Evolution
by Stephen Baxter
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen BaxterEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-02-03
ISBN: 0345457838
Number of pages: 656
Publisher: Del Rey
Book Reviews of Evolution
Book Review: 70% Science / 30% Fiction - You decide which is which
Summary: 3 Stars
Wow. This book is certainly a head trip. I will never look at my mate, child or co-workers the same way again. I keep seeing them as models for characters like Capo, Far, and Mother. From that point of view, it was a fun read. 'Evolution' was most interesting when it was describing the progression of culture.
It was the most boring when it was reviewing the changing geology of the planet. Tectonic plates shift, volcanos erupt, comets fall. The history of the planet is punctuated by tremendous disasters, and modern human society seems to be just one in a long chain of planetary abuses.
I would give credit to this book for its rigor and science -- I like how the process of natural selection is illustrated as a long, long, slow process -- except that it is hard to accept much from an author that speculates about tool wielding dinosaurs and giant 'air whales'. Plus, Baxter suggests that humans can lose language and devolve into filthy, hairy animals in 1,000 years, even though it took 60,000 years or so to make the same progress up the evolutionary ladder.
Finally, don't read this book looking for a happy ending. With a few exceptions (like Capo's morning routine), 'Evolution' presents a bleak story that is depressingly fatalistic -- unless the idea of endless cycles of bacteria evolving into self aware beings who are destroyed and devolve back into bacteria is comforting to you.
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