The Teeming Universe: An Extraterrestrial Field Guide: An Exploration & Journey to Worlds Beyond the Solar System Paperback – 5 Sept. 2021

By chance, I happened to go to a speculative biology reddit, and saw the author annoucing the release of the book. I came to Amazon, had a quick look at the reviews and then, figuring I had an Amazon vouncher for by birthday, decided what the heck, I'd give it a shot.I started a reading a little later, having followed a sequence of reading the new hardcover of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life (up through the epochs), then my very first personal copy of the the seminal After Man, and then on Space! with this book.Having got through the initial set-up to the meat of the book, to the first alien life:Alien micro-organisms.A bold choice for the first glimpse. Not, perhaps, something that might quite have grabbed eight ot ten year-old me like, say New Dinosaurs did (on the other hand, though, I was a strange child!), but certainly one that did 42-year old me!There is a certain logic to that too, as in broad strokes, the sucessive worlds go through increasingly complexity of biospheres. It also underlines the amount of thought and effort yhat went into this. For instance, the consideration of how the alien DNA/RNA equivalent works. I am only a lay palentoloigist-slash-chemist (I'm more of an engineer!), enough to understand the book's explanations, enough to appreciate that the author has made best effort for credibility, something I always appreciate.This is also a quite weighty tome - at not much under 300 pages, it's about two-and-a-half times the page count of the aforementioned After Man, and provivded several evening's reading, a planet or two at a time.Presentation is fine. The text size is my only note (and it's not so much a complain as an observation); it starts out at quite a large size, like it was large print, but in a couple of places, notably the last section, is reduced in size. It thus feels a little odd, but not enough to detract from the experience. (I've had more glaring issues in novels published by big companies.)The biospheres and worlds looked at are of necessity, comparitive snap-shots - but that is also true of the aforementioned palentological works - offering a tantalising and exciting glimpse into a completely different ecosystem. One is left with the urge to grab Sir David Attenborough, pump him full of age-reducing drugs and shoot him into space with a full BBC camera crew to make dozens of documentaries to explore each world in detail.We don't see nearly enough works in this genre, and it is gratifying to see a new author come onto the stage with such a very solid and enjoyable begining. Definitely recommended for fans of the genre.

Very interesting concepts, each planet, felt unique, and the Fauna and Flora, was all very original. The layout of the book was also neat and easy to read. And the authors artwork, really helps brings these worlds to life.A definite read for any Speculative Fiction enthusiasts.

The book itself was very expensive IMO but my son absolutely loves it and was his favourite Xmas present