 Reviewing the book in "The Independent", Jenny Turner writes that the introduction states the book's argument elegantly and compellingly; but the text disappointed her by losing sight of what Turner thought its most interesting goal, telling how physics has been motivated by "fantasies of universal mastery".The second, "The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace", charts the history of scientific thinking about space from Dante to the Internet.Andrew Leonard, reviewing the book for "The New York Times", calls Wertheim's thesis, that cyberspace (and behind it, physics) opens up spiritual possibilities, "ambitious and fascinating, although in lesser hands it would border on risibility."