This is an excellent piece of popular science writing that crams an awful lot of information into a relatively small book. Asimov has a beautifully efficient writing style that manages to say a lot, effortlessly, in a few words. It's not showy writing, it's not the sort of book that claims to reveal some incredibly piece of hitherto-hidden knowledge. It simply tells the story of chemistry from a western european viewpoint from prehistoric times to the mid-1960s.

It's a much better book than I expected it to be. I've read a lot of Asimov's science fiction, and some of his writing about science fiction, but until now had not read any of his non-fiction. I was very pleased and surprised to find a book that's well-researched, informative, easy to read and full of great anecdotes whilst also managing to keep the big narrative of science history going. You get a real sense of how our understanding of the elements slowly emerged, the techniques available at different times, and the ways in which the periodic table was first conceived, and finally had its gaps all filled in. (And I admit to some surprise at discovering how late some of those gap-filling events happened.)

A simple joy, despite the fact that one or two parts are now somewhat dated. The best part of the story - and Asimov's writing ensures that it does have the narrative draw of a story - doesn't suffer from that problem. ( )