SOURCE: A review of Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, in Washington Post Book World, Vol. XXIII, No. 37, September 12, 1993, p. 6.

In the excerpt below, Suplee contends that while Black Holes and Baby Universes is interesting, it adds nothing new to Hawking's theories in A Brief History of Time.

If asked to list the cruelest disappointments of modern life, most folks will cite their first date, latest paycheck and page 134 of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

That is the point at which the fabled Cambridge physicist is just about to reveal his theory on the shape and fate of the whole confounded cosmos—and then notes that, of course, it can only be understood in terms of "imaginary time" whose values produce negative numbers when squared. Make that simple adjustment and presto: "The distinction between time and space disappears completely." So, alas, does comprehension.

Even...