Reviews of Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes

Ten Million Aliens

A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom

by Simon Barnes

Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes X
Ten Million Aliens by Simon Barnes
  • Critics' Opinion:

    Readers' Opinion:

     Not Yet Rated
  • First Published:
    Feb 2015, 480 pages

    Paperback:
    Dec 2015, 480 pages

    Genres

  • Rate this book


Book Reviewed by:
Kim Kovacs
Buy This Book

About this Book

Book Summary

This fascinating scientific foray into the animal kingdom examines how the world's creatures - weird, wonderful, and everything in between - are inextricably linked.

Life on planet earth is not weirder than we imagine. It's weirder than we are capable of imagining. And we're all in it together: humans, blue whales, rats, birds of paradise, beetles, mollusks the size of buses, gladiator slugs, bdelloid rotifers that haven't had sex for millions of years, and water bears - creatures that can be boiled, frozen, and fired off into space without dying.

We're all part of the animal kingdom, appearing in what Darwin called "endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful." In this audacious book, Simon Barnes brings together all of the world's creatures, seeking not what sets them all apart but what unites all. He explores arcane knowledge from the works of Darwin to James Joyce and David Attenborough to Sherlock Holmes, in addition to telling his own wild, don't-try-this-at-home adventures in humorous and compulsively readable prose.

Fascinating, entertaining, and perfect for Discovery Channel enthusiasts, Ten Million Aliens will open your eyes to the real marvels of the planet we live on.

Endlessness

"Endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved". Final words of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. It is a thought that has had me enthralled all my life. We are not alone in the universe: the idea that launched a million works of science fiction. Fact is we are not alone on our own planet. Far from it. We could hardly be less alone. We are one of a crowd, part of a teeming throng. We are not alone even when we are alone: whether we are counting the great garden of bacteria in our guts – alien life forms that keep us alive – or the tiny arthropods called Demodex mites that live in the follicles of our eyelashes.

Because we are one of many. Life is not about the creation of a single perfect being. An ape is not a failed human: it is a perfectly valid and fully evolved creature in its own right. A monkey is not a failed ape, a lemur is not a failed monkey, a mouse is not a failed primate, a fish is not a failed mammal (and...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

The book is informative and thought-provoking and sure to please those who are looking to expand their knowledge about the world around them.The chapters are relatively self-contained - that is, they don't build on one another and there's no storyline – so it's easy to pick it up and read any part at any time. Also, the book is very densely packed with information; I don't exaggerate when I say I learned something new and fascinating on nearly every page that I wanted to burn into my memory, and at least for me that was an impossible task for a single read-through. Generally "densely packed with facts" would equate to dull and dry, but the author's familiar tone and engaging style kept things moving along at a good clip and it never got tedious; there's simply a lot of information presented over a very small space...continued

Full Review (633 words).

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).

Media Reviews

The Independent (UK)
Barnes brings the animal kingdom to life.

The Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Barnes is a unique voice, always willing to challenge conventional wisdom and look for deeper meanings.

The Times (UK)
An excellent book from the irrepressible Simon Barnes.

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The book is all but impossible to put down, and for good measure, Barnes explains the process of evolution as well as any popular science writer.

Kirkus Reviews
Barnes' tour of life is entertaining and informative, though it doesn't hold a candle to the likes of Ackerman, Durrell and Attenborough.

Library Journal
Sports, nature, and travel writer Barnes (formerly Times of London and Bird Watching with Your Eyes Closed) aims to teach that humans are related to all animals and to "the planet that supports us." Unfortunately, one can't teach without respecting readers' diverse attitudes or providing useful information, and Barnes does little of either.

Reader Reviews

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book

The Naked Mole Rat

In Ten Million Aliens, Simon Barnes describes many unusual creatures, one of which is the naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber).

The naked mole rat, also known as the sand puppy or desert mole rat, is a rodent, although it's more closely related to porcupines, chinchillas and guinea pigs than to either moles or rats. These animals are small, averaging three to four inches long (without the tail) and weigh just over an ounce. They have just a few small hairs on their body and exceptionally poor eyesight, features that have provided the creature with its common name.

The naked mole rat Residing beneath the deserts of East Africa (primarily the southern portion of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia) each colony's territory can cover an area as large as six ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Ten Million Aliens, try these:

  • The Body jacket

    The Body

    by Bill Bryson

    Published 2021

    About this book

    More by this author

    Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner's manual for everybody.

  • Sapiens jacket

    Sapiens

    by Yuval Noah Harari

    Published 2018

    About this book

    More by this author

    A groundbreaking narrative of humanity's creation and evolution that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be "human."

We have 10 read-alikes for Ten Million Aliens, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Become a Member

Join BookBrowse today to start discovering exceptional books!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The Correspondents
    by Judith Mackrell
    In the introduction to The Correspondents, author Judith Mackrell points out that although there had...
  • Book Jacket: Exiles
    Exiles
    by Jane Harper
    Our First Impressions readers were thrilled to return to the world of Jane Harper's protagonist ...
  • Book Jacket: Spice Road
    Spice Road
    by Maiya Ibrahim
    Imani is a Shield, a warrior who is renowned for her fighting abilities and for her iron dagger, ...
  • Book Jacket: A Mystery of Mysteries
    A Mystery of Mysteries
    by Mark Dawidziak
    Edgar Allan Poe biographers have an advantage over other writers because they don't have to come up ...

Book Club Discussion

Book Jacket
The Nurse's Secret
by Amanda Skenandore
A fascinating historical novel based on the little-known story of America's first nursing school.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Once We Were Home
    by Jennifer Rosner

    From the author of The Yellow Bird Sings, a novel based on the true stories of children stolen in the wake of World War II.

  • Book Jacket

    The Last Russian Doll
    by Kristen Loesch

    A haunting epic of betrayal, revenge, and redemption following three generations of Russian women.

Win This Book
Win Last House Before the Mountain

Last House Before the Mountain by Monika Helfer

A spellbinding, internationally bestselling family saga set in a fractured rural village in WWI Austria.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

R Peter T P P

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.