Roger McDonald"s debut novel offers a fictional account of the famous voyage aboard The Beagle and the circumstances surrounding the writing of The Origin of Species as seen through the eyes of Covington, Darwin"s friend and servant. McDonald suggests that Covington"s part in Darwin"s work is historically ambivalent, and here he poses the theory that Covington played a larger part in the conception of the Origin than he has been given credit for. It"s an interesting idea for a novel, not least given the questions Darwinism continues to raise on the relationship between the individual and the universe. Some readers, though, may chafe at McDonald"s excessive nod to popularism, which results in a revisionist reading of one of the most significant and exciting events of the nineteenth century; his gung-ho tone--and melo-dramatisation of the issues at stake--means there is little here for the serious enthusiast. --Claire Allfree