Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Amazon.ca: Wayne Douglas Barlowe: Books

Product Description

In this illustrated field guide to extraterrestrials-a 1980 nominee for the ABA and Hugo Awards and named one of the Best Books of Spring 1980 by School Library Journal-Wayne Douglas Barlowe paints 50 denizens of popular science fiction literature. 150 full-color paintings show each character not only in full figure but also in detail highlighting distinctive characteristics. Humanoids, insectoids, reptilians, and more are included. Field notes explain movement, diet, respiration, and reproduction habits. The book also features a pull-out chart showing comparative sizes, and a section devoted to Barlowe's own sketchbook of works in progress. Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club. 267,000 copies in print. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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The return of the classic guide to extraterrestrials, with full-color illustrations of 50 alien denizens from popular science fiction literature, for every lover of science fiction. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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First Sentence
The Abyormenite is a genderless entity about 1.2 meters tall, with a bulbous body supported on six muscular tentacles. Read the first page

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Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars High five, April 20 2004

By	TM WHITE (BROCKTON, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature (Paperback)

I love, love, love this book. I got this book about 10 years ago, and it brought my imagination to life, and what an imagination. When there is something stressful going on in my life I pull out this book and just drift into another world.

The descriptions are so vivid, the pictures just come to life. I just wish there were pictures of Arthur C Clark's novels.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Just what the title says..., April 3 2004

By	Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature (Paperback)

A book on great alien races from science fiction. Classic fiction to boot. Most of us know about the Overlords from 'Childhood's End', the Puppeteers from 'Ringworld', the Guild Steersman from 'Dune' and even the Old Ones from 'At the Mountains of Madness'. But do you remember the Thrint from 'World of Ptavvs', the Cinruss from 'Hospital Station', or the Cygnan from 'The Jupiter Theft'?
A great source of information on alien races with full color pictures, lots of data on history, culture and habitat BUT also a great source for finding classic stories you never heard of!
Do you know the Pnume, Salaman, Triped or Merseian? Well, get this book and found out who they are!

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3.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but seems to contain some errors, Mar 19 2003

By	"qwayla" (Yardley, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature (Paperback)

I do want to say starting off that (1) I got this because, being a Sci-Fi fan into artsy books, this was a hole in my collection; (2) I have been a fan of Barlowe's art since I found a used-but-impeccable copy of EXPEDITION a few years back; and (3) overall, this book did not dissapoint.
The book seems (at least on the surface) to be a well-researched compendium of aliens renedered in paint fit to augment the fertile imaginations of readers everywhere. The aliens are mainly from books and short stories that I'm not familiar with (not surprising since this was published originally when I was aproximately 5 years old), but there is enough info about them included to make it not just pictures of things I don't know what they are.
I personally felt that the best part was the sketchbook drawings in the back. I would adore to see the Thype project finally completed. And I think that some of the sketches of the aliens are superior to the finished paintings, an opinion that I realize many readers may not share.
But my big beef with the book is based on the Guild Steersman. If you read the Dune books with any care you can figure out that steersmen are mutated humans. They are not at all in this book like they are portrayed in the novels and some of the facts here are quite wrong. That the steersmen are not aliens of an unknown planet but humans who are mutated by spice overexposure is used as a plot point in one of the Dune prequels and the fact is presumably taken either from Herbert's notes or the inferences from the original novels.
Now this in itself would not usually lead me to give a book a mediocre review. It does worry me, however, that one of the other races in this book was in a story I was reading at the time (I think it was one of the Poul Anderson stories, neither book is close at hand as I write this) seemed to have a few minor oddnesses with it as well. It makes me wonder if some of the other aliens don't have the same kind of factual problems between what is in this volume and what they're like in the original story in a way that's not simply a difference of imagination.
Bottom line: get it for the art and the glosses of the alien races, but don't be that surprised if the description or portrait of your favorite alien doesn't quite match what you've seen in your head all these years.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Gives new meaning to loving a book to death
_Wayne Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials_ is my 12 year old son/fantasy/scfi fanatic's favorite book. It is dog-eared from so much love, reading, studying and attention. Read more

Published on Jun 10 2002 by Cynthia J. Mahaffey

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Artwork
Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials is a really good book if you need to jumpstart your imagination. Read more

Published on April 2 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome illustrations
Though I usually let my imagination do he work, these pictures for the most part surpassed me. They are marvelous! A must have for any SF fan.

Published on Jun 12 2001 by D. Scott Roche

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool !!!!!!!
The premise of this book is: The authors have taken various characters from various science fiction works and have visualy recreated them and write about some of their culture... Read more

Published on Aug 19 2000 by L. Troy Beals