen and Professor Brian Cox (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

What listeners say about The Universe

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    4 out of 5 stars

A real effort to listen to.

I eagerly awaited this audio book having enjoyed ‘The Planets’ so much. Unfortunately the narrator has failed to match his intonation, pace and emphasis to the content he is reading, so badly that I found it a real effort to finish the audiobook.

The content is interesting but the narrator should let it speak for itself rather than trying to outshine it.

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14 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great content, poor delivery.

I generally love the output of Andrew Cohen and Prof Brian Cox, it brings huge concepts to me in a manner I can manage - even the one on quatum mechanics. This one however I found a difficult listen, not because of the content, but because of the delivery.
The book is read in a way with odd inflections, poor flow and rhythm, and a mechanical delivery that puts me in mind of Stephen Hawkings' voice synthesizer. While that was great and a recognizable characteristic of Prof Hawkings, I found it a hard listen..

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10 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great writing, awful narration

The overly whimsical narrator really distracted from the book's content. I honestly couldn't stand the tone but perhaps that's just me?
The writing itself is great if a little repetative at times because of the guest passages.
Looking forward to the TV series.

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7 people found this helpful

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  • 06-12-21

Terrible narration! I WANT A REFUND!

I loved planets and quantum universe by the same authors. but they where narrated by Samuel West, why of why did they not use him again.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Poor narration

Afraid I have to agree with many of the other reviews: poor narration, particularly when compared to Samuel West of Planets. Narrator places emphasis on odd syllables and at unnatural points in the sentence - sounds like he's reading the football scores, not narrating an audiobook. Really off-putting

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliantly narrated and fascinating!

A really strong introduction to modern astronomy, detailed in all thee right places for the layman.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Narration

Fabulous narration absolutely perfect for the subject material. Perfectly paced with a softness that emphasised the wonder of the Universe.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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An insight to the universe

A great way to follow the origins of the universe. Narrated and written very well with the right balance of techno speak and plain language.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Amazing detail but chapters are very long

The science and wonder is out of this world. It’s incredible and so full of new things if the universe is well trodden ground for you. The chapters need breaking up smaller, they are huge and it would be good to know what is in the book in smaller chunks.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Great for beginners

I myself before listening to this had zero understanding of the ways of the universe and this was a great help in furthering my knowledge of the universe. It is prone to repeat itself A LOT.

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