This is the second time I read this book, the first time being a few years ago. Back then I only began thinking seriously about evolution vs. creation, looking for reading material to enrich my knowledge on the subject. So I read "The selfish gene" and after that "The blind watchmaker". These books just blew my mind!

Now, having encountered this book again, I decided to re-read it. Some time has passed, and I read a lot about evolution since then, so I can't say it had the same effect on me. More like "nice to meet the old friend Mr. Dawkins, with his excellent and cutting explanations of why evolution is, and creationism isn't true".

This book's main goal is not to explain how evolution works - Dawkins accomplished this brilliantly in The Selfish Gene. Rather, in this book the author combats many "popular" oppositions to evolution, from Paley's "Natural theology" in 1802 (which coined the "watchmaker" concept Dawkins pounds so hard) to more recent theories and rebuttals. In his recognizable harsh style, Dawkins takes no prisoners on the battlefield, he consistently and sharp-tonguedly shatters all opposition to pieces.

Some critique on this book is that it's at times difficult, and at times delves too much into "science politics". Also, the reader should not over-estimate the lessons we can learn from the Biomorphs experiment. IMHO the only real conclusion is that "you can reach apparent complexity from chaos in quite a few steps". The Biomorphs aren't *real* trees and insects.

This book is highly recommended, but not as a first book on evolution. It's too difficult for that. It's best read after "The selfish gene".