The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

For anyone interested in evolutionary psychology or why humans are the way the are when it comes to sex, this is a absolute great read. The narration is great and the author has you laughing as much as learning throughout the story. One of the best evolutionary psychology reads I have yet come across.

... I would want to be a microbiologist! Finished Ancestor's Tale by R. Dawkins and loved it, like the story of asking a fish, how's the water... and the fish answers... water? what water? The chemical world that is us seems far more distant than the edge of the visable universe. I'm reading Red Queen on paper and am now downloading it to my iPOD. The goal is... what/why is sex? It's a better question than it sounds... but I'm still struggling with the Hox gene and how it knows where it is. This is a great mystery and if you liked Ancestor's Tale, you'll find this is a fine trip into that next dimension... water? what water?

First of all, this book offers a good history of the thinking about certain aspects of sexual selection from an evolutionary perspective. The narration is excellent, as one should expect from Simon Prebble. The book is generally well-written if less than perfectly edited.

However, I find that the author often falls into a reactionary trap of dismissing too much of the substance of arguments that differ in assumptions or details from his own point of view. Further, the author is often inconsistent about his own apparent principles regarding the appropriate weight that ought to be given to certain scientific studies. In one paragraph he can dismiss the entire premise of the fields of anthropology, sociology, and psychology while embracing without criticism results of studies in those fields which do happen to match up to his thesis.

And on numerous occasions the author is more than willing to make sweeping assumptions about potential sociological results because "everyone knows" what the answer would be--even while admitting there is no evidence on the subject either way. And in so doing he falls into the exact same traps he criticizes practitioners of those other disciplines for doing so. On one page, he rejects assumptions of anthropologists that lack evidence, and on the next he lambasts them for demanding strong evidence before changing how they do their research.

Finally, besides these numerous logical errors, cherry-picking, and conclusion-jumping, the author demonstrates an unfortunately sloppiness in style when he is willing to constantly assert "boys are X" and "women are Y" and "is it any surprise that boys do X better than girls" and vice versa. Yes, he's right that there are gender differences in psychology and average skill, but he's so interested in proving wrong the social scientists--who, prior to strong evidence becoming available otherwise, preferred to assume both genders thought in the same way--that he raises slight differences in averages into sweeping generalizations that are foundational to his arguments... at least when it suits him. Other times he takes great pains to point out that individuals vary when that helps his argument more.

Overall, not worth the listen. The reactionary tone leads to poor conclusions, and at this point the data is so outdated it's not worth cluttering your mind.

The first half of the book was absolutely amazing -- beautifully read by Simon Prebble (one of my favorite readers) and completely engaging, effortlessly explaining complex genetic puzzles. But, for me, the book got hard to take when it got to human evolutionary psychology. Maybe I'm one of the PC people Ridley accuses of holding science back, or maybe I'm just a woman from a younger generation, because the things he says about women's and men's different natures just don't ring true to my experience. And in the 20 years since the book was published, many of them have been, if not disproven, then shown to not be as reproducible and universal as Ridley implies.

an in depth review of the answers to the question "Why do we reproduce sexually instead of asexually"; at least those answers originating from an evolutionary perspective. It is full of interesting tidbits on the science of reproduction, the most fascinating being the three sex chromosomes of lemmings.

I learned quite a bit of information from the Red Queen but some of the baseline assumptions are quite stereotypical of a western view point and lacks any discussion of the various types of relationships beyond traditional pair bonding (marriage) and polygamy (as defined by one man and several women).

Whoever chose the title for this book was a genius! "Red Queen" and "Sex" hint at something a bit humorous and titillating. It ends up being a rather boring discussion about human reproduction being sexual rather than asexual and conjecture as to why. It harkens back to 10th grade biology and the study of Gregor Mendel and his genes. I zoned out on this stuff in the 10th grade and again in the middle of this book. If you're biologically inclined, you might find it interesting. The narrator is good and injects humorous tidbits here and there, but not enough to hold my attention.

If you ever wondered why men and women act the way we do this book will reveal the answers. From why men are aggresive by nature to why mothers and family always comment on why a baby looks like dad. This book is filled with facinating insights into human nature. Read by Simon Prebble who is my favorite narrator only adds to the book! yes its a science book so if your not into science you may not enjoy it. But if your a nerd you will love it!

One of the few books in my Audible history that I haven't finished. Got it because of the title....very catchy. Unfortunately, it's just a pschological treatise on a narrow subject that every once in a while throws in a reference (sometimes abstract) to Alice's Red Queen. Probably would have been better to buy it based on its merits (as to which I have no opinion) but it was a disappointment based on expectations the title produced. Essentially a one trick pony.

Be careful with this website, you will be charged without any notice. Even if you download their audio files, it will not be mp3 and it is highly NOT reusable once you are no longer a member. Stay out of this website for good!

I hope this comment gets to any novice readers looking to join the membership. I will try my best to prevent this type of business from developing.