Genesis Standard Books
Genesis Standard books are high-quality exobiology books I have actually read and meet certain criteria. I have always wanted to fill a bookshelf or two with exactly this type of book. I hope to encourage more to be written.
Expedition by Wayne Barlowe
Expedition is the story of mankind’s visit to planet Darwin 4, home of large, blind, sonar-using liquivores. The trends on Darwin 4 include large size and leg reduction. Some animals have six legs, others four, and others only two. Many have their rear legs fused into one or else have keels to support their weight. Others have their front legs fused into one. The gyrosprinter has both its rear and front legs fused, leaving it with two legs in a row. There are even monopods. Most animals are hermaphrodites, eyeless, rely on sonar, and digest meals outside the body before sucking them up, though there are exceptions to all of these trends. I think my favorites are the tundra creature whose head detaches to become a flying animal while the lower body becomes nothing more than a living shelter, and the groveback – a creature that spends its life sleeping and growing underground while trees cover its back.
Expedition by Wayne Barlowe
Expedition is the story of mankind’s visit to planet Darwin 4, home of large, blind, sonar-using liquivores. The trends on Darwin 4 include large size and leg reduction. Some animals have six legs, others four, and others only two. Many have their rear legs fused into one or else have keels to support their weight. Others have their front legs fused into one. The gyrosprinter has both its rear and front legs fused, leaving it with two legs in a row. There are even monopods. Most animals are hermaphrodites, eyeless, rely on sonar, and digest meals outside the body before sucking them up, though there are exceptions to all of these trends. I think my favorites are the tundra creature whose head detaches to become a flying animal while the lower body becomes nothing more than a living shelter, and the groveback – a creature that spends its life sleeping and growing underground while trees cover its back.
Other Books
The Future is Wild by Dougal Dixon and John Adams
The Future Is Wild is a book (and television miniseries) exploring what life might be like five million, one hundred million, and two hundred million years from now. Squids evolve to walk on land. Fish evolve to fly in air. Slime molds trap and dissolve passing flyers. Corals are replaced by red algae. Jellyfish are huge. Sharks are social. Birds spit fire. The movement of the continents has much to do with natural selection and this is part of the story too.
The Sage of Sagittarius by Kenn Brody
Nearly all life in the galaxy is descended from the same ancestor through the process of panspermia – and something is trying to kill it. The Sage of Sagittarius is a fast read. It is full of scientific details, but without slowing down the action at all. The end is satisfying without being too unrealistic (the “bad guy” is destroyed, but at a heavy cost). Each twist makes sense in the context of the story. The characters are quirky, yet believable, and fairly well developed without getting bogged down in a lot of internal musings – nothing wrong with that, but this book’s focus is on the struggle for survival between species of radically different biology (and physics).
The Gorilla with Twenty-Four Heads by Daniel Noe
The Gorilla with Twenty-Four Heads is a story about a young dinosaur boy and his crew of living stuffed animals exploring the cosmos. It takes place on a dry planet in orbit around a red dwarf. It features many strange animals and plants, including bushes that defend themselves with prisms, starfish with retractable spines, and spear-tail monkeys. Here is the blurb:
Having discovered a previously unknown planet, Captain Nathaniel and his crew cannot resist exploring it, but a run of bad luck and poor choices leaves them stuck on a hostile world of extreme temperatures, aridity, and dangerous and fascinating animals. Now an entity known only as “The Gorilla” wants them dead. How will they ever survive long enough to repair their ship and escape?
The Future Is Wild is a book (and television miniseries) exploring what life might be like five million, one hundred million, and two hundred million years from now. Squids evolve to walk on land. Fish evolve to fly in air. Slime molds trap and dissolve passing flyers. Corals are replaced by red algae. Jellyfish are huge. Sharks are social. Birds spit fire. The movement of the continents has much to do with natural selection and this is part of the story too.
The Sage of Sagittarius by Kenn Brody
Nearly all life in the galaxy is descended from the same ancestor through the process of panspermia – and something is trying to kill it. The Sage of Sagittarius is a fast read. It is full of scientific details, but without slowing down the action at all. The end is satisfying without being too unrealistic (the “bad guy” is destroyed, but at a heavy cost). Each twist makes sense in the context of the story. The characters are quirky, yet believable, and fairly well developed without getting bogged down in a lot of internal musings – nothing wrong with that, but this book’s focus is on the struggle for survival between species of radically different biology (and physics).
The Gorilla with Twenty-Four Heads by Daniel Noe
The Gorilla with Twenty-Four Heads is a story about a young dinosaur boy and his crew of living stuffed animals exploring the cosmos. It takes place on a dry planet in orbit around a red dwarf. It features many strange animals and plants, including bushes that defend themselves with prisms, starfish with retractable spines, and spear-tail monkeys. Here is the blurb:
Having discovered a previously unknown planet, Captain Nathaniel and his crew cannot resist exploring it, but a run of bad luck and poor choices leaves them stuck on a hostile world of extreme temperatures, aridity, and dangerous and fascinating animals. Now an entity known only as “The Gorilla” wants them dead. How will they ever survive long enough to repair their ship and escape?