Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy Of Alien Life, a 2004 book by astrobiologist David Grinspoon, is a terrific science book because it is informative, solidly written, and gives insights into not only history but its writer’s life and philosophy (natural and otherwise). Its only flaw is that it shows some signs of being dated, even just five years on. As an example, Grinspoon declares Mars is likely a dead world, for its lack of water. But, last year, water was indeed discovered on Mars, and far more of it than thought just five years ago. Also, more extrasolar planets have been discovered in the five years since the book’s publication than in the nine from first discovery till then.
The book is divided into three major sections (and many chapters): "History," "Science," and "Belief." The first chapter deals with the historical beliefs in life on other worlds from ancient times through modern times. The second deals with what is a requirement to get life going on other world; and Grinspoon takes dead aim at some of the claims made in other books, most notably a book by a writer that I took to task, Peter Ward, called Rare Earth. The third section follows the belief in extraterrestrials, including modern ufology.
Grinspoon’s prose succeeds because, despite the book’s imposing 416 page length (which could easily have lost 60-80 pages to its and the readers’ benefit), and despite his lack of a natural prose poetry like Loren Eiseley, he threads the middle between pop cultural appeal, via the use of personal asides and specific examples of how science directly affects the lives of the masses, and sound science laced with philosophic wonder. As such, and despite no aliens asking to be taken to our leader, Grinspoon remains optimistic of the chances that life exists elsewhere in the cosmos, and relatively sanguine that intelligence does, also. That stated, he does give due to the more pessimistic sides of the argument, as well as tackling things from the UFO true believers to Fermi’s Paradox to the famous Drake Equation, including ways he thinks it might be refined after almost half a century.
Lonely Planets also contains anecdotes about Grinspoon’s interactions with others in the assorted fields he mines, most notably the late astronomer and science popularizer, Carl Sagan, as well as his being influenced by the science fiction of writers as diverse as Isaac Asimov, Olaf Stapledon, and Arthur C. Clarke.
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