At first I thought I may had been in over my head, however after rereading the starting chapters, everything seemed much clearer. Therefore, I deem this a very good introductory general relativity book. It does not assume the reader's familiarity with physics, though some general knowledge of at least Newtonian mechanics and kinetics is helpful.

The book begins with an interesting premise - that it will challenge some of the most fundamental ideas regarding space, time and matter the reader likely grew up with. For example: that time passes equally quickly for everyone, that two events occur either simultaneously or one after the other and that the angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees.

The first part focuses on Einstein's special relativity, particularly on the concepts of time dilation, space contraction and event simultaneity. It often resorts to diagram-supported use case of an astronaut traveling through space in a spacecraft, being observed by a mission controller on ground to illustrate these concepts.

The second part adds gravity and acceleration to the mix, introducing Einstein's theory of general relativity, thus inviting the reader to contemplate time "running" faster in lower gravity (that's right, time runs faster upstairs!), possibility of existence of multiple universes, the curvature of space-time and the formation and effects of black holes.

Due to the book's shortness, some interesting ideas are merely glossed over or tackled very superficially, but at the end there is a suggested further reading list. Contains a little bit of math and equations, but with the exception of one chapter that can safely be skipped, nothing out of the reach of basic college physics. ( )