Adam's Curse

A Future Without Men

By: Bryan Sykes

Narrated by: Christopher Kay

In his astonishing New York Times best seller, The Seven Daughters of Eve, Oxford University geneticist Bryan Sykes showed that nearly all Europeans are descended from seven women. Now Sykes tackles what may be the most provocative question geneticists have ever considered: Are we facing a future where men become extinct? Bold, controversial, and endlessly fascinating, Adam’s Curse is certain to spark discussion and provoke debate.

©2004 Bryan Sykes (P)2004 Recorded Books

Someone Hire This Man A Tougher Editor!!

This is my 3rd Sykes book. His charming, good hearted personality comes through his writing, as does his penchant for nostalgia and romance (yes, you are reading a review for a scientific book). That being said, without looking at copywright dates, I can only conclude it MUST be an earlier book than the others (Angles, Saxons, Vikings and one on the U.S.) by virtue of its over abundance of romance, grand narrative, and topical digression, which future books manage to reduce to some extent.

There are several chapters in this book with excellent information and insight into genetics and the evolutionary implications of sexual selection on biology. The rest is enjoyable, though sometimes overly dramatized and frustratingly digressive.

Alas, his lovely prose on entomology would be sublime as the narrative for a charming NatGeo documentary on insects, á la "Animals Are Beautiful People Too," and his musings on a male-less human race a more than adequately terrifying Animal Planet foray into sci-fi docutainment with, "The Future of Sex."

Excellent!

Very educational with great narration. The "imminent" demise of the Y chromosome, along with the curse it has brought upon our planet is amazing to learn about.

Educational but not boring

This isn't a textbook, but it is very full of the science. There are narrations of some of the challenges of researchers, some downright surprising things they found, and long descriptions of historical and scientific events. So, if you know some biology or like science it should be a good read. If you find football more your speed, perhaps not.

Quietly Explosive

Would you listen to Adam's Curse again? Why?

I already have listened to it several times. It's crammed with import and information that takes careful consideration to fully comprehend.

What did you like best about this story?

Knowing that the Y chromosome has self-interest and uses its host to further its reproductive success. Knowing that much of what's wrong with the world is because of this fact. It explains why men want sons.
Women should want daughters and their mitochondrial DNA will do it's best to produce daughters. But women are partly captive. It is still a world dominated by men.

The battle lines of the sexes are really the battle lines between these two primary agents.

This book ties in quite beautifully with the other books I've been listening several times to...especially The Swerve.

From Democracy in Ancient Greece, to the power of Rome and the Vatican and the amazing corruptness in the Papacy...to today and what is happening with the greed of bankers and corporations. The similarities are so striking it seems bizarre that an educated world doesn't band together to control them. We are not slaves to our DNA, we have free will and the capacity to shape a world that stands up to what one banker complained about...that they can't help themselves, it's in their DNA to do what they do. And it is. But that's the idea behind free will and sentience. We are not simply puppets of our DNA we are capable of making a world in which there is live, liberty and most importantly of all, the pursuit of happiness. This is the lesson of Epicurius told by Lucretius in De Rerum Natura as told by one of the best story-tellers, Stephen Greenblatt.

Have you listened to any of Christopher Kay’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Aha. That's why.

Any additional comments?

nope.

Loved it!

As a fan of Bryan Sykes' earlier book, The Seven Daughters of Eve, I expected to find this book fascinating, and it was.