Big fat meh. I didn't find it particularly well-written or engrossing and I really didn't enjoy the fictional bits. I know Sykes was trying to make the 7 daughters of Eve more real, easier to relate to, but I found it trite and a little nauseating. I've read other books on genetics and found them much more interesting and informative, for some reason this one just slid off my face. The only thing I found truly interesting was the mention of race at the end (literally 5 pages before the end!) and I do wish there had been much more about the concept of race and the role the mitochondrial DNA and genetics in general could have in order to dispel this myth of race as skin colour/ethnicity/anything easily identifiable. The implications of that are much more interesting in my opinion than these ancestors of ours coming out of the woodwork and feeling a sense of identity with some woman from 30,000 years ago. My apologies, I just don't feel it. I appreciate Sykes' passion for his work and science but I didn't enjoy his writing much.