Some years after I read this book I realised I keep coming back to some of its ideas. We need to take parasites as drivers of who we are much more seriously than we do, its a powerful idea.

The book itself is well written, disgusting at times, terrifying at others, but hard to put down once you get into it.

I keep thinking this sort of drive is what might be relevant to much of current technosocial development, AI etc... ( )

It's been a while since I have abandoned the star-awarding principle I first devised upon joining the Goodreads. I wanted to give the highest mark to if not a life-changing but at least to an eye-opening or mindset-shifting book. I knew some at the moment and counted on meeting more soon. However that was not a case. Such encounters are few and far between. Thus i revised my policy and started awarding 5 stars to very good books I enjoyed, but which otherwise didn't shake me to the core.

This time I'm happy to declare that in this book I met a genuine 5 star tome. My views on biology, evolution, life on Earth and its purpose are given quite a stir. I won't disclose much of book's content, but just a quick remark/guess: the author talks about parasites and domesticated animals, but he barely mentions our regular pets - cats and dogs - in this context. And not for nothing, I think...otherwise some people would have started looking at them with very, very different eyes :) ( )

Awesome book! One of my favorites. Just wish there were more books for they layman about parasites. ( )

Parasites are the most incredible, most manipulative organisms on earth. They are smarter than you and me and more conniving than anyone you know. This book isn't as sensational as I wanted to be, probably to its credit. ( )

Well-written and interesting. ( )