Good in parts.
Some chapters lack direction because he gets so overwhelmed by the need to counter criticisms to his position that he often gets going on the counter arguments before he's really finished explaining his original position. Thus, any actual explanation of the science is liable to be so diluted by digression that it becomes difficult to remember the point being made. Incidentally, I didn't feel the God Delusion suffer from this, so perhaps, in the mean time, Dawkins has corrected... (show more)

Good in parts.
Some chapters lack direction because he gets so overwhelmed by the need to counter criticisms to his position that he often gets going on the counter arguments before he's really finished explaining his original position. Thus, any actual explanation of the science is liable to be so diluted by digression that it becomes difficult to remember the point being made. Incidentally, I didn't feel the God Delusion suffer from this, so perhaps, in the mean time, Dawkins has corrected this tendancy in his writing.
Having said that, occasional eddying prose aside, much of this book is well reasoned and interesting, if not all that groundbreaking to anyone who already knows a certain amount about evolution. (show less)

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

A classic tale of bleak and, often merely hinted, cosmic horror and malevolence. Lovecraft's brilliance comes not in shocks or surprises or twists or gore, but in the haunting and lingering sense of growing and horrid unease that purvades all of his writing.

My criticism would be that if you read a number of his short stories in succession, they do become somewhat... (show more)

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

A classic tale of bleak and, often merely hinted, cosmic horror and malevolence. Lovecraft's brilliance comes not in shocks or surprises or twists or gore, but in the haunting and lingering sense of growing and horrid unease that purvades all of his writing.

My criticism would be that if you read a number of his short stories in succession, they do become somewhat formulaic. While certain stories (Call of Cthulhu, Colour Out of Space, for example) stand out, others (for example, Whisperer in Darkness) don't quite capture the same tone and end up sounding a little like a pastiche of his better work. (show less)