This is a fun book, but it's a bit more basic than the other non-fiction books I've been listening to lately. (Example: it touches on some of the same things that Dr. Tyson talks about in Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, but in less detail and depth.) This is still worth listening to, just be aware that it's the equivalent of an entry-level lecture series as compared with some of the other Great Courses lecture series.

One pet peeve of mine: based on the pauses in Dr. Tyson's speech patterns, it sounds like this was intended to be seen as a video. I get annoyed when the same audio is used for audio and video without considering that the audio-only users will be missing the visual portion of the book.

One thing I particularly liked about this was the passion that Dr. Tyson has for his subject. (This makes sense, since it's about his favorite parts of the universe.) A lot of non-fiction books can get dry and confusing, but this one is good at speaking to the average listener. This does mean that if you already know about the subject, you might feel some of his descriptions are overly simplistic. Still, it's a fun listen, if more casual than many of the Great Courses lectures I've listened to. ( )

Audible.com

12 lectures on astrophysics easy to follow even if the reader has only a minimal background on the subject ( )

Neil deGrasse Tyson delivers twelve lectures on what makes our universe so fascinating, and in some ways so different from what we see with our naked eyes and common sense. He covers the probable origins of the universe, why things are, beyond a certain size, mostly round, the age of the universe, the discovery of planets outside our solar system, whether we're likely to find intelligent life, and the probable death of the universe, along with other topics that are more fascinating than we could have guessed.

And of course, Dr. Tyson is much more fascinating, educational, and entertaining on these topics than a mere fascinated listener can be. Go get a copy of this audio book and listen to it instead of reading what I have to say about it.

I bought this audiobook. ( )