I am basing my review primarily on two things in this textbook: the organisation and the definitions.

A textbook MUST be approachable. Students will be covering intricate topics in a book of this sort, and in order to help them, the writer(s) must present the material logically, thematically and beautifully organised.

I'm afraid the writers did not do that here. Systems that should be covered before one proceeds further - information for which knowledge of other systems is presupposed - appear much earlier than they should, leaving the unfortunate student staring wild-eyed at the text, muttering, "What?" This is particularly noticable when explicating chemical pathways.

Definitions are ludicrously lacking. What indexing there is is incomplete and insufficient.

The book fails in its intended purpose, and that is why I simply cannot recommend it. May I suggest using Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews as a better organised textbook? It is quite a good coverage, although it does assume some biochemistry knowledge. I've heard that the Garrett Biochemistry textbook (just released in December 2006) is good for beginner students, so that may well be worth checking.

There are certainly alternatives to this poorly written textbook.