Synopses & Reviews
“Funny, thoughtful, informative, and wise” (Publishers Weekly,
starred review), this 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 them
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 animal world through Barnes’s “unique voice,
always willing to challenge conventional wisdom and look for deeper
meanings” (The Sunday Telegraph).
About the Author
Simon
Barnes is the multi-award-winning chief sportswriter for The Times
(London). He is also a nature writer, horseman, and the author of a
dozen books, including the bestselling How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher and
The Meaning of Sport (Short Books). He lives in Suffolk with his family.