"This impressive monograph by Edward Holmes opens with a quotation from La Peste, by Albert Camus: “Everyone knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world; yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky.” This apt quotation might lead the reader to believe that the evolution and emergence of RNA viruses in causing new diseases would be discussed, but in fact the book, as its title suggests, concentrates on how RNA viruses evolve and emerge at the molecular level, not how they cause disease.

"In addition to explaining what is currently known about the origins of RNA viruses, the book describes the mechanisms of RNA virus evolution, RNA virus quasispecies, and comparative genomics, as well as interesting new concepts, such as phylogeography. This term refers to the spatial movement of a phylogenetic species, which can be described in various ways (Holmes lists 5), two of which are the gravity model and the strong spatial subdivision model. In the former, patterns of transmission are driven by major population centers before moving out to smaller populations (influenza virus). In the spatial subdivision model, no clear evidence of migration among populations is presented (hepatitis C virus), and genomic diversity is partitioned into a series of clades (types and subtypes)" (from the review by Brian W.J. Mahy, Emerg. Infect. Dis., 16, p. 899.)