The Book of Life: An Illustrated History of the Evolution of Life on Earth

The book is beautifully published, the pictures are clear and colorful, font is easy on your eyes, white paper of very high quality. The amount of information is huge, it is presented in best scientific style: as hypotheses (not facts) with both supporting and critical comments. The language is convoluted and very hard to follow. The Authors thought is would be interesting to the reader to present information in a British Mystery style, but this style works only on the fourth reading, when you have actually become very familiar with the information itself. The book is worth your hard work, but most people will struggle. A person not intimately familiar with the topic is inevitably faced with a large number of new words, they require concentration and good memory, it is already quite an effort, without the need to collect relevant facts from several pages. While reading you may benefit from internet access to google many terms/names/ideas for better understanding. Still, I would buy this book again.

If you think this book is a 2001 update of the 1993 first edition, think again. Don't waste your money. Don't waste your time reading it.This version of The Book of Life is the original word for word, the only change is a five page apology by Gould for not updating the main text. It should never have been presented as in some meaningful way newer.The original was published in 1993. In 2022 we have 29 extra years of vast DNA research and theories, new fossils, discoveries, new taxonomies, new theories. So, although I had the 1993 edition, I thought I should buy at least a bit newer version.I was extremely disappointed and somewhat angry that the ONLY change in this re-issue is five pages of whining by Stephen Gould basically admitting that no changes have been made.He takes less than two pages to summarize the significant science changes between 1993 and 2001. He takes one page to say what he might have/should have/could have changed or updated but didn't. He should have taken ten or 15 pages to summarize the main changes or asked some of the contributors to update their sections. Woulda/coulda/shoulda!!!These extra 5 pages have been accommodated without changing the numbering of all other pages, allowing pages from 6 onwards to use the old page images, with exactly the same text, illustrations, layout and numbering.

An update of a classic text. It is a popular account of the history of life from the formation of the earth to current day. While this, sadly, is the most recent edition is at least 14 years old--it is still the best comprehensive, popular account. The writing is excellent and even from the multi-authors. The graphics very helpful in keeping straight what happened when. More recent books give refinements and confirmations but essentially all of this account is still valid. Highly recommended as an initial and reference orientation to the history of life.

This is a great book for someone high school or college level. I'd been looking for something to learn more about evolution (I went to a high school where it wasn't allowed to be taught, and in college it was assumed we already knew, so I had only very basic knowledge of it) and this is the perfect book for it. Shows how life started from the simplest forms, all the eras, and periods. It is nice to have some basic science knowledge to grasp what you are reading. But I understood fine with only into biology classes from college and basically nothing from before that. Great book for anyone interested in the subject.

I bought this book after previewing it at a local book store, I check online and amazon had a significantly lower price. The book is great. Big, color paintings, and some insightful reading on evolution. I had read reviews about partial or incomplete information in this book, but I bought it simply because I thought it looked like fun and interesting information, with beautiful renderings of prehistoric animals. Which is what it is. If you are studying evolution for school, I'm sure by now youve been recommended the newest edition for your studies.

I found the book both intersting and informative. A couple of features I especailly liked was the easy to follw way that it presented the time periods in Earth history. I also liked the family trees connecting the various life forms. They were complete and easy to follow. If you strungthem all together you would have a looooong chart showing the evolutionary history and relationships of all of the forms of life on earth. A fairly short book that gives a complete story of Life on Earth that is fun and easy to read.

...a little behind the times and anthropocentric. These failings are admitted in the book, however, and do not much detract from its being a useful work.Recommended.

Great many references for NOS and illustrations that I can use in my biology classroom. Book can be a little wordy and take a long time to read, but good information and graphics.

Regarding the Natural History of Animals and Plants and many other known forms of life.I think this is a classic book, edited by S.J.Gould and with content superbly written and illustrated by 10 experts in their various fields. Every subject is presented in a way that stimulates interest in the reader: even things like bacteria and algae are revealed as fascinating and essential parts of life's jigsaw.One can read a whole chapter at a time and thus appreciate a bit more the awesome immensity of Life's History; or just pick it up and read a bit at random whenever you have a few minutes to spare, and benefit from that as well.Although there may be a few small errors and theories which will be viewed differently in future, this is the case for all such books. Science after all is dynamic knowledge and what we "know" today can be overturned tomorrow.If you like to know about how living things are inter-related, and how scientists think they came to be; then this surely has to be a book to be kept and referred to for a long time to come. In my opinion: excellent!

Very nice book full of drawings, pictures, schemes to help us to understand the evolution. I am enjoying very much reading it!

La longue et belle histoire de la vie magnifiquement illustrée. Pour tous ceux qui se posent la question de nos origines et qui aimeraient comprendre comment nous en sommes arrivés là. Il est plus facile de suivre les explications scientifiques grâce aux graphiques et aux dessins des artistes. Un plaisir pour les yeux et un excellent exercice pour la tête.