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The Ascent of Gravity
- The Quest to Understand the Force That Explains Everything
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
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The Ascent of Gravity
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Summary
Gravity is the weakest force in the everyday world, yet it is the strongest force in the universe. It was the first force to be recognised and described, yet it is the least understood. It is a 'force' that keeps your feet on the ground, yet no such force actually exists. Gravity, to steal the words of Winston Churchill, is 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'. And penetrating that enigma promises to answer the biggest questions in science: what is space? What is time? What is the universe? And where did it all come from?
Award-winning writer Marcus Chown takes us on an unforgettable journey from the recognition of the 'force' of gravity in 1666 to the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015. And as we stand on the brink of a seismic revolution in our worldview, he brings us up to speed on the greatest challenge ever to confront physics.
Read by Adjoa Andoh.
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What listeners say about The Ascent of Gravity
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- DavidHo
- 10-12-17
good book
The narrator had a pleasant voice and style. But why did she decide to parody all the non-british scientists quoted by putting on a weird quasi racist stereotypical accent for the country they came from? It was really disturbing. And her idea of a Canadian accent sounded like a disney cartoon animal. As to Richard Feynman well she was so far off the mark it just played on my mind for ages. And did she really not know how to pronounce "integer"? She could have looked that one up at least.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Craig
- 02-05-17
Brilliant and engaging!
Narration is everything with an audiobook (I have abandoned many due to poor narration .....dull, monotone being prime amongst the reasons) but Ashoka Andoh is brilliant. Great author (Chown is probably the best popular physics writer in the world right now) with a truly engaging "story". I can't recommend this book highly enough!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kevin
- 18-12-17
Why the accents ...
Great material as ever, but appalling accents when quoting Einstein etc. Also please get narrators to check pronunciations they are not sure of (eg Feynman).
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ron
- 10-04-17
Interesting and graspable
This is a well written introduction to historical and contemporary issues in physics, and requires no sophisticated understanding of math.
One extremely annoying this about the narrator's performance is her awful, flat, and comical rendition of an American accent. She sounds like she's doing an imitation of the late Duchess of Windsor. There's no reason to do any accents at all.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ben Hughes
- 12-01-18
A fascinating and well rounded book
The analogues are well made, enabling clear and logical explanation of immensely complicated theories and ideas.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David
- 30-12-17
Genius throughout!
I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book, it bought a marvellous subject to life, well done!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Graham
- 21-04-17
gravity sucks!
or does it?
Great book well read.
Great value as you will need to listen to this book several times to understand how gravity works.
And once you think you understand you will join a club of 3 who do.
At this point you will then realise that actually you don't understand it and you'll have to start again or move on to something a little more simple...try a little Douglas Adams.
enjoy xx
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- C
- 28-02-21
Great book, distracting narration
It’s always a risk to attempt accents when narrating a non-fiction book. Unfortunately the narrator here has a bunch of generic accents which are used throughout: northerner; German; rather dodgy Indian; some sort of Scandinavian; Scottish; and the worst of all in my view: Richard Feynman sounding rather like an extra from Streetcar Named Desire.
As for the book itself, it’s fascinating.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr G
- 12-10-17
A book much bigger than it's title
The audio book the ascent of gravity is a very well rounded picture of everything we know about physics from the classic laws through to the cutting edge of theoretical physics
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-10-17
Cartoon accents were very distracting
I would have given top marks for the narration except for the appalling cartoon accents that littered the performance. A few words were consistently mispronounced (e.g. vacuum and Feynman) which leads me to believe this wasn't edited by a native English speaker. The book was an otherwise decent summary of the current scientific understanding of gravity.
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4 people found this helpful