Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Book Review - The Greatest Show on Earth

Richard Dawkin's is a prolific science writer and I have always enjoyed his prose. The extensive vocabulary and creative word play are simply enjoyable. This book had plenty of that, however I found the scientific content a little shallow. I have read several books that discuss evidence for evolution recently and I am sad to say that Dawkin's latest effort falls disappointingly flat. His book, "The Ancestors Tale" is miles better (of course it is also miles longer.)

2 comments:

  1. The science was pretty basic, but is was still interesting and entertaining. The fact that I was able to understand it on half a year of high school biology shows that it was written mainly as an introduction to evolution for those without much prior experience.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed. Not many can write as well as Dawkins and his word choice is brilliant. Finding the balance between simplicity and complexity is difficult. I thought Neil Shubin (Your inner Fish) did a better job.

    ReplyDelete