Books like The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

I had seen many references to this controversial book - among other things, it's quoted approvingly in Dawkins's The God Delusion - but somehow I didn't get round to reading it until this week. Despite the fact that it's sloppily argued and poorly written, I'm embarrassed to say that I found it unputdownable. If you also enjoy watching smart, opinionated people shooting their mouths off in public, you may well have the same reaction. Susskind, writing in 2005, confidently promises to explain Life, the Universe and Everything. He is one of the founders of string theory and the phrase is in the title, so no prizes for guessing that it will be an essential ingredient. In a nutshell, his argument is as follows. The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)