"While presenting the falcon as a creature superbly adapted to its environment, Macdonald's scientific but lyrical study also celebrates its mythical, cultural and iconic significance."
— Times (UK)
"A lively and lovely series. . . . This delightful series gives us animals as both alien and familiar. . . . An exhilarating, often astonishing and sometimes moving series of monographs."
— Martin Levin, Globe and Mail
"Marvellous book . . . sheer joy."
— James Fleming, The Spectator
"Does not ignore natural history and falconry [and] also ranges over many other topics."
— Nicholas Gould, International Zoo News
"This beautifully designed book offers a natural history of this fastest of all the animals as well as the story of how these birds' lives have long intertwined with those of humans."
— Rachel Hartigan Shea, Washington Post
"Succeeds brilliantly . . . a smart, engaging, and multidisciplinary account that vividly brings her subject to life. . . . In addition to crisp, imaginative writing, Macdonald has a knack for choosing compelling details. . . . Offers an incisive cultural history of the falcon. . . . A rich and marvelous book, which will interest a wide variety of popular and scholarly audiences. Like its subject matter, Falcon truly soars."
— Mark V. Barrow, Jr., Journal of the History of Biology
"This is a wonderful book. It is not a falconry text, nor is it a falcon biology or a conservation one. Macdonald's slim volume is far more ambitious: it is an attempt to capture and indeed explain the essence of the falcon. This is simply a most beautifully considered social history of the genus Falco. . . . It informs and provokes in equal measure. . . . Macdonald writes beautifully and with a refreshing clarity."
— The Falconer
"What Macdonald does with Falcon is bring all of herself to the subject. She breathes life into the work; pulls the lives of falcons and people together into a rare three-dimensional portrait. The effect is beautiful and lasting."
— North American Falconers Association