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Customer Reviews of Evolution

Evolution on the Beach
At over 640 pages, Evolution-by award winning author Stephen Baxter, a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge and South-Ampton Universities-may not be exactly the sort of light reading one may think to bring to the beach this summer; however, its underling warning for the Human species may be a reminder of that other book concerning beaches.

Evolution is perhaps the most interesting novel I have come across concerning the fate of humanity if we stay on our current course. But, rather than offer the reader the usual, overblown apocalyptic Sci Fi novel, or beating us over the head with a righteous morality play, Evolution takes the scientific route toward offering a subtle but very effective message.

That message: We'd better begin to learn to cooperate as well as we compete or we Homo-Sapiens have already passed our prime.

Evolution begins 65 Million Years ago when the comet which ended the reign of the dinosaurs on Earth was as bright in the sky as the sun. Baxter shows us the "lifestyle" of some of the late Cretaceous reptiles & birds from the "point of view" of the first primates-mousy little fur balls which hid from the thunder lizards by burrowing underground in the forests. Baxter names each animal we encounter-again, as the primates would see them-to give us a sense of the primates' existence and "state of mind"-as simple as some of those early minds were. This interesting technique allows the reader to partly identify with what occurs to these creatures on their road to modernity. We experience what it means to be human by what it meant to be each of these creatures in an ever changing environment.

In essence, Evolution is a story of existence, adaptation, survival and extinction. By the time we get to what we may call modern humanity-around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire-we see how humanity's potential to become more than "just another animal fighting for survival" lies in our ability to cooperate and inhibit our more competitive, territorial and destructive natures. As humans fill the ecosystem like swarms of insects-something Baxter points out drove us away from our primate origins and into a much too complex existence-there needs to be created a new way of living, for the ways of old have depleted the earth's resources, severely altered the atmosphere, polluted the land and water, and sent to their extinction hundreds and thousands of species of animal.

Evolution does what no other such novel has done; it lets you view humanity from the inside. It lets one see from where we came, and spends most of its pages in the deep past so that one has a resonating feel for our biological history. Baxter spends very little time in the present and near future, a time when Earth finally fights back against the human "virus" and humanity collapses upon, and in spite of itself.

The concluding chapters take us 50 to 500 million years into the future to where we learn what life post-humanity might be like. Humans themselves, that is the descendents of the few survivors of the 21st Century, have de-evolved as survival becomes more important than the Big Brained lofty goals and achievements of their ancestors. Indeed, post-humanity primates live in a much healthier ecosystem.

Evolution serves two major purposes, in my opinion. One, it allows the ordinary novel reader (as opposed to readers of scientific journals or books), a chance to learn about both evolutionary theory, and what it means to be human, in a way they may never have otherwise. Also, it serves as a warning. All species live only for so long, and then become extinct; it often depends on how well they can adapt to Earth. If not for the Asteroid of 65 Million years ago, the Dinosaurs might still be around today. But mammals inherited the Earth, and in particular, one unique primate. How long can we survive? That depends on how well we adapt to Earth. So far, we have tried to make the Earth adapt to us, and we are failing miserably; we need to change our strategy.

And Baxter offers a way.

The lead character in the chapters dealing in the near future-Joan Useb-says at a conference of international scientists, that human culture, which had once been so profoundly adaptive, had become maladaptive. The solution she explains is within us already.. it is a primate solution.

(Useb) "Life isn't just about competition ... it's also about cooperation, interdependence. Our global society is becoming so highly structured that it is becoming something akin to a holan: a single composite entity. We have to learn to think of ourselves in that way. We have to build on the other half of our primate natures-the part that isn't about competition and xenophobia. Human interdependence comes from our deepest history. Now, without anybody planning it, we have engulfed the biosphere ... And we have to learn to manage it together."

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Impressive but Tedious
In EVOLUTION Baxter takes the really, really long view tracing (fictionally) the human species from the first tiny mole like creature scurrying around the feet of huge dinosaurs, to the very last tiny mole like creature, a human descendant, trying to survive on a dying Earth where most living things are extinct.

This is a difficult book to review because it is both very impressive but at the same time it can be very tedious. The novel is made up of vignettes describing the life of human ancestors or descendants, from pre-sentience to sentience to post-sentience. The book is tied together by snapshots of near future humanity at the beginning of the epoch where modern humans begin to de-evolve.

The best parts of the novel are where we see pre-humans developing intelligence and self-awareness and the societies that coalesce. It is also very character driven which helps provide empathy in the otherwise merciless cycle of life. There are some really clever off-shoot chapters as well.

Overall the book is well done, if a bit tedious at times.

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A 20 Star Book!
In novel form, Baxter presents here what everyone should understand, our origins, wrote in an interesting and entertaining way, in contrast to textbooks that are often wrote in a dry, academic style. Beautifully written, Baxter traces our mammalian past, beginning with a small primate Baxter named Purga, living in the time of the dinosaurs, and then on up to the present time and into the future as well. Each chapter is a story about an animal(s), and how it has evolved and interacts with others and it's environment. These stories are fascinating indeed, little glimpses into our primate past, and how evolution has shaped us into what we are now through the relentless selection process. As millions of years pass after the great extinction event caused about 65 million years ago by a great comet (most likely), each story is about an animal or groups of animals as they become more and more human.

Mammals in later times entered into group living to help ensure their survival, the corresponding social dynamics did spurr the development of larger and more complex brains, eventually giving rise to full consciousness. Baxter did a great job here, as everywhere in this novel, and his illustration of the concept of deceit as a by-product of consciousness was brilliant.

At least one other reviewer speculated as to what message Stephen Baxter is trying to get across to us. One reviewer wrote that perhaps the message is that if we don't master spaceflight and get off this planet we will de-evolve into lower life forms. Well, mabe, but even though I am a supporter of our space program I think perhaps not. I believe the primary message is to dramaticize the 'fact' of evolution to the general public with a well written and informative novel, teaching the fundamentals in an entertaining way, a refreshing breath of rational thought. Indeed, in our world there are many influences pulling us this way and that, the vast majority are not worthy or rational, Baxter seems to me to be trying to counter this. We live in a society where the vast majority of people are incapable of true independent thought, lead around by our so-called 'leaders' who themselves are largely incapable of independent thought, as they were put in power by the ignorant masses in the first place. The recent movie FAHRENHEIT 9-11 is a great expose' on this. In my own community there are even people who believe that the Earth is only about 6000 years old and that the extinction of the dinosaurs was aided from hunting by humans!!! I know this sounds harsh, and it is, I believe Baxter's primary message in this novel is to get through to at least a few people with the truth about our past, that our time is but a snapshot in a vast era of billions of years, and that, if you believe Baxter to the fullest, we are just animals, however intelligent, imbedded in an ecosystem as we always have been. Baxter also covers the emergence of 'belief' systems due to evolutionary advantage, and our propensity for them, well done here also.

Sometimes, after finishing a book, I am left with a feeling that I wasted my time having read it. You will not have that feeling after reading this book. This book would make a great movie, if anyone would dare to, in the conservative age in which we live.