The Serpent's Promise: The Retelling of the Bible Through the Eyes of Modern Science by Steve Jones
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I hate to give up on a book, but man, at page 130 I had all of this one I could take.
It's sad, because the last two science books I read were so good. When I saw this at the library, I thought the title was rather clever, and its premise--"The Bible Interpreted Through Modern Science"--sounded interesting.
Unfortunately, it wasn't. It committed the Three Cardinal Sins of a Bad Science Book in my opinion--Dull, Bloated and Boring. The chapters I did finish meandered from here to there, making little sense, and the author seemed to forget his audience would most likely consist of laypeople (or should, if he wants his book to sell). His prose was turgid and unclear, and suffered mightily from Toxic Seriousness Syndrome. (Steve Jones and Ellen Willis are two peas in a pod.)
If anyone says, "Well, you didn't give this book a chance," well, yes, I did. If you can't make your book interesting in the first 130 pages, you're never going to.
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