Barlowes Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature By Wayne Barlowe

Great book, totally enjoyed it. Loads of weird, out of this world creatures from the far reaches of the universe. Some make more sense than others, which makes a lot of sense since they came from different authors! But all amusing and imaginative. It also includes a collection of Barlowe's impressive pencil sketches, a book in it's own right. Glad I stumbled on this amazing artist, looking forward to reading more of his books. If you love science fiction you'll love this. My only complaint is that the description for a creature may contain a spoiler form the novel that it came from. Which is a bummer if one is interested in reading the novel, but nothing too serious. All in all, totally amazing book. Paperback My mom picked this book up for me from this mail order science fiction book club when I was a kid and I loved it. It's packed full of beautiful artwork and inspired me as a young artist. Until just today I couldn't remember what it was because I'd lost it long ago but someone on Chet Zar's Patreon knew exactly what I was talking about and shared the name of the book. Now that I've found it again, I can't wait to pick up another copy and I would recommend it to anyone who is into science fiction. Paperback I'll admit it. At age 14 when I first bought this, I thought I was getting some sort of compendium of alien species as described by abductees and other close encounters. A sort of creative non-fiction. Instead I got a compendium of creatures from science fiction. Still good but imagine my disappointment?

That said, the artwork in this book is fabulous. It's a neat little companion book for sci-fi fans; it has wonderful illustrations of all the various organisms that have been portrayed in some of sci-fi's classic and canonical works. And along with those illustrations? Little one-page write ups on their biology, social structure, etc. Paperback This book has a record of aliens from science fiction literature. The artist has painstakingly painted these images and referenced sci-fi literature to make them as accurate as possible. Most pages have the painted image on one side and the information about it on the other. Information can be physical characteristics, habitat, culture, etc. It would be great to use this book in conjunction with a lesson on creating your own alien and placing them in a habitat. Paperback Interesting to see Summers' take on established creatures in SF, especially when I have my own images of them, but overall a fun work to look at. Paperback

download Ê E-book, or Kindle E-pub  Wayne Barlowe

The extraterrestrials are here. One man has seen them.

Wayne Dougles Barlowe's brilliant portraits of science fiction creatures are the result of exacting studies made during a lifetime in the field. He now presents anatomical drawings, cutaway and locomotive studies, and at-hand observations of each entity's habits, behavioral patterns, environment, and culture.

Wayne Douglas Barlowe has been that close. Barlowes Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature

This was a book I have been meaning to read for some time unfortunately finding a copy to read in a decent condition has appeared to be harder than I was expecting.

But I finally did it..

Now before I start I will say that I am always cautious about reading books about other peoples interpretations - either visually or descriptively. This book is no different after all it mentions aliens from some of the first books I learned to read with. So you can imagine that I have both very strong and possibly jaded ideas of what to expect.

However this book does not disappoint. Either with the quality of the images (no vague black and white pencil drawings which leave as much to the imagination as if they had never started in the first place) as well as the interpretations themselves.

Now I know that some people think that they do not resemble anything at all what they were excepting however I will go out on a limb and say that in my opinion they do and as such I think they are great.

Yes the text can be a bit vague after all the author of the book has gone to great lengths not to create anything that is extra or contradictory about their appearance that is not discussed in the books they appear in.

So all in all a great book and not a disappoint at all, all I need to do is figure out how I can repair the book now that the glue along the spine has become so brittle that it now shattered like glass. Paperback I found this book when I was still quite a young sci fi fan in the bookstore Mythology that used to be across the street from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. At the time, I had neither read nor heard of any of the stories that were the source material for Barlowe's artistic depictions of xenomorphs. Today, I've read a few more and seen many less imaginative efforts at depicting non-human beings. Barlowe is to be commended for staying away from humanoid aliens that simply confirm Gaia-centric biases and looking for the truly strange beasts that populate the outer edges of science fiction. His Lovecraft depiction, I believe, was the first I had ever seen, and remains for me the standard by which others are judged.

As a kid, these images and descriptions were like a trip to the galactic zoo, and they inspired many games in which I envisioned the various creatures herein interacting, fighting, or living their alien lives. Today it reminds me of the power and imagination of first encounters with sci fi. Paperback Oh my god, this book has been in my family for years, and I never really read into it much. I thought they were just cool drawings. We had the fantasy one, but I don't know what happened to it. I didn't realize that the aliens were drawn from famous sci-fi novels.

All through it, I kept thinking These would look comfortable in Men in Black and Hellboy. Well, it turns out that Wayne Barlowe did concept art for the Hellboy movies! As for Men in Black, I dunno, but there is a sketch in the back of the book of the predatory brachiator from thype that looks a lot like that alien hanging from the street lamp in this scene. Actually the sneezing alien as well. Paperback An incredible bestiary with one deep flaw that gets less worrisome by the year. You will see scarlet lion-centaur vagina; if that's a deal breaker, leave now.

Its my favorite format: beastie on one side, info on the other. I'll use this pic of my favorite alien in the book as an example.



Man, thanks for leaving such a good description of your starfish socialist slavelords for Barlowe, Howie. Barlowe gives that level of care to everything in the book, although most species only get one or two pullout pictures.

The selection still holds up after all these years. Big names like the Guild Steersman, the Thing (I used this art in a 7th grade reading passage!), and Solaris share the roster with species I've never heard of. What amazes me about all this research is the youth of the author. Take a look at the whippersnapper's painting in the size comparison chart.


Seriously, dude made this famous masterpiece at twenty-one. That’s incredible.

So, let's go to that issue.

This book would have been massively spoilerific at the time it came out. For instance, the Overlord from Childhood's End looks wonderful, but their appearance is a major mystery for a quarter of the book. Hell, the notes on their society is information the reader only gleams in the last thirty pages.

Moving through the book, you never know when that's the case. A race like the Overlords is treated exactly like a race that cameos in a short story. Reading this might ruin some surprises for classic SF.

And I don't think that's a bad thing anymore.

Hear me out.

Imagine a world in which Star Wars is basically forgotten.

So, the best moment in Reign of Fire.

Now, picture a fan who runs across the I am your father scene. Yes, they've been spoiled, but they now actually want to experience something that they never suspected existed.

A lot of these books have become obscure, regardless of the amount of Hugos or Nebulas they've snagged. I keep this book on my classroom shelf, hoping that the kids who read it are intrigued enough to track down one of the books mentioned within. Regardless of the spoilers, this book is worth it.


Even with the lion-centaur vagina.
One other interesting tidbit: there was some kind of dust-up over whether Dougal Dixon plagiarized a design for Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future from the sketches in the back of the book. I own both books, and I’ve never been able to find the connection. Anyone who knows, please leave a hint in the comments! Paperback Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials was my introduction to a variety of SF authors, including Jack Vance, F.M. Busby and A.E. van Vogt.

It's another one of those lost treasures that I neglected to retrieve from my Mother's house :-( Paperback