In the last chapter of The Selfish Gene (added in the second edition) Dawkins summarized The Extended Phenotype, but recommended skipping the chapter and reading the whole book. So that’s what I did, and I was not disappointed. Dawkins considers this book to be his best and Daniel Dennet, in the afterward for the second edition, says it is required reading for modern students of neo-Darwinism.
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Book: The Broken God
Although set in the future, this book is more like high fantasy than sci-fi and technology is basically treated like magic. There are also strong mystical overtones throughout. I do like high fantasy, but that genre has to walk a fine line between earnestness and just pure silliness. I think this book is more of the latter than the former. The book is also told from the point of view of a single character and with 900 pages to get through the single reference point gets old fast, or at least it did for me.
Also, when reading this book I kept remembering David Brin’s brilliant polemic against elitism in Star Wars and our myths in general. I think a similar charge could be leveled at The Broken God.
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Book: Smoke and Mirrors
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Book: Shards of Honor
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Book: The Origin of Species
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