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marc2o's review against another edition
5.0
Dawkins’ »pilgrimage« back through time, to meet our ancestors, is an entertaining and equally enlightening approach to exploring the principles of evolution and the origins of species. His tales are full of astonishing anecdotes and scientific details, and they all tell the story of how mind-bogglingly wonderful life is.
needagoodbook's review against another edition
5.0
As ever from Dawkins, a fascinating read. A very interesting 'journey' littered with interesting real life examples of wonderment - it felt partly like a David Attenborough wildlife programme. A long book but worth it.
rodhilton's review
2.0
Richard Dawkins makes as much of a concession toward the notion of "evolution moving toward humanity" as he'll ever make in The Ancestor's Tale. While some argue that evolution has always been moving towards homo sapiens, Dawkins spends a chapter dispelling the myth, then concedes that looking at evolution as if that were true is still somewhat interesting.
The Ancestor's Tale is Dawkins doing something similar, in a way consistent with his science. He takes a pilgrimage back to the very first organisms, starting at human beings and working backwards, stopping at various points to examine our common ancestors with other organisms.
The book is interesting, though much less so than many of Dawkins's other books. Other books by Dawkins have made me view the natural world as majestic and amazing in a way that I never appreciated before reading his work. The Ancestor's Tale is a bit more factual, a bit more scientific than other books by Dawkins, and in a weird way lacks this property.
There were definitely some eye-opening moments, in particular Dawkins's rant about the curse of a brain that cannot see in gradual differences, but for the most part the book wasn't as enthralling as his other work.
I recommend it for fans of Dawkins, but I wouldn't start here.
The Ancestor's Tale is Dawkins doing something similar, in a way consistent with his science. He takes a pilgrimage back to the very first organisms, starting at human beings and working backwards, stopping at various points to examine our common ancestors with other organisms.
The book is interesting, though much less so than many of Dawkins's other books. Other books by Dawkins have made me view the natural world as majestic and amazing in a way that I never appreciated before reading his work. The Ancestor's Tale is a bit more factual, a bit more scientific than other books by Dawkins, and in a weird way lacks this property.
There were definitely some eye-opening moments, in particular Dawkins's rant about the curse of a brain that cannot see in gradual differences, but for the most part the book wasn't as enthralling as his other work.
I recommend it for fans of Dawkins, but I wouldn't start here.
jon288's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty good, but the abridgement was frustrating, and as it was an audiobook I didn't pay as much attention as I should have
cbh's review
I found it rather dense at the time I was reading it, and decided to drop it. Although, I certainly plan to grab it in the future, love Dawkins' approach to dialogue.
taxideadaisy's review
2.0
I wish I could have had a better experience with this book. Having looked at some other reader reviews, it's clear that I'm not the only person who has found Dawkins to be arrogant, condescending, and rude regarding religion and similar philosophic topics. The premise of this book is very clever. It starts off well! But the rate and length of his snarky asides about religion completely ruined the book for me. I plugged along for a while trying to ignore them, rather the way readers may skim long descriptive passages in some genres, but finally I just gave up. The man may be a genius, but he's also an arrogant jerk.