When I selected this book, coming recently from The Flat-Earth Conspiracy, I judged from the title that it would attempt a debunk of Darwin's claims. To the contrary, upon reading the back, I found this was actually pro-evolution, giving something of a "Dan Brown treatment" to the famous Beagle voyage. Anyway, I was slightly dismayed to find so many negative reviews on Goodreads, thinking I might be in for a long one. The book, in my opinion, was actually very enjoyable though. As the writer him...

Darnton has done it again, presenting a great novel, full of scientific history and challenging the mainstream view. While past bookshave tackled medical and anthropological phenomena, the author pulls out all the stops and challenges the foundation of Darwin’s evolutionary discoveries. He also posits some theories as to why it took so long to present his findings to the public, and some biographical nuggets. Told in a three person narrative, the story flips from the present, to Darwin’s own jou...

Disclaimer: I listened to this book on audio while on a road trip. I love to take in books this way, but I admit it comes with distractions.Still, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this book much more in print. For one thing, I've been experiencing conspiracy fatigue. Deep down I think we all want there to be some big conspiracies out there. But as I look at our leaders, and how frantically they are just trying to keep up in the rat race, my heart tells me most conspiracy theories are just so mu...

The mystery at the back of this "conspiracy" is not meant to be a nail-biting suspense story; it's the unraveling of ways of perception and received ideas.What was enticing about this book is the way Darnton makes clear that history is what you take away from the facts. At the personal level, the contemporary character is beset with the sense of angst, guilt, dread about his relation to his brother's death. He learns over the course of the novel how to re-situate himself with the same set of fac...

The Darwin Conspiracy is a bloated, overwritten novel that was at times painful to read. The novel constantly flashes back from modern times, following Hugh and Beth, two grad students who follow the works of Darwin and come across the conspiracy described in the title, and to Darwin in his voyage on the Beagle, and then to the diary entries of one of Darwin’s daughters. I wasn’t a big fan of the constant flipping back and forth from modern time to the past and the constant shifts in points of v...

This is a historical novel with a twist of alternative history. The conspiracy has nothing to do with the efficacy of natural selection, but why would Darwin not want to say where he got the idea in the first place. If I say anymore I'll ruin the plot.Here's a review of the book from my PageADay Book Lover's calendar:EXPLAIN THIS!When two scientists locked in a rivalry over Charles Darwin come across some papers of Darwin’s daughter’s, they are forced to regard their hero in a different light. A...

I was torn between two and three stars for this one, but I did enjoy it. It was a bit slow in places but was interesting. I was troubled by how easy the two protagonists were able to uncover the "conspiracy." It often seemed like things just fell into their laps due to coincidence. The final conclusion is highly unbelievable but still rather entertaining.

This entire book was just one big shrug of my shoulders and a grunt of, "eh". I did not have outlandish expectations, just a simple story that led on a thrilling adventure. Instead, I got something that was less than thrilling and fell short of any sort of wow factor.Taking place during three time periods, during Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, during his daughter Lizzie's life, and in the present with scholar of Darwin named Hugh. Each intertwine, of course, and each lead to the grand mystery of...

For me, the big thing about this book is the clever way in which it was written. It is almost like three books in one. One story line follows Darwin on his famous trip around the world on the Beagle. Another part is about a young anthropologist, Hugh Kellem, and a Darwin scholar who meet on South American Island and then again in England during modern times. Hugh finds and 'borrows' a diary he finds while researching that is written by Darwin's daughter, Lizzy, who realizes her father is hiding

Some interesting material here, particularly the story of the early parts of the voyage and a good portrait of Darwin and his family, but the central theme, that Darwin “stole” his theory, breaks down with an unlikely and unscientific source and far too many fortunate “discoveries” of key pieces of evidence by Hugh, an American coping with the drowning death of his brother and his girlfriend Beth, a fellow Darwin researcher he meets on the Galapagos. An unconvincing diary of Darwin’s daughter al...

This book captured my attention pretty quickly, and held on to it, as a good mystery novel should. The author deftly switched between frames of reference (and centuries of reference), but unfortunately it did not pan out into much of anything at the end. The. Hold up was so great - the tension so well handled - that the author actually undercut his own lackluster ending further with its banality. It was a disappointing payout.

As historical fiction goes, I wish there was more of the former and a bit less of the latter. Of course, if there were, it likely would have been a less-engaging story.It took several chapters to get me interested in Hugh and Beth’s saga but I did eventually buy in. I was hoping for a big reveal in the Afterword that some spark of the, “conspiracy,” was true. Alas, it was but a well-conceived fiction. Of course, it did say, “A Novel,” on the front cover.A worthy read.

I really enjoyed the history introduced and wanted to learn more about Darwin as a person, but the modern day plot was too easy. How could the protagonist go to London and happen to meet, within a few days, a woman he had known for a week in the Galapagos and the ex-fiance of his deceased brother? What chance would there be that the young woman would be studying Darwin's daughter, as the protagonist was? The coincidences are too many to list.

Interesting book and well written. I did not know much about Darwin so some of the history was new to me even though the book was a work of fiction. The book skips back and forth between modern times and Darwin's time. It was done successfully but I am too fond of that construct. It is not very complementary of Darwin or the scientific establishment around him but that is probably not fiction.

This got me interested in Darwin and the Beagle.......I'm trying to figure out if Darwin actually was a bit of a creep! I enjoyed the Darwin stuff but the current day story line didn't interest me at all.

This is all about Charles Darwin and his great discovery of natural selection...but it's a fictional account with many new twists. After a slow start thing pick up...and in the course of this novel you will learn a great deal about natural history.

I wonder how Hugh refers to green footed boobies (1st chapter). AFAIK, there are no such birds in Galapagos. Is this a mistake of the author, a trap for the unaware reader or part of a setup of an alternative universe?

Diverting historical novel but far too many coincidences thrown in the mix. I like reading about sea voyages and explorations and learned a bit more about Darwin, and liked the modern London details, but the way "evidence" just fell into the lap of the protaganist was a real stretch.

Do editors no longer edit. To long by far. The characters were amoral. Did not care at all about them

Excellent weaving of history and imaginative fiction.