Forget the blurb’s claim that Steve Jones is going to step aside from “the noisy debate between believers and non-believers”. Brace yourself instead for a ten-round heavyweight bout between the Prophets and the Professor, between the gods and genetics. The scoring system used in The Serpent’s Promise owes everything to the secular rationalism of University College London and nothing to the Vatican, so you already know the outcome. But you won’t know whether a knockout blow is landed until you read the final chapter. By then you will have had a treat, a tale from an experienced writer who is always interesting, often illuminating and seldom vexing.
In his earlier book, Almost Like a Whale, Steve Jones brought up to date Darwin’s The Origin