Thanks for the pointers! A big fan of birds-eye-view books that let readers then follow individual trees. I guess these take time to put together and some fields (like genomics / genetic engineering, are too fast moving now?)
Not a book, but the News Features in Nature have a similar flavor, eg [1]. And for following up with the motivating article... well, there's sci-hub, for now.
[1] "The mysterious microbes that gave rise to complex life" https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01316-0 in https://www.nature.com/nature/volumes/593/issues/7859 .