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A review by illinalta
Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time by Gaia Vince
2.0
Some very interesting information which is unfortunately embedded in a tiresome writing style. This book reads a bit like a disorganized buffet of paragraphs. There are good ones, bad ones, and others have some decent morsels of info in them. But keeping track of what underlying arguments or points each section is trying to make is exhausting. You're served a haphazard menu of factoids instead of full course meal. This was disappointing especially since this book being "readable" was a big selling point.
Further editing was needed to connect similar discussion points together, such as physically placing paragraphs after one another. Alternatively, having opening and closing paragraphs discussing the arguments made would have been helpful. Even the advertised organization about discussing evolution via "Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time" did not feel cleanly executed.
The easiest comparison I can make for this book is to Sapiens. That book benefits from taking a mostly chronological order, and from making clear the lenses being used to examine information (e.g., viewing culture via myths). But by the end of Transcendence, I can only recall a couple of concepts that were consistently evidenced (e.g., Human development is linked to how we copy things).
You can still get some value from this book, just as you can get a good meal from a buffet. But if I were to read it again, I'd be much more selective about what I put on my plate and what I leave for others.
Further editing was needed to connect similar discussion points together, such as physically placing paragraphs after one another. Alternatively, having opening and closing paragraphs discussing the arguments made would have been helpful. Even the advertised organization about discussing evolution via "Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time" did not feel cleanly executed.
The easiest comparison I can make for this book is to Sapiens. That book benefits from taking a mostly chronological order, and from making clear the lenses being used to examine information (e.g., viewing culture via myths). But by the end of Transcendence, I can only recall a couple of concepts that were consistently evidenced (e.g., Human development is linked to how we copy things).
You can still get some value from this book, just as you can get a good meal from a buffet. But if I were to read it again, I'd be much more selective about what I put on my plate and what I leave for others.