Overall I enjoyed reading both At the Water's Edge and Endless Forms Most Beautiful, but Zimmer's book had the kind of delightful details that made the story telling unique. The kinds of metaphors that Zimmer used were playful. In just this last chapter, he compares Hox genes to ancient dictators, microbe genes to business cards, and anatomical changes to a fugue. My favorite quote from the book is: "Think of teeth as furniture: condylarths had plain Mission style, and living ungulates have evolved them into Rococco." Carroll, on the other hand, is not so playful. His metaphors are less accurate are from the kind of mind preoccupied with science, computers, and math. While he did write a nice technical piece, it lacked joy and far transfer.