Rating: 
Summary: An excellent companion to Ishmael
Review: You should read Ishmael first, and then read the Story of B. It builds nicely on the basic concepts presented in Ishmael. There is a bit more of a story and the book's layout is strange. There is a section in the back that has the public teachings of B. This is kind of cool because you can skip the story and just read the sort of lectures. You end up jumping back and forth if you want to read everything in sequence. The Book is excellent. It makes some good points and goes further than Ishmael did. It really is one of those life changing books. It challenges you to think about the modern world. It does a good job of showing that the stock market and SUVs won't help to stop humanity from destroying itself. It does a good job of showing how relgion has aided in the degredation of the earth. There is also a very cool interpritation of the nature of the anti-christ in the book. Somebody with more religious convictions than I would probabally find this book more troubling, but I would recommend it to anybody. Read Ishmael and then read the Story of B. You may hate it (probabally not), but it will make you use your brain.
Rating: 
Summary: An important book
Review: This is, at the very least, an interesting book to read whether you end up loving or hating it, agreeing or disagreeing with the arguments. After reading some of the other reviews, I have a few comments. First, it is a work of fiction and not a historical narrative. Quinn doesn't use too much data to support his assertions, but as a work of fiction the story is just as effective in my opinion. I thought the two most interesting ideas the book offered were (1) the realities of the population explosion and how our culture is prepared (or not prepared) to deal with it and (2) the notion that the "fall" depicted in the Bible corresponds directly in time with the use of totalitarian agriculture. Some have interpreted the book as very anti-Christian, but I think his point is that "dogmatic" or "doctrinal" Christianity has contributed to our cultural problems. Quinn is not really criticizing the Spirit of Jesus' message (or the message of any other founder of the world's major religions), but rather the institutions that have been formed that don't permit a vision of any other way of life. Also, I don't think the book paints a picture of doomed planet as some have suggested, but rather a doomed CULTURE. There is still hope for humanity through changed minds (not, as Quinn points out, through more programs perpetuated by the same culture already in place).
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing for an Ishmael fan
Review: I bought this book because of my great love for Ishmael. I found Quinn's first book to be very unique and thought provoking. Because of this, I was really disappointed by The Story of B. The tales in the book are the same as the ones in Ishmael (i.e. the Boiling Frog example). This ruined the book for me, because I was seeking a continuation, not a reiteration, of Ishmael. Maybe if I had read this book first I would not be so cyncial, but it really was a let-down after my expectations had been raised by Ishmael.
Rating: 
Summary: danger
Review: This book was powerful and unsatifsying, sort of like a diet of Big Macs. Quinn has hold of some interesting ideas, but he never supports any of them with data or even fleshed-out discussion. Occasionally he'll put in a list of, for example, ancient civiliazations, as though that constituted a rational argument for his position (for which many rational arguments could have been summoned had he cared to write them). I had to go read The Eye of the Spirit by Ken Wilber to get the taste of all that grease out of my mouth. For, in other words, some real intellectual sustenance. I find writers like Quinn dangerous in exactly the same way Big Macs are dangerous: a quick sampling is intoxicating, but over the long haul, you'll starve to death trying to live on them.
Rating: 
Summary: I'd rather learn from an ape.
Review: I read Ishmail in about a day and a half and couldn't wait to read this continuation. I was very dissapointed in the story and how it was presented. The style used in both the Ishmail books is very easy to read and also makes for a "quick" read. This book does not flow as well, and I don't think that the message is nearly as powerful. I would rather be preached to by an ape than a down on his luck priest.
Rating:
Summary: Ripping down the curtain...
Review: The Story of B was by far the best and most difficult of Quinn's works for me. Ishmael and My Ishmael helped me to see the curtain that has been pulled over my eyes and the Story of B has ripped that curtian down. For those that say Ishmael and My Ishmael were too simplistic and "duh" (to quote a fellow reviewer)-- please try The Story of B. For me personally I am not sure I would have been able to get through B without the first 2. Growing up drenched in the culture of this society and hearing constantly not to question took a while to break down (that is what Ishmael and My Ishmael did for me). Above all I would say that read the book- you have nothing to loose, except humanity!
Rating:
Summary: Well written but tough to stomach
Review: This book is well written though somewhat predictable, but it's hard to stomach the arrogance, moral relativism, and loathing of humanity that Quinn reveals through "B." I found myself cussing when B celebrates the culture of headhunters and condemns the culture that brought us our technology, art, and religion. When he equates Michelangelo with a termite you know he's an extremist. Unfortunately the "facts" and assertions go unquestioned by the narrator, a Laurentian priest, and predictably win him over. The story would have been much more interesting if the narrator had ever challenged any of B's premises or if he had struggled even a little in losing his faith. Quinn never really adresses obvious questions like why humans are the only creatures that need to voluntarily change their behavior, and he never proposes any real vision of the future--he only condemns the present. I much prefer Ayn Rand or any other author who celebrates human achievement or uniqueness. For my money The Source by Michener provides a much more fascinating view of the development of modern culture. The Story of B gives the reader a bleak perspective that humanity is little more than a scourge of the planet and no more or less important than any other species. Unless you hold that view or at least can disregard the smug enlightenment which drips from every page The Story of B isn't for you.
Rating:
Summary: A life changing expierence
Review: The Story of B is the single most powerful book that I have ever read. As a novel it holds onto the readers imagination and interest like the best of suspense writings. As a social statement, it's message breaths life into what might seem an uninviting and pathetic future for our planet, and humankind. More than recomend this book, I challange everyone to read it, and TRY to come out without a whole new view of the world. A highly recomended and equally powerful book, though in a completly different voice is My Ishmael. How lucky the world is to have a thinker like Daniel Quinn.
Rating:
Summary: A defense against the Critics.
Review: I have read The Story of B quite a while ago. Now that I have been scanning through the other reader's reviews I fine particualary interest in the one and two star argumentations. I just want to mention that it is really important to see this book as a part of evolutin that leads us currently to Beyond Civilization and maybe in future to even more. It has of course a quite simple story, the ideas, once understood are even more simple, but this is exactly Quinn's goal. He wanted to wrap his life and his vision in a way that even a child could read and understand. He makes the protagonist so slow that even the slowest reader understands. Surely, if the people that are fast and understand fast are bored, there is more out there, not only from Quinn.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Novel - More Powerful Than Ishmael As Well
Review: I actually enjoyed this novel more than Quinn's more celebrated Ishmael. But whatever gloves he had on in writing Ishmael, Quinn takes them off in this book. Powerful and profound critique of civilization's presumptions about, well, Everything. And it is a moving and engaging story as well.
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