For readers drawn to science writing that takes literary and philosophical risk seriously, The Order of Time is widely considered essential — TIME magazine named it one of its Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade, and The Sunday Times called it 'a dazzling book,' dubbing Rovelli 'the new Stephen Hawking.' The caveat, flagged plainly by Kirkus Reviews, is that Rovelli's personal musings, while astute and rewarding, do not make for an easy read — the meditative style demands patient engagement. Readers who want a brisk, step-by-step primer on time may find other treatments more accessible, but those willing to sit with complexity will find it richly rewarding.

The Order of Time

by Carlo Rovelli

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At a glance

Pages240

First published2017

Audiobook4h 19m · Benedict Cumberbatch

AudienceAdult

ISBN0735216118

About the Author

Carlo Rovelli

1 book reviewed

The Order of Time

Name: The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
Author: Carlo Rovelli
ISBN: 0735216118

by Carlo Rovelli

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers drawn to science writing that takes genuine literary and philosophical risk — particularly those who have enjoyed Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and want a longer, deeper reckoning with a single concept, or anyone curious about how modern physics fundamentally undermines our intuitive sense of time.

Worth it if

You are willing to sit with uncertainty and complexity, and you value a book that moves fluidly between rigorous physics — relativity, thermodynamics, loop quantum gravity — and the kind of philosophical and literary reflection that places Proust alongside Einstein.

Skip if

You are looking for a step-by-step conceptual primer on time with clear mathematical scaffolding, or you have no prior exposure to relativity and prefer expository popular science over meditative, digression-rich prose.

4.4from 5,886 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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The Order of Time is Carlo Rovelli's concise, literary dismantling of everything physics reveals — and demolishes — about our intuitive sense of past, present, and future, drawing on relativity, thermodynamics, and loop quantum gravity. Named one of TIME magazine's Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade, it is celebrated for blending rigorous science with philosophical and literary depth, from Proust to Anaximander. The key caveat, noted by Kirkus Reviews, is that Rovelli's meditative, digressive style rewards patient readers but is not a step-by-step primer — those seeking a more straightforward conceptual walkthrough may find the layering demanding.

Is it worth reading?: For readers drawn to science writing that takes literary and philosophical risk seriously, The Order of Time is widely considered essential — TIME magazine named it one of its Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade, and The Sunday Times called it 'a dazzling book,' dubbing Rovelli 'the new Stephen Hawking.' The caveat, flagged plainly by Kirkus Reviews, is that Rovelli's personal musings, while astute and rewarding, do not make for an easy read — the meditative style demands patient engagement. Readers who want a brisk, step-by-step primer on time may find other treatments more accessible, but those willing to sit with complexity will find it richly rewarding.
Similar books: Readers who enjoy The Order of Time will find strong companions in other landmark works of accessible physics writing. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is the most obvious predecessor — The Sunday Times positioned Rovelli as 'the new Stephen Hawking,' and the two books share an ambition to make frontier physics legible to general audiences. Sean Carroll's The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion covers overlapping territory with more mathematical scaffolding for readers who want deeper conceptual structure. James Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science offers a similarly literary approach to a revolution in scientific thinking, and is a strong pick for readers who responded to Rovelli's blend of cultural texture and rigorous science. Rovelli's own Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Helgoland round out the natural reading list for those wanting more from the same author, though these are not currently in the LuvemBooks catalogue.
Who should read this?: The Order of Time is designed for adult readers who are comfortable sitting with uncertainty and philosophical complexity — what critical coverage calls 'a deep, abstruse meditation.' It is a strong fit for anyone already curious about the nature of time, for readers who loved A Brief History of Time and want a more literary and personal treatment of similar territory, and for those who have read Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and want a longer, deeper dive into a single concept. It is less suited to readers seeking a step-by-step conceptual primer or those with no patience for literary and philosophical digression woven through their science.
Tell me about the adaptation: A film adaptation, freely inspired by The Order of Time, was directed by Liliana Cavani and released in 2023. Notably, it was developed in collaboration with Rovelli himself, giving the project direct authorial involvement. The film is described as freely inspired rather than a faithful scene-by-scene rendering of the book's arguments — it takes the book's themes as a departure point rather than a strict blueprint.
What's the reading experience like?: Critical coverage describes The Order of Time as a 'deep, abstruse meditation' — it is structured as an intellectual and even spiritual inquiry as much as a scientific one, weaving technical argument with philosophical digression, literary quotation (Proust, Anaximander, the Grateful Dead), and personal reflection. Kirkus Reviews noted plainly that while Rovelli's musings are 'astute and rewarding,' they 'do not make for an easy read.' The book's brevity is an asset for many readers, but its meditative pace means it rewards slow, deliberate engagement rather than rapid reading.
How was it received critically?: The Order of Time received widespread critical acclaim and significant recognition. TIME magazine named it one of its Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade — a rare distinction for a work of popular physics. The Sunday Times called it 'a dazzling book' and dubbed Rovelli 'the new Stephen Hawking,' situating him within the lineage of physicists who write accessibly for general audiences. The Guardian praised the book's cultural texture and Rovelli's ability to make frontier physics vivid and concrete. The primary note of caution came from Kirkus Reviews, which acknowledged the book's rewards while warning that the meditative style does not make for an easy read.

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How was it received critically?

Summarize this book

The Order of Time argues that nearly everything we intuitively believe about time — a fixed past, an open future, a universal present — turns out, under modern physics, to be false. Rovelli builds this case across three sections: first dismantling classical time through relativity and spacetime, then examining loop quantum gravity and thermodynamics, and finally turning to open-ended philosophical questions about human consciousness, memory, and what it means for time to 'flow.' Along the way, the book draws on literary and cultural voices as diverse as Proust, Anaximander, and the Grateful Dead, situating physics within a broader humanistic tradition.

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Age & Reading Level

Recommended age

Adult

Reading level

Adult

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Skip if You want a step-by-step, expository primer on physics with no literary or philosophical digression.

Editorial Review

The Order of Time is Carlo Rovelli's concise exploration of what physics actually reveals about time — dismantling everyday intuitions about past, present, and future through relativity, thermodynamics, and loop quantum gravity. Named one of TIME magazine's Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade, it is celebrated for its literary ambition and the depth of Rovelli's personal reflection, though critical coverage notes that those personal musings, while astute, do not make for an easy read.…

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Books like The Order of Time

Curated picks for readers who enjoyed The Order of Time, with our reasoning for each match.

If you liked The Order of Time

In our catalogue

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion

Sean Carroll

Carroll covers spacetime and motion with actual equations — a more rigorous companion for readers who want the full physics behind Rovelli's poetic dismantling of time.

Sean Carroll's The Biggest Ideas in the Universe covers much of the same intellectual territory as The Order of Time — relativity, the nature of space and time, and the laws of motion — but Carroll's approach is deliberately more mathematical. He walks readers through the real equations, not just the metaphors, making this a superb follow-up for anyone who finished Rovelli and wanted more technical depth. Where Rovelli leans into philosophy and literary reflection, Carroll leans into clarity and rigor. Both books share a conviction that modern physics is genuinely accessible to motivated non-specialists, and both take time's arrow and entropy seriously. For readers searching 'books like The Order of Time' who found Rovelli a little too impressionistic and want harder science alongside the big ideas, Carroll's book is an ideal complement.

In our catalogue

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking

The classic touchstone for physics-curious non-specialists — covers black holes, the arrow of time, and the Big Bang with the same ambition to make deep physics genuinely human.

A Brief History of Time is the book that proved popular physics could reach millions of readers, and it remains one of the strongest companions to The Order of Time. Hawking devotes serious chapters to the nature of time — its direction, its relationship to entropy, and whether it had a beginning — which maps almost directly onto Rovelli's central questions. Both books are short, bold, and written for readers with no physics background who are nonetheless willing to engage with hard ideas. Where Rovelli is more literary and personal, Hawking is more structured and systematic, so reading them together gives a fuller picture. For anyone asking 'what to read after The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli' or curious about how physicists have historically framed the mystery of time, Hawking's landmark text is an essential pairing.

In our catalogue

Chaos: Making a New Science

James Gleick

Gleick does for chaos theory what Rovelli does for time — renders a paradigm-shifting physics concept vivid and urgent for general readers through narrative and human history.

James Gleick's Chaos is one of the great works of popular science writing, and it shares a deep structural kinship with The Order of Time. Both books take a concept that seems simple on the surface — time, disorder — and reveal it to be shockingly strange and philosophically profound. Gleick traces how chaos theory overturned deterministic assumptions across physics, biology, and mathematics, much as Rovelli traces how relativity and thermodynamics overturn our assumptions about time's flow. Gleick's prose is narrative-driven and rich with scientific history; readers who responded to the idea that the universe is less orderly than it appears will find Chaos enormously satisfying. It is a strong answer to 'books like The Order of Time' for readers who want their physics served through human drama and intellectual history rather than pure concept.