Book Review: the Little Book of Aliens by Adam Frank

 

 

The Little Book of Aliens by Adam Frank     

272 pages, Hardcover
Published  October, 2023 by Harper

I tend not to write as long of reviews for the non-fiction stuff, but I really looked forward to this one. I have been behind and slow on reviews because I have a bunch of short story invites and have been hard at work on The Philip K. Dick Encyclopedia. Enough excuses.

Adam Frank is a regular on a few podcasts I enjoy including Into the Impossible, so I have enjoyed him talking about Aliens. It is nice to hear informed scientifically sound podcasts on the topic. I mean I love Coast to Coast, but I mostly roll my eyes at it.

This is a pretty short not overly academic book, it was designed to be readable, but written by a very smart academic that looks at all aspects of the topic. His sarcasm is mostly well-timed comic relief and got laughter out of me at the right moments.

I admit I was less interested in the UAP, UFO stuff as I find that topic mostly silly, that said I enjoy the parts of the book that talk about SETI, and enjoyed when Frank digs into just how different alien life could/would be. I enjoyed the talk of evolutionary differences. That was the most interesting stuff for me. For genre writers, there is lots of good stuff that can and should influence writers to make aliens that are solidly alien and not actors with forehead ridges like Star Trek in the 90s. I like Star Trek in the 90s but I think you know what I mean.

The history of SETI is very important in this book. Frank details how the search for alien life and our understanding of it evolved. I really wish I read this before writing my first contact novel, but it is not published yet. So maybe not too late. That should be the target audience of Science Fiction authors. We will get much from it.

This is a really good library checkout. If your library doesn’t have it, order it soon.