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Summary: A book that had a great influnece on how I see the world
Review: Richard Dawkins has written two book very similar to each other. River Out Eden and the Blind Watch Maker. The Blind Watch maker is more complex and more detailed. But River out of Eden lays out Darwinian theory beatifully and in an understandable form. Darwin is hard to read and this book flows well for the lay person (Such as Chemical engineers like my self) He confronts the attacks agianst Darwin by creationist and biologist alike. He is a great defender of Darwin. If you are a scientist outside biology this is a great book, a great book for young students confused by Darwin, and for Creationist who want to understand their Chief opponents (Darwin and Dawkins). Some of the Dawkins ideas such as the idea of the selfish Gene and his ideas on Gene "cooperation" are described in this book. If you want a taste of Dawkins read this book. If you like itand want more detailed imformation and theory read the blind watchmaker. I rate this book as one of the most important books that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction for Beginners
Review: Richard Dawkins is a great Darwanian defender and a mayor evolution thinker. This book is a marvellous introduction to evolution and his ideas. You may not agree 100% with Dawkins, but it is irrefutable that his theories are worth considering, and what's more important, his view of life is clarifying. If you are not an expert and just want to have a general perspective of evolution or want to know what's all the fuzz about creationists a evolutionists, well, this is a really good book to begin. Just a final note, if you are familiarized with Dawkins works you may feel this book too basic. It will be better to try some of his other works.
Rating: 
Summary: A Well-evolved Viewpoint
Review: This is a slim volume that summarizes Richard Dawkins's views on evolution. Dawkins is known as a pure Darwinist ("neo"-Darwinist, of course). He has taken the idea of natural selection to its logical conclusion in locating the units of selection in the atoms of life, the genes. As he puts it, "the great universal Utility Function, the quantity that is being diligently maximized in every cranny of the living world is, in every case, the survival of the DNA responsible for the feature you are trying to explain." (p 120) His book "The Selfish Gene" is an extensive explication of this thesis. This is a book in the Science Masters series, aimed at a lay audience looking for the big picture in some area of modern science from a name-brand expert. Herein, Dawkins delivers. He is reassuringly positive: there is no waffling about issues that might, in other venues, be hotly disputed. Of course he knows that some things he is saying are just his (considerably-informed) opinion, but the people are not paying to hear faint-hearted qualifications, but rather, boldly-asserted sharp-edged facts. The author's prose is justly admired for its mixture of clarity, culture, and wit; the tone is as one intelligent, reasonable person to another. He never bludgeons you with his learning; the facts are displayed because they support the current discussion, but he hopes they amuse you as well. Here, the discussion of "African Eve" is too sketchy, though. I found myself drawing descendent trees to get a handle on some of his points. Perhaps, in fact, many readers will find the whole book too sketchy. It is, of course, a short treatment of topics that Dawkins does develop at book length elsewhere. But if you just want the facts, (ok, theories) and can skip drawn-out demonstrations, this may be the book for you.
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Summary: An unrelenting case for evolution
Review: This short (172 pages in total) volume is to briefly describe some ingredients of evolution theory and to quench the creationist agenda. It is unique in its unapologetic tone -- while other books on evolution attempt persuasion, this one bluntly dismisses alternative explanations on basis of logic. As such it is not difficult to imagine many becoming irritated by this book. However there are too many fine points to be missed if one chooses to ignore it altogether. The river Dawkins speaks of is the river of DNA. Precisely because the information a gene passes on from one generation to another is digital (A, T, C, G) they are preserved well generation after generation. Using a surprisingly simple mathematical argument (Dawkins terms such arguments as "armchair" arguments) he demonstrates that everyone we encounter when we travel "sufficiently" back in time is either an ancestor of all of us or of none of us. Citing a computer simulation result built upon proven properties (for e.g. celibacy of mitochondrial DNA) and reasonable assumptions, he informs us that our most recent ancestor in the purely female line lived in Africa between 1.5*10^5 and 2.5*10^5 years ago. He shows by examples that the process of evolution is gradual, and asserts that nature seeks to maximize DNA survival (in Dawkins' jargon: DNA survival is "God's utility function"). The succinct and clear exposition of the book appealed to me. Its fine balance between armchair theories and real examples, together with its accessibility (it does not require prior knowledge) made the book a very intriguing read.
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