SOURCE: "The Mind of Stephen Hawking," in Economist, Vol. 329, November 6, 1993, pp. 120-21.

In the following review of Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, the critic states that the essays are repetitive and provide little insight about the author.

Histories of 20th-century physics will surely have a place for Professor Stephen Hawking. So will histories of publishing. His work on the nature of black holes and the origin of the universe earned him the respect of other cosmologists. The descriptions of that work in A Brief History of Time earned him fame, record-breaking bestsellerdom, and stacks of money.

His new book is a collection of essays and speeches. The two forms are in large part indistinguishable for Mr Hawking. Before his tracheostomy, the degenerative nerve disease that confines him to a wheel-chair had so slurred his speech that his talks had to be delivered by an interpreter...