I think this book would probably be a must-read for all students of Biochemistry, although it is rather too detailed for the average medical student. It should be used as a larger reference text, and it would be advisable to read relevant chapters in this book when writing an essay. Diagrams are aesthetically pleasing and relevant, despite first impressions garnered from the cover. The text does a good job of explaining key concepts well, although it does tend to waffle on a bit past the middle of the chapter.

I rate this book very highly amongst its competitors. Diagrams are almost always excellent and the text is extremely easy to follow (though I imagine it MAY border on being too simplistic for the typical Biochemistry student). Such is its popularity that finding a lending copy is extremely hard - Oxford Medics: if you want to get a merit in Biochemistry, read the relevant chapters from this book, coupled with Metabolic Regulation: A Human Approach, Basic Medical Biochemistry, any genetics text and your lecture notes. The one failing point of this book is that, unlike Stryer, it is pretty dire for genetics and probably a bit too detailed on DNA.

This little gem is perfect for dispelling the pre-exam jitters - it covers all important points sufficiently well provided you have some basic knowledge of Biochemistry. Bear in mind, though, this is not something you want to be reading at the beginning of your course - the lack of detail is enough to confuse the reader, even if the chapter is on something as basic as fatty acid metabolism. Diagrams are pretty poor, but considering this is a book probably meant as a summary, it is not really an issue, especially if used in conjunction with a larger textbook like Stryer.

This book does an amazing job of giving students an insight into the importance of metabolism, something which tends to get overshadowed by all the tedious reaction pathways which need to be learnt. It does so chiefly by explaining in some detail various diseases associated with metabolism in a captivating fashion which will doubtless appeal to the reader with stacks of thick textbooks to read. The book is excellent at integrating all parts of metabolism (meaning it focuses a lot on the big picture, making it excellent for essay-writing), but don't expect it to provide anywhere near the amount of detail you will be requiring for your Biochemistry courses.

This book is excellent in that it has lots of little snippets detailing various diseases of relevance - this is extremely important for medics who need to keep in mind the importance of Biochemistry to their future careers. The diagrams in this book aren't particularly stellar or appealing, but they serve their purpose in getting their point across in a concise and easy-to-understand way. The text can be a bit too full of jargon at times but is, for the most part, a useful accompaniment for the student of Biochemistry. Personally, I would advise using this book as an adjunct to a larger text like Stryer or Lehninger, particularly as it is sorely lacking in the genetics area.

This book would, I imagine, be very useful for someone studying Biochemistry or the like. For a medic, it is completely outside the scope of a basic pre-clinical course (unless you're doing an intercalated Science degree with a Biochem / cells option). A much more concise and easy-to-understand book is the smaller version of this book by the same author. It is, however, a great book if you're looking to understand topics which weren't presented too well in lectures - excellent diagrams and good, if lengthy, text.

This book contains just the right amount of information for a typical first-year medic. For people on other Science courses, don't expect it to get you a first or the like, for it probably will not go into sufficient detail. A major plus for this book was the chapter on signaling, which was something I could not understand before reading it here. Diagrams are great because most of them are lifted directly from the bigger version of this book - "The Cell" by the same author.

A lot of people think this book is a godsend. It actually doesn't appeal to me... firstly because of awful diagrams which are both aesthetically unappealing and make little sense. Secondly, the text is filled with too much scientific jargon, which means there is almost 0 possibility of being able to understand the book if you start from the middle, which, if you are an Oxford Medic, you almost certainly will. Larson or Moore is a much better bet for embryology. Lastly, a lot of people buy this book because it comes with the Symbryo CD. While the animation is useful, it will not really help if you cannot follow the diagrams to begin with, because most of the animations are a simple transition between diagrams already in the book. If the animations are not diagrams from the book, they are too unrealistic or too out of scale to be of much use. In particular the folding animations are pretty dire - much better ones can be found on the net for free.

If I were to rank the three embryology books here in order, this book would come second. It is probably more suited to someone studying Developmental Biology than Medicine, purely because the book is so detailed. The plus side of this, however, is that if there is a concept you do not understand (for example the development of the gastrointestinal tract), it is normally possible to read the relevant chapter and emerge with enough knowledge to write a good essay on the subject. The downside to this otherwise excellent book is that the diagrams are rather ordinary, and do not come across as anything special, although they are a lot better than the ones presented in Langman's. Overall the text is easy to follow, if you can get past the dry tone of the book.

Some people (evidently most of these the customer reviewers at Amazon.com) may balk at the fact that I rate this book the highest amongst those reviewed here. The reason behind this is that this book has some amazingly clear diagrams, something which I feel is fundamentally important to a subject as visually-based as embryology. Because it is very important to remember that everything happens in 3D rather than in 2D, a proper appreciation of what is going on must be conferred through accurate and yet simple diagrams. This book achieves this very well, mostly through its use of multiple-plane section diagrams, which demonstrate the same process from different views. This feature becomes especially useful when trying to understand some of the more complex changes which occur during development, such as gut rotation, heart folding and embryonic folding. While the text is not stellar (and is indeed at times a little confusing), the diagrams more than adequately compensate for this, given the level of detail which is required for embryology in Medicine.

Last but not least, one of the major selling points of this book for the medic reader must be the plethora of information on congenital disorders available in the book, coupled with some very helpful pictures. These are much the same as those described in Langman's or Larsen's, although they are more concisely described.