Richard Dawkins is a 'love him or hate him' sort of guy. He writes about science, and in particular evolutionary biology. His other books are all pretty easy to get along with, you'll climb some steep hills but nothing is insurmountable without some effort.

The Extended Phenotype is a bit different. I would say that unless you have read one of his other books (The Selfish Gene or The Blind Watchmaker would be ideal), or you have a background in the life sciences, you will find this book tough going. Some of the chapters do require a positive mountaineering ability on the part of the mind.

Dawkins adopts a take-no-prisoners mentality to opponents and other theories. In particular he targets religion with devastatingly accurate precision. If you have a strong religious faith you may well find him too arrogant or too aggressive towards your beliefs.

He offers a new view of how genes exert their influence (phenotype is how a gene expresses itself, for example by giving a person blue eyes or curly hair). He argues that the phenotype can extend into all sorts of areas that are not traditionally considered to be part of the gene's sphere of influence. To give one example he argues that a beavers dam is a phenotypic effect of genes contained within a beavers body.

Essentially Dawkins is putting forward a suggestion that far more of the world around us is under the control of genes than people think. Most of us would be happy to agree that such things as hair colour and eye colour are a result of our genes influence. Dawkins takes this further; he argues that such things as caddisfly larva houses are controlled by genes. I confess that at first glance I thought this was a strange idea.

A caddisfly larva builds it's house from little stones; these amazing little animals are superb stonesmiths and will select just the right stone, rotating it around to provide the best fit before putting it in place. Dawkins points out that they are clearly making a decision, and that the decision making apparatus is their brain, which is a direct result of the way their genes have expressed themselves. In other words it's a direct causal link. He gives many different examples of which this is just one.

He is truly putting forward a theory of an "Extended Phenotype"; the influence of our genes is subtle and far-reaching; moreso than is taught in orthodox biology. It's a challenging idea, but Dawkins relishes debate and in all his writing I've never seen him shirk away from an idea just because it is unorthodox. He is also unfailingly fair and gives opponents of his theories a good chance; he will explain THEIR ideas in a balanced way and then show why he thinks those ideas are wrong.

At no time does Dawkins fail to explain his ideas (my paragraph about the caddis fly just doesn't do justice to the way he goes over an idea) and the rationale behind them. If you ever feel left behind you'll feel it's your fault, rather than his inability to explain that is the problem. His writing is clear and an example to others.

Richard Dawkins provokes a lot of (fairly heated) commentary from people, many of whom take an almost instinctive dislike to him. In his defence I'd say that he is a very gentle man, and is unfailingly courteous and polite. I've watched him on television debates in the UK being shouted down by fundamentalist religious zealots and he's simply taken it, and then answered their questions quietly and politely. Doubtless this infuriates them still further.

If you come to this book with an open mind and you're prepared to put on your mental running shoes you're in for a real treat.

Recommended: Yes