Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology: A Basic Introduction

This book covers the essential topics with the right amount of mathematical complexity and clear explanations. Obviously, a good knowledge of calculus and trigonometry is expected.

Having spent lots of time over the years with many other intro GR books (incl. Hobson, Carroll, d'Inverno, A Most Incomprehensible Thing, Schutz, Zee), I like this one the best as an intro to the subject. At the very least it should be a go-to for a newcomer.

The main reason is that this book, more than any other I've seen, focuses on symmetry. Not only is this the most beautiful/useful approach to relativity, but it also preps you well for similar concepts in other areas of physics, esp. gauge theories in particle physics. Indeed, I highly recommend checking out Cheng's other (harder to find) book "Einstein's Physics" for a highly pedagogical treatment of gauge theory and its structural similarity to GR. I.e. both get dynamics by postulating local coordinate symmetries.

Beyond that, the notation is modern and clear, the figures are well-done and useful, and overall the explanations are as good or better than I've seen in other textbooks. The exposition of the geometric meaning of the Christoffel symbols is particularly illuminating. I also love the fact that Cheng gives a more basic treatment based on the metric line element before giving the full tensor apparatus toward the end of the book. To me, this is a nice way of offering the physics 'punch-lines' up front for those who don't have time or need to dive into the full tensor formalism.

This IS only an intro book, though. But for that purpose, it's the best imo.

I’ve been preparing a short course on general relativity over the past year after after teaching special relativity. Yes I was using all the main classic texts by Weinberg, Wald, Schutz and the much referred to Misner, Thorne, Wheeler (though I find that a slog). To answer my questions on GR I usually had to read multiple books to piece the story together. Chang is different because it guides you through and fills in so many gaps that the other don’t. It’s such a well written book and I’d thoroughly recommend it for any undergraduate or postgraduate. There is only one other book that I’ve encountered that is perhaps as good if not better. That’s Hobson, Efstathiou and Lasenby’s General Relativity. That’s outstanding. There’s also Reflections on Relativity by Kevin Brown which complements all the above. But Chengs book is a must - I will be recommending it to students.