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Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature
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.
144 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
January 17, 2016
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!
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!
December 12, 2018
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.
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.
November 4, 2021
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 :-(
It's another one of those lost treasures that I neglected to retrieve from my Mother's house :-(
September 2, 2025
Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials was one of the first used books I ever bought as a kid, and one of I've returned to again and again. It's a portal into the imagination from one of the best science fiction artists who's ever lived. And he completed this project at 21! This is an immature work! The creation of a true genius. Every one of these creatures is gorgeously illustrated according to the descriptions of a novel, filtered through Barlowe's efforts to make these creatures seem real. His fascination with skin wrinkles is evident throughout. At this point I can spot a Barlowe cover by the wrinkles from 10 paces.
In addition to the 50 main full-colour illustrations, there's a writeup explaining the biology and culture of every creature, many have sidebars showing anatomical details, a foldout size chart, and a black and white sketchbook mixing anatomical studies for these creatures, along with concepts for his never completed Thype project.
I loved almost every entry in this alien guidebook, but if pressed, I would say the top three, personally-most-iconic entries would be The Old One:
The Sirian:
and the Cygnostik:
Over the years I picked up a couple books based on recognition of the titles from these pages, and as the years went by, I made a personal pledge to read a novel for every single creature in this book (some have multiple listed). That project took a while, but I've finally completed it this month in August 2025. Those books, in chronological order are:
Old One - H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (1936)
The Thing - John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" (1938)
Medusan - Jack Williamson's The Legion of Space (1947)
Ixtl - A. E. van Vogt's The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950)
Riim - A. E. van Vogt's The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950)
Overlord - Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953)
Triped - Damon Knight's "Rule Golden" (1954)
Velantian - E. E. Smith's Children of the Lens (1954) (I believe this was maybe supposed to be Galactic Patrol)
Mesklinite - Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (1954)
Abyormenite - Hal Clement's Cycle of Fire (1957)
Black Cloud - Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud (1957)
Vegan - Robert A. Heinlein's Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958)
Lithian - James Blish's A Case of Conscience (1958)
Mother - Philip José Farmer's Strange Relations (1960)
Dilbian - Gordon R. Dickson's Spacial Delivery and Spacepaw (1961)
Solaris - Stanisław Lem's Solaris (1961)
Cinruss - James White's Hospital Station (1962) and Star Surgeon (1963)
Ixchel - Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
Radiate - Naomi Mitchison's Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962)
Chulpex - Avram Davidson's Masters of the Maze (1965)
Guild Steersman - Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah (1965)
Ruml - Gordon R. Dickson's The Alien Way (1965)
Merseian - Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry (1966)
Thrint - Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs (1966)
Masters - John Christopher's The Tripods trilogy (1967, 1968)
Pierson's Puppeteers - Larry Niven's Neutron Star (1968) and Ringworld (1970)
Dirdir - Jack Vance's The Dirdir (1969)
Sirian - Frederik Pohl's The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969)
Pnume - Jack Vance's The Pnume (1970)
Sulidor - Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth (1970)
Cryer - Joseph Green's Conscience Interplanetary (1972)
Soft One - Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves (1972)
Demu - F. M. Busby's Cage a Man (1973)
Garnishee - Harry Harrison's Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (1973)
Ishtarians - Poul Anderson's Fire Time (1974)
Tran - Alan Dean Foster's Icerigger (1974)
Athshean - Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World Is Forest (1975)
Cygnan - Donald Moffitt's The Jupiter Theft (1977)
Cygnostik - Michael Bishop's A Little Knowledge (1977)
Czill - Jack L. Chalker's Midnight at the Well of Souls (1977)
Demon - Keith Laumer's A Plague of Demons (1977)
Dextran - David J. Lake's The Right Hand of Dextra (1977)
Gowachin - Frank Herbert's The Dosadi Experiment (1977)
Polarian - Piers Anthony's Cluster (1977)
Salaman - Brian Stableford's Wildeblood's Empire (1977)
Regul - C. J. Cherryh's The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978)
Slash - Piers Anthony's Kirlian Quest (1978)
Tyreean - James Tiptree's Up the Walls of the World (1978)
Uchjinian - Jack L. Chalker's Exiles at the Well of Souls (1978)
Old Galactic - James H. Schmitz's Legacy/A Tale of Two Clocks (1979)
It's an eclectic selection. Pulled mainly from recent (at the time) works of the 50s through 70s, they range from genuine pulp trash, to imitation pulp trash, to more new wave-type stories. There are hard and soft scifi, action, space opera, social stories. Most of the authors are American, a few Brits, and Stanisław Lem the lone non-Anglo. Some are by still-famous masters, others languish in obscurity. Only five of the authors are female, and of those, all but Naomi Mitchison are still reasonably famous. Several authors have two entries, and Larry Niven has three listed books, the most of any author. The role of the chosen alien in each work is also quite variable. Some are effectively "main characters", others are completely peripheral figures chosen for their weirdness. It definitely kept me on my toes going through this pledge, especially since Barlowe provides no summary for each story, unlike the later Guide to Fantasy.
On the whole, I would say most were worth reading, with only a handful truly bad ones. I certainly wouldn't have tried many of them without Barlowe's push, like the works of Clement, Cherryh, Dickson, and Niven, which I ended up very much enjoying. There are certainly worse places to start if one's interested in this era of scifi.
As I was making my way through this quest, I started to notice various repeating motifs. Some were generally prevalent cliches, other seemed very strangely specific. Maybe they were a fashion of the time. Those I noticed are:
Precursors/Forerunners: An omnipresent idea, it would probably be easier to note universes, even including pure fantasies, that don't include this cliche. I have to wonder if this is a historical holdover from the existence of the Roman Empire, or if there's some kind of deeper impulse causing people to rehash this idea again and again and again. At the Mountains of Madness is one of the earliest treatments of this concept, and by the time you get to Legacy/A Tale of Two Clocks roughly 40 years later, the concept is thoroughly cliche. The concept is also prominent in the three listed Known Space books, the Well World and Cluster series. Mountains and World of Ptavvs both share the idea that life on Earth, and hence humanity, is descended from the biological waste products of the precursors.
The Great Year: Both Cycle of Fire and Fire Time revolve around the idea of a planet in a complex star system, with "seasons" that last far in excess of the lifetime of any single organism, and have a massive effect on the biosphere when they change. Clement and Anderson use this concept in very different ways and tell very different stories, but I enjoyed both very much.
Mind Transfer: Used in several different ways, this device crops up in World of Ptavvs, The Dosadi Experiment, Up the Walls of the World, and the Cluster and Well World series. Often facilitated by psychic powers, it provides an easy way to get into the head of a very different entity, and an easy plot link between the two regardless of the physical difficulties involved. One of the more dating concepts in these books, psychic powers are not nearly as popular as they once were. A related idea is temporary mind-links, which are found in The Alien Way, The Right Hand of Dextra and Space Beagle.
Proto-Star Trek Works: Several of these books, predating Star Trek (with the exception of Conscience Interplanetary), have essentially the same premise, with episodic adventures of a scientific crew exploring planets and investigating biological or cultural problems they encounter, usually with an emphasis on peaceful resolutions. These would be Voyage of the Space Beagle, Wildebloode's Empire, Conscience Interplanetary, and Memoirs of Space Woman, which explicitly features a law identical to Trek's Prime Directive. Hospital Station has a similar ethos and structure, but in this case, the aliens come to the hospital, instead of explorers going to the aliens.
Aliens and Christianity: A Case of Conscience and A Little Knowledge both use the concept of aliens interacting with Christianity, acting as a disruptive force, though they approach it from opposite angles. In a rare case, the latter book explicitly comments on the former, with A Case of Conscience-the-novel existing within the universe of A Little Knowledge. This idea has continued to find some resonance, with recent books like Eifelheim, The Book of Strange New Things and The Sparrow exploring the idea further.
Cat People: Despite dogs being generally more popular, cat-people blow them away in fictional popularity. Perhaps it's because authors tend to be less extroverted than the general population, and prefer cats (see Lovecraft), maybe it's because dogs are more domesticated, hence a dog-person isn't as psychologically interesting. Whatever the reason, there's a lot of them, including here. Ensign Flandry has the most pure "cat" cat-people, while Icerigger and The Alien Way are modified slightly, but still recognizably catty. The cat-people of the Faded Sun books are very borderline cases, but they count, I think. Several of these books that do feature catwomen, feature a catwoman coming on to the main character, but being rejected. Given their enduring popularity in certain circles, and the prevalence of alien sex in these stories, it's an odd choice.
Gaseous cloud-like aliens feature in The Gods Themselves, Up the Walls of the World and The Black Cloud. They often represent more cosmic, large-scale beings. Solaris' planet-being exists on a similar scale, but is liquid, while the cloud-beings of The Gods Themselves exist on a more human-like scale. (Though since they live in a different universe, maybe not?...)
Butterflies are oddly common, and oddly antagonistic in these books, featuring in Memoirs of a Spacewoman, the second Daedalus Mission book, and the later Well World books. Conscience Interplanetary featured the only ones that I don't recall being either evil or especially dangerous. It's strange, considering butterflies are one of the few insects that even insect haters tend to be at least neutral on.
The Cluster books and The Gods Themselves feature trisexual aliens that physically merge with each other.
The Gods Themselves and the Ringworld novels both feature genetic engineering to increase human luck. This idea recurred in the first Culture book, but didn't persist even there. I don't know that people ever really found this especially plausible.
"Who Goes There" and At the Mountains of Madness both have the relevant ancient alien resurrected from being frozen in Antarctic ice. The Antarctic will always be remote and vaguely frightening.
Aliens in the The City of Gold and Lead, Planet of Adventure, and the Faded Sun books each attempt to create an eternal, frozen, vaguely sinister museum of beauty. It has a bit of a fairy-tale feeling.
Planet of Adventure books and Cage a Man both have aliens mutate and surgically alter humans to resemble themselves, and even attempt to transform them psychologically.
A Little Knowledge and "The Natural State" (printed along with "Rule Golden") both involve domed American cities which become insular, and are surpassed by the surrounding ruralites.
Neutron Star and Up the Walls of the World both feature a theoretical chain reaction of stars at the centre of the galaxy, now surpassed by the even cooler concept of a supermassive black hole lying at the centre.
Finally, Hospital Station and the Lensman books both involve a "classification" scheme, where an alphabetic/numerical formula provides information about the physiology and psychology of diverse alien species.
Below, I have a bit of a wishlist of alien species if Barlowe ever expanded the Guide.
In addition to the 50 main full-colour illustrations, there's a writeup explaining the biology and culture of every creature, many have sidebars showing anatomical details, a foldout size chart, and a black and white sketchbook mixing anatomical studies for these creatures, along with concepts for his never completed Thype project.
I loved almost every entry in this alien guidebook, but if pressed, I would say the top three, personally-most-iconic entries would be The Old One:
The Sirian:
and the Cygnostik:
Over the years I picked up a couple books based on recognition of the titles from these pages, and as the years went by, I made a personal pledge to read a novel for every single creature in this book (some have multiple listed). That project took a while, but I've finally completed it this month in August 2025. Those books, in chronological order are:
Old One - H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (1936)
The Thing - John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" (1938)
Medusan - Jack Williamson's The Legion of Space (1947)
Ixtl - A. E. van Vogt's The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950)
Riim - A. E. van Vogt's The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950)
Overlord - Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953)
Triped - Damon Knight's "Rule Golden" (1954)
Velantian - E. E. Smith's Children of the Lens (1954) (I believe this was maybe supposed to be Galactic Patrol)
Mesklinite - Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (1954)
Abyormenite - Hal Clement's Cycle of Fire (1957)
Black Cloud - Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud (1957)
Vegan - Robert A. Heinlein's Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958)
Lithian - James Blish's A Case of Conscience (1958)
Mother - Philip José Farmer's Strange Relations (1960)
Dilbian - Gordon R. Dickson's Spacial Delivery and Spacepaw (1961)
Solaris - Stanisław Lem's Solaris (1961)
Cinruss - James White's Hospital Station (1962) and Star Surgeon (1963)
Ixchel - Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
Radiate - Naomi Mitchison's Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962)
Chulpex - Avram Davidson's Masters of the Maze (1965)
Guild Steersman - Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah (1965)
Ruml - Gordon R. Dickson's The Alien Way (1965)
Merseian - Poul Anderson's Ensign Flandry (1966)
Thrint - Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs (1966)
Masters - John Christopher's The Tripods trilogy (1967, 1968)
Pierson's Puppeteers - Larry Niven's Neutron Star (1968) and Ringworld (1970)
Dirdir - Jack Vance's The Dirdir (1969)
Sirian - Frederik Pohl's The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969)
Pnume - Jack Vance's The Pnume (1970)
Sulidor - Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth (1970)
Cryer - Joseph Green's Conscience Interplanetary (1972)
Soft One - Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves (1972)
Demu - F. M. Busby's Cage a Man (1973)
Garnishee - Harry Harrison's Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (1973)
Ishtarians - Poul Anderson's Fire Time (1974)
Tran - Alan Dean Foster's Icerigger (1974)
Athshean - Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World Is Forest (1975)
Cygnan - Donald Moffitt's The Jupiter Theft (1977)
Cygnostik - Michael Bishop's A Little Knowledge (1977)
Czill - Jack L. Chalker's Midnight at the Well of Souls (1977)
Demon - Keith Laumer's A Plague of Demons (1977)
Dextran - David J. Lake's The Right Hand of Dextra (1977)
Gowachin - Frank Herbert's The Dosadi Experiment (1977)
Polarian - Piers Anthony's Cluster (1977)
Salaman - Brian Stableford's Wildeblood's Empire (1977)
Regul - C. J. Cherryh's The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978)
Slash - Piers Anthony's Kirlian Quest (1978)
Tyreean - James Tiptree's Up the Walls of the World (1978)
Uchjinian - Jack L. Chalker's Exiles at the Well of Souls (1978)
Old Galactic - James H. Schmitz's Legacy/A Tale of Two Clocks (1979)
It's an eclectic selection. Pulled mainly from recent (at the time) works of the 50s through 70s, they range from genuine pulp trash, to imitation pulp trash, to more new wave-type stories. There are hard and soft scifi, action, space opera, social stories. Most of the authors are American, a few Brits, and Stanisław Lem the lone non-Anglo. Some are by still-famous masters, others languish in obscurity. Only five of the authors are female, and of those, all but Naomi Mitchison are still reasonably famous. Several authors have two entries, and Larry Niven has three listed books, the most of any author. The role of the chosen alien in each work is also quite variable. Some are effectively "main characters", others are completely peripheral figures chosen for their weirdness. It definitely kept me on my toes going through this pledge, especially since Barlowe provides no summary for each story, unlike the later Guide to Fantasy.
On the whole, I would say most were worth reading, with only a handful truly bad ones. I certainly wouldn't have tried many of them without Barlowe's push, like the works of Clement, Cherryh, Dickson, and Niven, which I ended up very much enjoying. There are certainly worse places to start if one's interested in this era of scifi.
As I was making my way through this quest, I started to notice various repeating motifs. Some were generally prevalent cliches, other seemed very strangely specific. Maybe they were a fashion of the time. Those I noticed are:
Precursors/Forerunners: An omnipresent idea, it would probably be easier to note universes, even including pure fantasies, that don't include this cliche. I have to wonder if this is a historical holdover from the existence of the Roman Empire, or if there's some kind of deeper impulse causing people to rehash this idea again and again and again. At the Mountains of Madness is one of the earliest treatments of this concept, and by the time you get to Legacy/A Tale of Two Clocks roughly 40 years later, the concept is thoroughly cliche. The concept is also prominent in the three listed Known Space books, the Well World and Cluster series. Mountains and World of Ptavvs both share the idea that life on Earth, and hence humanity, is descended from the biological waste products of the precursors.
The Great Year: Both Cycle of Fire and Fire Time revolve around the idea of a planet in a complex star system, with "seasons" that last far in excess of the lifetime of any single organism, and have a massive effect on the biosphere when they change. Clement and Anderson use this concept in very different ways and tell very different stories, but I enjoyed both very much.
Mind Transfer: Used in several different ways, this device crops up in World of Ptavvs, The Dosadi Experiment, Up the Walls of the World, and the Cluster and Well World series. Often facilitated by psychic powers, it provides an easy way to get into the head of a very different entity, and an easy plot link between the two regardless of the physical difficulties involved. One of the more dating concepts in these books, psychic powers are not nearly as popular as they once were. A related idea is temporary mind-links, which are found in The Alien Way, The Right Hand of Dextra and Space Beagle.
Proto-Star Trek Works: Several of these books, predating Star Trek (with the exception of Conscience Interplanetary), have essentially the same premise, with episodic adventures of a scientific crew exploring planets and investigating biological or cultural problems they encounter, usually with an emphasis on peaceful resolutions. These would be Voyage of the Space Beagle, Wildebloode's Empire, Conscience Interplanetary, and Memoirs of Space Woman, which explicitly features a law identical to Trek's Prime Directive. Hospital Station has a similar ethos and structure, but in this case, the aliens come to the hospital, instead of explorers going to the aliens.
Aliens and Christianity: A Case of Conscience and A Little Knowledge both use the concept of aliens interacting with Christianity, acting as a disruptive force, though they approach it from opposite angles. In a rare case, the latter book explicitly comments on the former, with A Case of Conscience-the-novel existing within the universe of A Little Knowledge. This idea has continued to find some resonance, with recent books like Eifelheim, The Book of Strange New Things and The Sparrow exploring the idea further.
Cat People: Despite dogs being generally more popular, cat-people blow them away in fictional popularity. Perhaps it's because authors tend to be less extroverted than the general population, and prefer cats (see Lovecraft), maybe it's because dogs are more domesticated, hence a dog-person isn't as psychologically interesting. Whatever the reason, there's a lot of them, including here. Ensign Flandry has the most pure "cat" cat-people, while Icerigger and The Alien Way are modified slightly, but still recognizably catty. The cat-people of the Faded Sun books are very borderline cases, but they count, I think. Several of these books that do feature catwomen, feature a catwoman coming on to the main character, but being rejected. Given their enduring popularity in certain circles, and the prevalence of alien sex in these stories, it's an odd choice.
Gaseous cloud-like aliens feature in The Gods Themselves, Up the Walls of the World and The Black Cloud. They often represent more cosmic, large-scale beings. Solaris' planet-being exists on a similar scale, but is liquid, while the cloud-beings of The Gods Themselves exist on a more human-like scale. (Though since they live in a different universe, maybe not?...)
Butterflies are oddly common, and oddly antagonistic in these books, featuring in Memoirs of a Spacewoman, the second Daedalus Mission book, and the later Well World books. Conscience Interplanetary featured the only ones that I don't recall being either evil or especially dangerous. It's strange, considering butterflies are one of the few insects that even insect haters tend to be at least neutral on.
The Cluster books and The Gods Themselves feature trisexual aliens that physically merge with each other.
The Gods Themselves and the Ringworld novels both feature genetic engineering to increase human luck. This idea recurred in the first Culture book, but didn't persist even there. I don't know that people ever really found this especially plausible.
"Who Goes There" and At the Mountains of Madness both have the relevant ancient alien resurrected from being frozen in Antarctic ice. The Antarctic will always be remote and vaguely frightening.
Aliens in the The City of Gold and Lead, Planet of Adventure, and the Faded Sun books each attempt to create an eternal, frozen, vaguely sinister museum of beauty. It has a bit of a fairy-tale feeling.
Planet of Adventure books and Cage a Man both have aliens mutate and surgically alter humans to resemble themselves, and even attempt to transform them psychologically.
A Little Knowledge and "The Natural State" (printed along with "Rule Golden") both involve domed American cities which become insular, and are surpassed by the surrounding ruralites.
Neutron Star and Up the Walls of the World both feature a theoretical chain reaction of stars at the centre of the galaxy, now surpassed by the even cooler concept of a supermassive black hole lying at the centre.
Finally, Hospital Station and the Lensman books both involve a "classification" scheme, where an alphabetic/numerical formula provides information about the physiology and psychology of diverse alien species.
Below, I have a bit of a wishlist of alien species if Barlowe ever expanded the Guide.
August 4, 2017
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.
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.
July 30, 2025
This book is super fun. Wayne Barlowe is incredibly gifted—especially when it comes to depicting the strange. Here, he brings to life aliens imagined by a whole roster of big-name SF authors (bonus: I added a ton of titles to my TBR list). If you love classic science fiction and the idea of seeing some of the strangest, most imaginative creatures in the genre made real, this is pure candy.
(OH, and I forgot to mention that he made this amazing piece of work when he was 21! Crazy impressive).
(OH, and I forgot to mention that he made this amazing piece of work when he was 21! Crazy impressive).
July 6, 2009
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.
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.
May 28, 2008
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.
September 29, 2024
I love books like this and always have. I remember getting this in the get 10 books for a dollar from Columbia house and just rereading the stats and staring at the beautiful art over and over again. I just recently found this at a used book store and the rush of nostalgia was overwhelming. I had never read all the books this guide referenced when I was young but I have now and it still holds up
March 15, 2020
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.
August 30, 2025
he drew all of this when he was 21. INSANE
January 31, 2019
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.
October 4, 2009
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.
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.
November 7, 2020
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.
October 30, 2019
If I had come across this book as a kid, I would have spent hours pouring over the pages -- imagining my own stories for each of the aliens pictured, inspired to create my own worlds and creatures in encyclopedic form. Evokes a particular nostalgia, unfounded in that I've only read a handful of the source texts. I especially loved the sketchbook drawings at the end.
January 27, 2016
If you always wondered what some of the odd critters in your favorite SiFi book looked like here is the art reference book for you. Great art book with excellent drawings of these SiFi creatures. Recommended
March 4, 2011
This is a book that my dad gave to me when I was a child and I still have it. I hope my son will enjoy it just as much. The Puppeteer is still my favorite.
October 15, 2017
Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials is a bit of a funny book. It's considered a classic, but for some reason I've never read it until now, and while I recognize that in many ways it's a love letter to the classic era of science fiction, with all we now know about evolutionary biology and the hundreds of exoplanets now found by astronomers, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials seems more than a bit dated.
By the time the first edition of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials was published in the late 1970s, primary artist Wayne Douglas Barlowe was already an accomplished SF/F illustrator. SF Grand Master Robert Silverberg writes in his introduction to the second edition that Barlowe possesses an understanding of the anatomy of creatures that simply don't exist that was unmatched among many of his contemporaries; hence, publisher Ian Summers and Barlowe came up with the idea to publish an art book containing all the "classic" creatures both that Barlowe grew up with and that were roughly contemporary as of the original writing of the guide. And to that extent, it mostly succeeds. I note that Barlowe's depiction of H.P. Lovecraft's Old Ones is virtually identical to that in Ward and Kuntz's original D&D Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia, published roughly at the same time, and I wonder how much of Barlowe the D&D artists "borrowed" for their own work; likewise, Barlowe's other illustrations and designs show a remarkable understanding of anatomy, as well as deep affection for the source material, whether from Golden Age writers such as E.E. "Doc" Smith, Isaac Asimov, and Fred Hoyle, or from more contemporary works such as The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin and A Plague of Demons by Keith Laumer. And that's part of the problem with Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
Silverberg's introduction suggests that Barlowe selected "real-science"-based extraterrestrials for his book, and that was true—in 1979. What we know now about evolutionary biology, exoplanets, and the possibility of life on those planets in 2017 is markedly different from what we understood when Barlowe originally wrote his Guide. Our knowledge in 2017 simply precludes several of these creatures from ever existing, and that dates the material. (The less said about Piers Anthony's extraterrestrial character designs, the better—as is the case with much of Anthony's output, frankly.) Nevertheless, there is a point to be made that by definition the extraterrestrials Barlowe illustrates are speculative; as fiction, they wouldn't exist anyway, never mind the different philosophies that more current authors such as, say, Robert J. Sawyer evince in their designs of extraterrestrials. As such, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials is a mostly valuable addition to the SFnal canon.
(One final note: In Barlowe's designs for his own fiction, I saw some serious cultural appropriation going on, and Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials gets serious points off for that element of the book. Your Mileage May Vary.)
By the time the first edition of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials was published in the late 1970s, primary artist Wayne Douglas Barlowe was already an accomplished SF/F illustrator. SF Grand Master Robert Silverberg writes in his introduction to the second edition that Barlowe possesses an understanding of the anatomy of creatures that simply don't exist that was unmatched among many of his contemporaries; hence, publisher Ian Summers and Barlowe came up with the idea to publish an art book containing all the "classic" creatures both that Barlowe grew up with and that were roughly contemporary as of the original writing of the guide. And to that extent, it mostly succeeds. I note that Barlowe's depiction of H.P. Lovecraft's Old Ones is virtually identical to that in Ward and Kuntz's original D&D Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia, published roughly at the same time, and I wonder how much of Barlowe the D&D artists "borrowed" for their own work; likewise, Barlowe's other illustrations and designs show a remarkable understanding of anatomy, as well as deep affection for the source material, whether from Golden Age writers such as E.E. "Doc" Smith, Isaac Asimov, and Fred Hoyle, or from more contemporary works such as The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin and A Plague of Demons by Keith Laumer. And that's part of the problem with Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
Silverberg's introduction suggests that Barlowe selected "real-science"-based extraterrestrials for his book, and that was true—in 1979. What we know now about evolutionary biology, exoplanets, and the possibility of life on those planets in 2017 is markedly different from what we understood when Barlowe originally wrote his Guide. Our knowledge in 2017 simply precludes several of these creatures from ever existing, and that dates the material. (The less said about Piers Anthony's extraterrestrial character designs, the better—as is the case with much of Anthony's output, frankly.) Nevertheless, there is a point to be made that by definition the extraterrestrials Barlowe illustrates are speculative; as fiction, they wouldn't exist anyway, never mind the different philosophies that more current authors such as, say, Robert J. Sawyer evince in their designs of extraterrestrials. As such, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials is a mostly valuable addition to the SFnal canon.
(One final note: In Barlowe's designs for his own fiction, I saw some serious cultural appropriation going on, and Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials gets serious points off for that element of the book. Your Mileage May Vary.)
June 13, 2022
This is a neat book, though I imagine it was much cooler when it was first published in the pre-internet days. While the title makes it sound a little like this might be about UFO lore, it's actually a collection of illustrations and brief write-ups of alien species from various science fiction stories. The book is restricted just to creatures from the world of print SF, probably due to a combo of the illustrator working in the book world and anything from TV or film being something you can readily see anyway.
Each alien gets a two page spread, with a short description, a main illustration, and often one or two detail illustrations. The descriptions have various types of information. Generally there's always physical characteristics to clarify things like the size of the creature (though there's also a size chart about halfway through the book), and then there's some mix of habitat, culture, and reproduction. It's also mentioned what work(s) the alien came from, which is nice as it allows the reader to track down more info on aliens they're not familiar with. The descriptions are okay, but often they don't give me as much info as I'd like. Think of them as the equivalent of a Wikipedia stub article.
The illustrations are of course the real highlight here, as Wayne Barlowe was just 21 when he assembled them. There's about 50 alien species and he generally does a good job making them come to life. The end of the book has a sketchbook that's quite impressive, as it shows how much effort he put into depicting these creatures in a realistic manner, with studies of parts of anatomy and how the creatures move. I do wish there'd been a bit more variety in the main text illustrations, as they're often just the alien standing upright looking at the viewer. Of course art criticism isn't my strong suit, but I'd have to say that the illustrations are an impressive feat overall.
In general, this was a fun book for me to flip through. The mix of aliens is eclectic, as a lot of the works they come from are ones I don't think of as popular - and often are ones I haven't even heard of. Where else will you find a Guild Steersman from Dune alongside the Masters from the Tripods trilogy? And it was wild to discover that I'm not the only person to know Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud exists. I suspect I'll end up seeking out some of the stories mentioned here that I've never heard of, and conveniently Wikipedia has a list of everything featured in this book. This is out of print, but if you can track it down I definitely recommend checking it out. And I discovered that Barlowe did a second book illustrating creatures from fantasy novels, so I look forward to getting the chance to flip through that soon.
Each alien gets a two page spread, with a short description, a main illustration, and often one or two detail illustrations. The descriptions have various types of information. Generally there's always physical characteristics to clarify things like the size of the creature (though there's also a size chart about halfway through the book), and then there's some mix of habitat, culture, and reproduction. It's also mentioned what work(s) the alien came from, which is nice as it allows the reader to track down more info on aliens they're not familiar with. The descriptions are okay, but often they don't give me as much info as I'd like. Think of them as the equivalent of a Wikipedia stub article.
The illustrations are of course the real highlight here, as Wayne Barlowe was just 21 when he assembled them. There's about 50 alien species and he generally does a good job making them come to life. The end of the book has a sketchbook that's quite impressive, as it shows how much effort he put into depicting these creatures in a realistic manner, with studies of parts of anatomy and how the creatures move. I do wish there'd been a bit more variety in the main text illustrations, as they're often just the alien standing upright looking at the viewer. Of course art criticism isn't my strong suit, but I'd have to say that the illustrations are an impressive feat overall.
In general, this was a fun book for me to flip through. The mix of aliens is eclectic, as a lot of the works they come from are ones I don't think of as popular - and often are ones I haven't even heard of. Where else will you find a Guild Steersman from Dune alongside the Masters from the Tripods trilogy? And it was wild to discover that I'm not the only person to know Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud exists. I suspect I'll end up seeking out some of the stories mentioned here that I've never heard of, and conveniently Wikipedia has a list of everything featured in this book. This is out of print, but if you can track it down I definitely recommend checking it out. And I discovered that Barlowe did a second book illustrating creatures from fantasy novels, so I look forward to getting the chance to flip through that soon.
May 26, 2021
I had this one in grade school, and while the images stayed with me, the title slipped my mind for a couple of decades. Thankfully I had some sort of brain fart and I was able to track down the book again. I was excited, but also curious to see how much of artist Wayne Barlow's exobiology held up under the strain of time.
Having reread the book's descriptions, and poured lovingly over its illustrations, I'm happy to report that this is a masterful rendering of alien life forms depicted in various stories and novels by SFF's masters as well as some lesser-known lights. One needn't be intoxicated with the ethers of nostalgia in order to appreciate its greatness.
The creatures in the book range from the sentient to those that are mere collections of nerve fibers or amorphous clouds of interstellar dust. Some are grotesque, others are as colorful and exotic as any rara avis. Some really straddle that uncanny line between the beautiful and the terrifying. In some respects, these "borderline" aliens remind me quite often of the best nightmarish visions conjured up by the late, great artist H.R. Giger. Clive Barker might also be an apt comparison, though I hesitate to make it, as he's much more associated with pure horror. Maybe we'll settle on Lovecraft.
Too often SF artists work from very basic drafts, or even worse, thumbnail descriptions of what each tale entails. Wayne Douglas Barlowe not only takes his craft seriously, but he has read, ingested, and truly contemplated how each of the creatures depicted in the book might look, if form were to follow function, and hard science and pure imagination were to work hand in hand. A folio is included in the back of the book (which I don't remember from my original copy). It features drafts of some of the aliens exhibited here, as well as extracts from Barlowe's own SF fiction creation, Thype. He had intentions of writing a book or perhaps a series of books in the Thype universe, but alas, the project appears to be unrealized, at least in literary form. Highest recommendation, in any event.
Having reread the book's descriptions, and poured lovingly over its illustrations, I'm happy to report that this is a masterful rendering of alien life forms depicted in various stories and novels by SFF's masters as well as some lesser-known lights. One needn't be intoxicated with the ethers of nostalgia in order to appreciate its greatness.
The creatures in the book range from the sentient to those that are mere collections of nerve fibers or amorphous clouds of interstellar dust. Some are grotesque, others are as colorful and exotic as any rara avis. Some really straddle that uncanny line between the beautiful and the terrifying. In some respects, these "borderline" aliens remind me quite often of the best nightmarish visions conjured up by the late, great artist H.R. Giger. Clive Barker might also be an apt comparison, though I hesitate to make it, as he's much more associated with pure horror. Maybe we'll settle on Lovecraft.
Too often SF artists work from very basic drafts, or even worse, thumbnail descriptions of what each tale entails. Wayne Douglas Barlowe not only takes his craft seriously, but he has read, ingested, and truly contemplated how each of the creatures depicted in the book might look, if form were to follow function, and hard science and pure imagination were to work hand in hand. A folio is included in the back of the book (which I don't remember from my original copy). It features drafts of some of the aliens exhibited here, as well as extracts from Barlowe's own SF fiction creation, Thype. He had intentions of writing a book or perhaps a series of books in the Thype universe, but alas, the project appears to be unrealized, at least in literary form. Highest recommendation, in any event.
August 21, 2020
3.5 stars. The followup sketches are what make this, because the anatomy and locomotion studies have a life to them which is absent from the stiff, repetitive poses and isolated close-ups of the full-color spreads. There's a lot of humanoids here, and many of the non-humanoids are humorously improbable; some illustrations are shrinkwrapped, borrowing legitimacy from the worst tendency of paleoart. The source materials make for a poor reading list, as it's largely golden age SF from white men. But the cumulative effect of leafing through the spreads, turning from silly green vegetable men to nightmare-fuel hand-walking Demons, has the playful and imagination-sparking effect of speculative evolution. The aliens co-exist in the text, diverse and embodied; the brief blurbs are easy to binge, and the bodies-first approach that strips the aliens from their sources creates a cluttered universe of exploration, sapient life, danger, and an abundance of telepathic powers. It's a flawed work that one wishes were expanded or updated to explore more diverse sources, but it's still delightful.
May 28, 2025
I have heard several people say that this is the book that got them into science fiction. I can see why. From the painstaking detail of the illustrations, to the matter-a-fact descriptions, this work brings about a strong sense of wonder. Even when the art didn't agree with my mental picture of the alien, I could see the passion that went into it and it made me appreciate several books a little more. My only complaint is that there aren't enough aliens! I know fifty is a lot for an artist, so I hope that one day (50th anniversary coming up?) we can get Barlowe or a few other artists to make an set of brilliant descriptions and illustrations. There's been plenty of high quality aliens written since 1979 that are waiting to be discovered.
June 22, 2024
I liked it, it's great to get a glimpse of the social, cultural, anatomical... aspects of quite a few different species of intelligent aliens without having to read through all those books and get the lore parts that are mixed in with the story parts, and if you like any one of them the book is right there so it's great to get book recommendations too.
December 2, 2021
A great example of world building for the budding SF writer. Wayne Barlowe brings to life a panoply of classic SF aliens including Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris," Cambell/Carpenter's "The Thing," Larry Niven's "Puppeteers," and Murray Lienster's "Demons."
June 20, 2022
un guide illustré sur les principaux ET de classiques de SF De belles planches d'illustrations même si elles ne correspondent pas toujours à mon imaginaire ... avec un résumé intéressant des caractéristiques de chaque ET J'ai apprécié
February 16, 2023
4+
An adroit field guide to a wide selection of aliens from famous science fiction. Enjoyable on its own, but also useful as a way to discover new-to-you classic scifi stories.
An adroit field guide to a wide selection of aliens from famous science fiction. Enjoyable on its own, but also useful as a way to discover new-to-you classic scifi stories.
June 13, 2023
Random find from the 70s at a local used book store. It had two Jack Vance entries so that was a guaranteed purchase. Its actually very good as a monster manual type book.
January 31, 2025
Absolutely brilliant look at aliens from various science fiction novels.
April 4, 2025
The way you make me laugh makes me want to lose myself in you... entirely. Care to see where that feeling takes us?
June 1, 2025
barlowe's art holds up-
thanks, book club; first place i saw
alien vagina
thanks, book club; first place i saw
alien vagina
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