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Expedition: Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV
In 2358, wildlife artist Wayne Douglas Barlowe joined the first manned flight to Darwin IV, fourth planet in the newly discovered F-Class binary system 6.5 light years from Earth. Now his long-awaited account of that historic journey has been published. More vivid than the holos and more interpretive than the videos, these extraordinary paintings, plus numerous drawings, studies, and sketchbook pages, transport the reader to a wild, beautiful, untouched world-a planet teeming with incredible beasts and exotic vegetation.
Expedition is the most important travel book of the 24th century. Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club and the Astronomy Book Club.
Expedition is the most important travel book of the 24th century. Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club and the Astronomy Book Club.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 12, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
April 21, 2024
4.5 Stars
Video Review: https://youtu.be/Oh17of8BO7g
This was such an incredibly unique book. I loved how this work of fiction read as fact. The imagined world was lush and well fleshed out. The diagrams and pictures were detailed and often breathtaking. I highly recommend this strange book for anyone looking to get lost in another world.
Video Review: https://youtu.be/Oh17of8BO7g
This was such an incredibly unique book. I loved how this work of fiction read as fact. The imagined world was lush and well fleshed out. The diagrams and pictures were detailed and often breathtaking. I highly recommend this strange book for anyone looking to get lost in another world.
June 19, 2009
In high school, I used to grab my discman and walk to the big Barnes & Noble at the mall sometimes after classes and spend hours browsing through the science fiction section, reading whatever caught my attention. I particularly enjoyed the big art books and "technical manuals" for things such as Star Wars, Star Trek, the Colonial Marines from the Alien film franchise, and, of course, the works of Wayne Barlowe. His seminal work Expedition repeatedly caught my teenage self off guard with its evocative and breathtaking speculative paintings of the fauna of an alien world, and it's anyone's guess how many times I read this book in those comfy chairs at that B&N.
Expedition does tell a story, but it is secondary to the exozoological art. Several centuries from now, long after mankind has reduced Earth to not much more than a toxic, radioactive wasteland devoid of virtually all birds, fish, and mammals above the size of a rat, benevolent aliens descend from space to help us re-cultivate what is left of our planet. Soon their long-range probes relay back satellite images of a planet in a nearby star system that may harbor its own life. The aliens mount an expedition to Darwin IV and take along a variety of Earth scientists, a unique few who will be able to view lifeforms such as the earth hadn't seen since long before they were alive.
The explanation that the book has for itself is that it contains the works of the expedition's resident artist, who was brought along to capture the living spirit of the alien biomes on paper, as opposed to the more "sterile" scientific surveys of the other participants. And so Barlowe presents to us page after page of beautifully rendered and wholly bizarre alien species, with commentary from the expeditionary artist as to these animals' supposed ways of life.
Barlowe is effective in creating a cohesive world that comes across as plausibly as anything like this project is apt, and even now, finding this book again at least a decade after I last read it, I still am fascinated by the creatures within: their biology, their hunting methods, their locomotive abilities, their relationships to other species within their habitat. But the super-geek in me comes out rather frustrated in the end; I WANT more technical dissection of these animals! It seemed evident that Barlowe had worked out far more information than he had put into the book, and I wanted to know far more about how these imaginary animals of his worked, how they lived and survived and flourished and developed and fit into their special ecosystem niches. For being a beautiful work of science fiction, it's too light on science for my tastes, even if it would have all been exozoological pseudo-science.
But that complaint aside, this work is stunning and I find myself remembering the wonder I felt when looking at this book every time the newspaper tells me that scientists have discovered another planetoid orbiting a nearby star. Is there an actual Darwin IV in our future?
Expedition does tell a story, but it is secondary to the exozoological art. Several centuries from now, long after mankind has reduced Earth to not much more than a toxic, radioactive wasteland devoid of virtually all birds, fish, and mammals above the size of a rat, benevolent aliens descend from space to help us re-cultivate what is left of our planet. Soon their long-range probes relay back satellite images of a planet in a nearby star system that may harbor its own life. The aliens mount an expedition to Darwin IV and take along a variety of Earth scientists, a unique few who will be able to view lifeforms such as the earth hadn't seen since long before they were alive.
The explanation that the book has for itself is that it contains the works of the expedition's resident artist, who was brought along to capture the living spirit of the alien biomes on paper, as opposed to the more "sterile" scientific surveys of the other participants. And so Barlowe presents to us page after page of beautifully rendered and wholly bizarre alien species, with commentary from the expeditionary artist as to these animals' supposed ways of life.
Barlowe is effective in creating a cohesive world that comes across as plausibly as anything like this project is apt, and even now, finding this book again at least a decade after I last read it, I still am fascinated by the creatures within: their biology, their hunting methods, their locomotive abilities, their relationships to other species within their habitat. But the super-geek in me comes out rather frustrated in the end; I WANT more technical dissection of these animals! It seemed evident that Barlowe had worked out far more information than he had put into the book, and I wanted to know far more about how these imaginary animals of his worked, how they lived and survived and flourished and developed and fit into their special ecosystem niches. For being a beautiful work of science fiction, it's too light on science for my tastes, even if it would have all been exozoological pseudo-science.
But that complaint aside, this work is stunning and I find myself remembering the wonder I felt when looking at this book every time the newspaper tells me that scientists have discovered another planetoid orbiting a nearby star. Is there an actual Darwin IV in our future?
January 27, 2008
It's difficult to articulate how profoundly Wayne Barlowe's Expedition influenced my thinking on science fiction. I have always been drawn to the notion of "world-building," that exercise in reasoned extrapolation that can populate a society or an ecosystem, but Expedition's genius forced me to re-examine my thinking and become a lot more hard-nosed about it.
The premise of Expedition is simple: a team of scientists are making the first journey to a hitherto unknown planet brimming with strange and exotic life. Among them is an artist, whose mission is not merely to document the animals but to capture the tone of the planet. Barlowe's anatomical expertise (first demonstrated in his Guide To Extraterrestrials) is put to full use here, thinking through the logic of a planet in which (for example) the entire ecosystem relies on sonar rather than any form of eyes.
Barlowe writes as himself, a practice he would later use for his works set in Dante's Hell. Consequently, even as he paints the fantastic and peculiar animals of Darwin IV, he conveys the stories, the surprises, and the twists of his adventures there. It's an unusual approach for an artist: to produce fantastical art while at the same time providing a type of fictional behind-the-scenes look at how a person for whom the work would not be fictional would interpret the work. Imagine Bosch writing commentary about his depictions of the underworld as if he were a war journalist, and you can get a sense of how surreal this can seem at times.
Anyone who enjoys fantastical worlds without needing a contrived conflict as an excuse for reading will find Barlowe's vision of an alien ecology fascinating.
The premise of Expedition is simple: a team of scientists are making the first journey to a hitherto unknown planet brimming with strange and exotic life. Among them is an artist, whose mission is not merely to document the animals but to capture the tone of the planet. Barlowe's anatomical expertise (first demonstrated in his Guide To Extraterrestrials) is put to full use here, thinking through the logic of a planet in which (for example) the entire ecosystem relies on sonar rather than any form of eyes.
Barlowe writes as himself, a practice he would later use for his works set in Dante's Hell. Consequently, even as he paints the fantastic and peculiar animals of Darwin IV, he conveys the stories, the surprises, and the twists of his adventures there. It's an unusual approach for an artist: to produce fantastical art while at the same time providing a type of fictional behind-the-scenes look at how a person for whom the work would not be fictional would interpret the work. Imagine Bosch writing commentary about his depictions of the underworld as if he were a war journalist, and you can get a sense of how surreal this can seem at times.
Anyone who enjoys fantastical worlds without needing a contrived conflict as an excuse for reading will find Barlowe's vision of an alien ecology fascinating.
September 5, 2017
Fans of sci-fi, fantasy artwork, and nature guides won't want to miss this one. I loved the frame-ready artwork of the bizarre alien creatures and the depth of the author's imagined observation of them and their habitats.
May 3, 2021
What do you do when you want to draw dinosaurs but you have drawn every goddamn dinosaur? You invent super extra alien dinoland and draw that instead.
An imagined natural history. Elegiac because Barlowe imagines a dying earth from which humanity is rescued by nice aliens.
What simple meanings can be given to an act of almost pure imaginative possession? Such a thing can't be easily explained or analysed in the concepts of our ordinary world because its nature is not essentially to question or respond to our world but to grow the context of what is known, not to talk about things, or even just to provide new things (though it does this) but to expand the imaginative space in which things can be considered.
The book this is most like is J A Barkers The Peregrine, except instead of obsessively following a bird around Barlowe has built a paracosm within himself, and searched it out, deepening and expanding it. And where Barker had worlds, Barlowe can paint. Not unlike the medieval or early modern 'dream visions' of proto fantastic fiction, but here the dream is accomplished by carefully imagined unreal technology. Barlowes protagonist is sealed in a flight cone, viewing device capable of moving around like a jet, or of staying still. Impenetrable to the native organisms, he can see everything, or at least most things in the visual spectrum, but can touch our interact with nothing. Only the eye may rove - there can be no experiments, no interactions, (oh and I suppose the ear too), but he can never smell or touch Darwin IV and nothing he does is meant to have any effect on that world.
So, in scientific terms, a world without jaws, a kind of alter-cretaceous of gigantism
low gravity, dense particle-packed air so surface creatures can feed like whales, predators being liquivores, ejecting spiked tongues to pierce flesh and dissolve prey from the inside
a world without eyes, or at least, eyes with lenses - so hyper-sonar and limited bioluminescence. One vast ameiboid sea - essentially one single organism.
Its a rhapsody in evolution, with natural science being the paintbox in a way and the actual paintings being the last tool used in that process.
So perhaps this is actually/also about life on earth and allows you to see its beauty, strangeness and particularity through alien eyes? Behold, I have replenished the world you know and made it new again.
An imagined natural history. Elegiac because Barlowe imagines a dying earth from which humanity is rescued by nice aliens.
What simple meanings can be given to an act of almost pure imaginative possession? Such a thing can't be easily explained or analysed in the concepts of our ordinary world because its nature is not essentially to question or respond to our world but to grow the context of what is known, not to talk about things, or even just to provide new things (though it does this) but to expand the imaginative space in which things can be considered.
The book this is most like is J A Barkers The Peregrine, except instead of obsessively following a bird around Barlowe has built a paracosm within himself, and searched it out, deepening and expanding it. And where Barker had worlds, Barlowe can paint. Not unlike the medieval or early modern 'dream visions' of proto fantastic fiction, but here the dream is accomplished by carefully imagined unreal technology. Barlowes protagonist is sealed in a flight cone, viewing device capable of moving around like a jet, or of staying still. Impenetrable to the native organisms, he can see everything, or at least most things in the visual spectrum, but can touch our interact with nothing. Only the eye may rove - there can be no experiments, no interactions, (oh and I suppose the ear too), but he can never smell or touch Darwin IV and nothing he does is meant to have any effect on that world.
So, in scientific terms, a world without jaws, a kind of alter-cretaceous of gigantism
low gravity, dense particle-packed air so surface creatures can feed like whales, predators being liquivores, ejecting spiked tongues to pierce flesh and dissolve prey from the inside
a world without eyes, or at least, eyes with lenses - so hyper-sonar and limited bioluminescence. One vast ameiboid sea - essentially one single organism.
Its a rhapsody in evolution, with natural science being the paintbox in a way and the actual paintings being the last tool used in that process.
So perhaps this is actually/also about life on earth and allows you to see its beauty, strangeness and particularity through alien eyes? Behold, I have replenished the world you know and made it new again.
September 30, 2021
First off, Expedition was reprinted after 30 years! And because of that, I was able to overcome my neurotic fear of opening the original copy I bought 13 years ago.
My first exposure to Barlowe was either watching the 2005 Discovery Channel adaptation of this book, Alien Planet, or receiving a copy of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials at nearly the same time. I don't think I realized until years later that the two were related, but at the time I loved both. Barlowe's interpretations of other's alien creatures, and his own original designs enthralled me, and I find many people online have similar nostalgia for the TV adaptation of this book. Whether you've seen the special or not, this book is worth a perusal, as Alien Planet was not a direct adaptation.
First, the book covers many more species and biomes. Alien Planet covered the plains, a sparse forest, and the amoebic sea. The book covers those, as well as a dense forest, mountains, tundra, and the air. Each of these biomes receives a double page spread depicting the landscape itself. With more biomes come more creatures, with at least a dozen that did not appear in the special. Additionally, some of the species that did appear in the special were moved to the plains to simplify things. There will be plenty new to you even if you watched Alien Planet dozens of times, like I did.
The framing of the story is very different. Alien Planet features an unmanned expedition to a planet, Darwin IV, of unknown but promising properties, carried out by artificially intelligent probes. Expedition, by contrast, has an elaborate backstory, where Earth's biosphere has been ruined by industrial pollution, but with the aid of the benevolent alien Yma, dozens of human scientists and artists have been given the opportunity to visit Darwin IV and study its pristine ecosystem. The purpose of the story is also subtly different. In the special, the probes were given a message to relay to any potentially intelligent beings they encountered, while the book takes an explicit "look but don't touch" and "leave no trace" stance, with its observers instructed not to interfere with the life of Darwin IV for any reason, including disturbing the corpses of animals. The actual events depicted are mostly similar, a few being lifted almost directly from the book. While some of the book's segments have a certain drama to them (principally the story of the daggerwrist pack), they are mostly dispassionate in both formats. A good deal of the book's text is devoted to Barlowe's thoughts and feelings on his observations, interactions with other members of the expedition and the Yma, and his speculations about the biology of Darwin IV. And of course, the book has no talking heads taking up what feels like 2/3s of the runtime.
Barlowe places some deliberate constraints on himself, foremost being that nothing has eyes, and very few have jaws. This produces very strange head shapes that aren't immediately readable and are very alien. There are several repeated body plans and features, such as the secondary tail on many of the bipedal aliens, and a "skid" that many of the tripedal aliens share. A similarity between the mouthparts of the Arrowtongue and the Sedge-slider is clear. These visual connections give the impression of a biosphere with an evolutionary history, rather than a group of unrelated creatures designed by a human mind. The shapes of some are simple and almost dinosaurian, while others are extremely bizarre. Truth is stranger than fiction, and Barlowe has taken heed of the fact that the Earth is full of seemingly implausible species. If he limited himself to what is likely, not only would the book be boring, I think it would actually feel subtly off. Species here and there that make you stop and think "would that really work?" not only engage you with what you're reading, but can stimulate reflection on the stranger elements of our own world. The sole exception in my opinion is the Flipstick, where I think he went a bit too far, but that's hardly a stain on the book. My actual complaint is that there's no evidence of any divergence between the two hemispheres. This planet has a mountain range encircling the entire equator and you're telling me this hasn't constrained gene flow between the two halves at all? I'd expect such a geographical feature to make the difference between Australian and Afro-Eurasian fauna look like the difference between a wolf and a husky, but apparently not.
Unlike his two guidebooks, every colour illustration and many of the black and white ones feature aliens in an environment, whether resting, foraging, or travelling, which greatly aids the presentation. This book would be far less notable if it were simply a catalogue of species drawn in profile like many dinosaur books. This is also physically larger than the guides, and the many details of Barlowe's art are easily visible. Never have I spent so long staring at wrinkles and warts on an alien's flank. I could almost feel what it would be like to touch every creature in this book. The pencil drawings range all over the place, from anatomical studies of the main species, drawings of minor species, to thumbnail sketches that later became colour drawings or got no farther. They're sort of like the sketchbooks of his two guidebooks, but without extraneous material and littered throughout the main text.
As always, Barlowe is no prose stylist, and at some points the text reached the point of being boring. Luckily nobody is reading this for the plot. The text is at least worth skimming as the descriptions of the biology are sometimes interesting, and it cover things not immediately obvious in the drawings.
January 11, 2025
Took a while to finish but this was a fun read. The art and imagination to bring the world of Darwin IV to life was amazing and immersive, and honestly I’d love for there to be some sort of documentary adaptation for this.
EDIT:
After some research, apparently there was indeed a TV special adaptation by Discovery Channel called ‘Alien Planet’ that can be found on YT but only in very low quality. The tragedy.
EDIT:
After some research, apparently there was indeed a TV special adaptation by Discovery Channel called ‘Alien Planet’ that can be found on YT but only in very low quality. The tragedy.
July 29, 2012
Expedition is, without qualification, the single most inspired visual work of science fiction ever produced by a single artist. What Barlowe set out to do had never been attempted before: to illustrate the various ecosystems of a fictional alien world. As the child of two natural history illustrators, he was, perhaps, better equipped than most to tackle this daunting task.
And what a task it must have been. The resulting 192-page book is a lavish tour-de-force, dripping color off every page and chock full of illustrations, sketches and all manner of fascinating descriptions. That the vast majority of alien fauna depicted here is improbable isn't the point--the fact that they are (at least at first blush) plausible, and perhaps more importantly, decidedly alien, is.
The conceit of this book is that it's an artifact from 300 years into our future, a time when humanity has poisoned and polluted our world so that only a handful of grotesque, mutant species remain to eke out a living in the toxic environment. Arriving in the nick of time to save us from ourselves, the alien Yma now manage the environmental restoration of the Earth, even as they attempt to teach us how to do so on our own. As part of humanity's education, a joint mission is launched to Darwin IV, so that the importance of biodiversity can be witnessed firsthand. Barlowe, an artist, is a member of the mission charged with capturing the elusive spirit of the world that is beyond mere photographs. As framing devices go, it is a bit heavy-handed and pretentious, and is easily the weakest part of the book. Once the artist descends to the surface of Darwin IV, however, things kick into high gear and don't let up.
Barlowe gives careful consideration to the ecology and evolutionary adaptations of each species here, often drawing on Earth analogs to enhance the verisimilitude of each piece. The bipedal herbivore Symet, for example, has a tail that closely resembles its head, a trait that confuses predators just long enough to allow the Symet to escape an attack--a survival trick that is not unknown among terrestrial animals. Other choices Barlowe makes are farther "out there."
Throughout the book, Barlowe goes out of his way to tease the reader with hints of a far greater and extensive ecology than that contained in the notes. Landscape scenes show herds of unidentified creatures in the distance, odd mushroom-like growths discharging nasty-looking electrical shocks, giant gourd-like trees and towering amoebic blobs that presumably roam around the world as they will. Frustratingly, none of these are discussed or even mentioned. Frustrating, yes, but very clever. These incidental additions to the paintings--creatures and plants ubiquitous to Darwin IV, yet not "interesting" enough to devoted limited page space to--add an additional layer of depth and nuance to the book, cluing the reader in that there is far more at work here than a by-the-numbers encyclopedia cataloging of impossible creatures from one man's imagination.
Despite Expedition's flaws--biology that stretches the limits of credibility in some cases, and an over-reliance on the eco-catastrophe framing device--the book is nothing short of inspirational. With science fiction in television, movies and books overrun by a tedious lineage of uninspired humanoid extraterrestrials that may sport cranial ridges but speak perfect English nonetheless, Barlowe shows what is possible if people would just let their imaginations soar. Aside from that, the artwork in the book is undeniably beautiful. Were they available, I'd gladly buy full-sized prints of any of these scenes in a heartbeat.
And what a task it must have been. The resulting 192-page book is a lavish tour-de-force, dripping color off every page and chock full of illustrations, sketches and all manner of fascinating descriptions. That the vast majority of alien fauna depicted here is improbable isn't the point--the fact that they are (at least at first blush) plausible, and perhaps more importantly, decidedly alien, is.
The conceit of this book is that it's an artifact from 300 years into our future, a time when humanity has poisoned and polluted our world so that only a handful of grotesque, mutant species remain to eke out a living in the toxic environment. Arriving in the nick of time to save us from ourselves, the alien Yma now manage the environmental restoration of the Earth, even as they attempt to teach us how to do so on our own. As part of humanity's education, a joint mission is launched to Darwin IV, so that the importance of biodiversity can be witnessed firsthand. Barlowe, an artist, is a member of the mission charged with capturing the elusive spirit of the world that is beyond mere photographs. As framing devices go, it is a bit heavy-handed and pretentious, and is easily the weakest part of the book. Once the artist descends to the surface of Darwin IV, however, things kick into high gear and don't let up.
Barlowe gives careful consideration to the ecology and evolutionary adaptations of each species here, often drawing on Earth analogs to enhance the verisimilitude of each piece. The bipedal herbivore Symet, for example, has a tail that closely resembles its head, a trait that confuses predators just long enough to allow the Symet to escape an attack--a survival trick that is not unknown among terrestrial animals. Other choices Barlowe makes are farther "out there."
Throughout the book, Barlowe goes out of his way to tease the reader with hints of a far greater and extensive ecology than that contained in the notes. Landscape scenes show herds of unidentified creatures in the distance, odd mushroom-like growths discharging nasty-looking electrical shocks, giant gourd-like trees and towering amoebic blobs that presumably roam around the world as they will. Frustratingly, none of these are discussed or even mentioned. Frustrating, yes, but very clever. These incidental additions to the paintings--creatures and plants ubiquitous to Darwin IV, yet not "interesting" enough to devoted limited page space to--add an additional layer of depth and nuance to the book, cluing the reader in that there is far more at work here than a by-the-numbers encyclopedia cataloging of impossible creatures from one man's imagination.
Despite Expedition's flaws--biology that stretches the limits of credibility in some cases, and an over-reliance on the eco-catastrophe framing device--the book is nothing short of inspirational. With science fiction in television, movies and books overrun by a tedious lineage of uninspired humanoid extraterrestrials that may sport cranial ridges but speak perfect English nonetheless, Barlowe shows what is possible if people would just let their imaginations soar. Aside from that, the artwork in the book is undeniably beautiful. Were they available, I'd gladly buy full-sized prints of any of these scenes in a heartbeat.
July 16, 2020
An admirable book that presents the sheer power of imagination, brought to life with great talent. The focus is definitely the beautiful artwork of these strange creatures but there is a loose story thread that goes through with anecdotes of encounters with the animals but it isn't exactly a page turner. Still, worth the time for the ideas and creatures brought to life.
October 18, 2019
The zoology of an distant alien planet, reported by a wildlife artist who was part of the initial exploratory visit. Certainly I can break down strengths and weaknesses: The narrative is amateurish and repetitive, but provides a surprising substantial (for the genre) framework. The art is superb but not flawless, particularly because the eyeless aliens can be difficult to grasp and the symmetrical/repetitive poses in the canvas paintings don't help--and many of the captivating strengths of the creature design, like the massive scale and unusual limb arrangements, are also repetitive or improbable. But the truth is that a review is almost pointless. This is the height of speculative evolution; it's intriguing, transporting, and more robust and better illustrated than most of the genre. I only wish I'd read it sooner--and that the physical book were still in print, because digital delivery doesn't work well for the two-page spreads.
July 28, 2017
Memorable for the artwork of fauna based on speculative evolution but the story itself falls flat.
July 23, 2025
I LOVE SPECULATIVE BIOLOGY! Such a cool book with awesome art. The aliens are properly alien and weird in this, so so so cool.
December 16, 2025
One of the weirdest books I've ever read. Imagine if Jane Goodall studied alien dinosaurs and wrote a book about her findings, complete with highly detailed sketches and paintings of the creatures.
Expedition Review
5/5 stars
This will be a spoiler free review. Onto the review!
I found this book because I was looking for something to read that would remind me of the animated show Scavengers Reign. Specifically, I was looking for something that would have the same kind of wacky, alien world building. I did see some people recommending books based on the story of Scavengers Reign, which is about these people who had crash landed on an alien planet and were trying to get back to their ship. The plot of Scavengers Reign honestly didn’t hook me. I was mostly just really fascinated by the alien flora and fauna.
I have definitely mentioned this before, but I’m love weird fantasy/sci-fi creatures. I like it when the books I’m reading feel completely alien as compared to earth. I’m fine with regular fantasy world building if the point is that the story and the characters take center stage, but sometimes I’m in the mood to experience something that makes me wish earth was weirder than it already is.
As it turns out, there’s an entire subgenre of fantasy and sci-fi that is exactly that. It’s called Speculative Evolution. The name comes from the idea that the people who write/illustrate these sorts of books are playing with the evolution of all sorts of living things. I had no idea there was a name for this particular thing, but now that I know it, I definitely have to read more in this subgenre!
Expedition is one of the first books ever written in this subgenre, before it even had a name. Nowadays, we’ve got really well-known stuff like Pokemon that has really made this genre popular. It probably will surprise no one to learn that I was a Pokemon kid.
Ok so the story of this is quite simple. The main character is a nature researcher and artist who gets picked to head off to an alien planet to explore it. This is basically his journal, complete with sketches, paintings, and notes about the weird creatures he encounters. In each chapter, he explores a new region of the planet, and takes notes about the creatures that live there.
Most of the creatures are sort of like alien dinosaurs, but there are a few even weirder ones. Most of his notes are about their interactions with each other, as they fight for territory or squabble over food they just hunted. And that’s basically it. That’s the whole story.
What I think is really cool about this is that the guy who wrote this actually sat down and drew or painted all the creatures. He had to think up what they would look like, how they would behave, and all the other details that I certainly wouldn’t have ever thought of. It’s clear that this guy has studied animals here on earth, because he knew tons of scientific terms that I wasn’t super familiar with. I learned a lot about animal behavior and animal study, even though the creatures are all aliens.
If you ever happen across a copy of this at a library or used book store, I highly recommend at least looking at the pictures. It’s so weird. Also, apparently the discovery channel worked with Wayne Barlowe to create a nature documentary all about the planet from Expedition! I’ll have to watch that sometime. I’m so curious to see all this animated. (It’s called Alien Planet, if anyone’s interested)
Fun fact: the author/artist of this book worked on designing creatures for the first Avatar movie. You know, the blue one. How cool is that?
Have a nice day/night everyone!
Expedition Review
5/5 stars
This will be a spoiler free review. Onto the review!
I found this book because I was looking for something to read that would remind me of the animated show Scavengers Reign. Specifically, I was looking for something that would have the same kind of wacky, alien world building. I did see some people recommending books based on the story of Scavengers Reign, which is about these people who had crash landed on an alien planet and were trying to get back to their ship. The plot of Scavengers Reign honestly didn’t hook me. I was mostly just really fascinated by the alien flora and fauna.
I have definitely mentioned this before, but I’m love weird fantasy/sci-fi creatures. I like it when the books I’m reading feel completely alien as compared to earth. I’m fine with regular fantasy world building if the point is that the story and the characters take center stage, but sometimes I’m in the mood to experience something that makes me wish earth was weirder than it already is.
As it turns out, there’s an entire subgenre of fantasy and sci-fi that is exactly that. It’s called Speculative Evolution. The name comes from the idea that the people who write/illustrate these sorts of books are playing with the evolution of all sorts of living things. I had no idea there was a name for this particular thing, but now that I know it, I definitely have to read more in this subgenre!
Expedition is one of the first books ever written in this subgenre, before it even had a name. Nowadays, we’ve got really well-known stuff like Pokemon that has really made this genre popular. It probably will surprise no one to learn that I was a Pokemon kid.
Ok so the story of this is quite simple. The main character is a nature researcher and artist who gets picked to head off to an alien planet to explore it. This is basically his journal, complete with sketches, paintings, and notes about the weird creatures he encounters. In each chapter, he explores a new region of the planet, and takes notes about the creatures that live there.
Most of the creatures are sort of like alien dinosaurs, but there are a few even weirder ones. Most of his notes are about their interactions with each other, as they fight for territory or squabble over food they just hunted. And that’s basically it. That’s the whole story.
What I think is really cool about this is that the guy who wrote this actually sat down and drew or painted all the creatures. He had to think up what they would look like, how they would behave, and all the other details that I certainly wouldn’t have ever thought of. It’s clear that this guy has studied animals here on earth, because he knew tons of scientific terms that I wasn’t super familiar with. I learned a lot about animal behavior and animal study, even though the creatures are all aliens.
If you ever happen across a copy of this at a library or used book store, I highly recommend at least looking at the pictures. It’s so weird. Also, apparently the discovery channel worked with Wayne Barlowe to create a nature documentary all about the planet from Expedition! I’ll have to watch that sometime. I’m so curious to see all this animated. (It’s called Alien Planet, if anyone’s interested)
Fun fact: the author/artist of this book worked on designing creatures for the first Avatar movie. You know, the blue one. How cool is that?
Have a nice day/night everyone!
January 7, 2009
My new favorite genre - speculative evolution!
Wayne Barlowe, celebrated science fiction book-cover artist and son of two nature illustrators has created an Audubon-style narrative of mankind's first expedition to a living alien world.
Unlike life forms that populate other sci-fi worlds - campy frog-people, or humans with wrinkly foreheads - the animals of Barlowe's Darwin IV are undeniably alien. On a world where eyes never evolved, sonar and infrared serve as the main senses, mounted on "forward sensory packages" rather than heads.
On a planet with a fraction of Earth's gravity, bullet-like animals propelled by respiratory jets and kept aloft with hydrogen-filled blisters fill the skies. Legs number from four to three to two to one. Some animals even skid about on plow-like rudders!
The narrative has a definite dark slant, as Barlowe spends a great deal of time focusing on the planet's predators (a dark propensity that shows up in his later work on a Milton-like Hell) and the story itself sometimes gets bogged down in the author's (he appears as himself) observations and waxing nostalgic, but the art is phenomenal, and the animals uniquely imaginative.
I would enthusiastically recommend this book to any serious science junkies in need of some brain-candy!
Wayne Barlowe, celebrated science fiction book-cover artist and son of two nature illustrators has created an Audubon-style narrative of mankind's first expedition to a living alien world.
Unlike life forms that populate other sci-fi worlds - campy frog-people, or humans with wrinkly foreheads - the animals of Barlowe's Darwin IV are undeniably alien. On a world where eyes never evolved, sonar and infrared serve as the main senses, mounted on "forward sensory packages" rather than heads.
On a planet with a fraction of Earth's gravity, bullet-like animals propelled by respiratory jets and kept aloft with hydrogen-filled blisters fill the skies. Legs number from four to three to two to one. Some animals even skid about on plow-like rudders!
The narrative has a definite dark slant, as Barlowe spends a great deal of time focusing on the planet's predators (a dark propensity that shows up in his later work on a Milton-like Hell) and the story itself sometimes gets bogged down in the author's (he appears as himself) observations and waxing nostalgic, but the art is phenomenal, and the animals uniquely imaginative.
I would enthusiastically recommend this book to any serious science junkies in need of some brain-candy!
September 23, 2010
Awesome art, not so awesome science-fiction (mostly the science). Why do eyeless creatures that rely on sound to navigate need to evolve to have so many colors?? Deep sea creatures, which actually still have eyes, still don't have more coloration than red or white. And some of the anatomical/ biological explanations made me smack my forehead with frustration (that burrowing tank for example makes me want to scream). The science was bad enough at least to make me give this 3 stars instead of 4 (the other star I took off because of the utter banality of the exploration. The prose reads like they're taking an extended trip to the bank rather than to a new, habited world). But to focus on the good stuff, yes, the art is very very nice.
February 28, 2008
Bought a new copy of this fantastic book - it was lifted by some elementary school kid while I was doing an art class years ago. I remembered the book and nabbed one from Amazon. It is a beautifully illustrated book by an artist with thorough knowledge of biology and anatomy, but used in a unique way - he invents an entirely alien ecosphere and treats the subject like an artist on an exploratory mission. I sent it off to get autographed - I only collect autographs of people who have made a singular difference in the way I think about the world. Mostly, they are not famous...
April 20, 2019
A masterpiece of science fiction. Real dedication and care was put into this unique book. The artwork is top notch. The creatures are believable and well constructed. The level of detail brings this planet to life. Too bad it's out of print. Snatch the first hardcover copy you find and treasure it.
August 25, 2015
Wayne Barlowe is my most favorite worldbuilder. A problem lots of authors have is spending too many words on building their world. It gets in the way of the narrative. Barlowe got around that problem by creating a work of sci-fi where the whole point of the book is to descibe an alien world's ecology in minute scientific detail. This is a documentary. When you read it, channel David Atenborough.
July 10, 2008
Barlow's clever science-fiction merges here with his stunning illustrations, creating a world that is daringly different and primal. This is a magnificent piece, with Barlowe's background in naturalism only adding to its robust quality.
November 27, 2017
The book has interesting creatures as well as interesting text I read this book at least five times. The book is like as if you are looking at a whole new world with creatures never seen before.
December 22, 2025
Like a few people my first introduction to Wayne Barlowe's Expedition wasn't through the book but via the documentary-like series "Alien Planet" which aired on the discovery channel. When I found out that it was based on this book, I put it on my to-read list immediately.
The entire book was written from the first person perspective of someone exploring a new alien world for the first time. The main character is an artist who was invited to capture the feel of the planet for people back on Earth. The book is not as a bestiary/ encyclopedia listing the animals and their behaviors as I had expected (although I would've honestly been happy with that too!) and I'm glad it wasn't as the human element actually enriched the book and gave a nice feel of what it would actually be like to visit an alien planet with alien life for the first time.
Things I Liked
The Art: Barlowe's artistic skill is out in full force here and I was not disappointed. Because this book is from the perspective of an artist trying to capture the feel of living, and frequently mobile, animals the art is a mixture of beautifully detailed drawing of incredible creatures and landscapes to rough sketches of animals detailing their behaviours and habits. The rough drawings actually helps one to immerse in the story by making it feel like the author has actually been to another planet.
Alien Designs: To Barlowe's credit he is very good at designing alien looking aliens, and despite my misgivings at some of the more "unlikely" looking designs a lot of them manage to strike that balance at being very alien but also looking plausible enough that these creatures look like they could actually exist somewhere in the cosmos.
The Story: Admittedly there isn't exactly much of one. It's not exactly a page turning thriller but there are exciting moments. The book reads like documentary in places but with the added first person perspective of a person discovering and reacting to these creatures and what it would be like to see them up close. The best moments to me were when the main character was reacting to the Emperor Sea Striders and the Eosapiens.
Things I disliked
- Unfortunately, maybe because I am someone who actually studied biology, I found some of the alien designs very hard to believe, even when I actually tried to suspend my disbelief. I have a very hard time believing that some of these alien designs could've actually evolved naturally. That didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book too much.
Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
The entire book was written from the first person perspective of someone exploring a new alien world for the first time. The main character is an artist who was invited to capture the feel of the planet for people back on Earth. The book is not as a bestiary/ encyclopedia listing the animals and their behaviors as I had expected (although I would've honestly been happy with that too!) and I'm glad it wasn't as the human element actually enriched the book and gave a nice feel of what it would actually be like to visit an alien planet with alien life for the first time.
Things I Liked
The Art: Barlowe's artistic skill is out in full force here and I was not disappointed. Because this book is from the perspective of an artist trying to capture the feel of living, and frequently mobile, animals the art is a mixture of beautifully detailed drawing of incredible creatures and landscapes to rough sketches of animals detailing their behaviours and habits. The rough drawings actually helps one to immerse in the story by making it feel like the author has actually been to another planet.
Alien Designs: To Barlowe's credit he is very good at designing alien looking aliens, and despite my misgivings at some of the more "unlikely" looking designs a lot of them manage to strike that balance at being very alien but also looking plausible enough that these creatures look like they could actually exist somewhere in the cosmos.
The Story: Admittedly there isn't exactly much of one. It's not exactly a page turning thriller but there are exciting moments. The book reads like documentary in places but with the added first person perspective of a person discovering and reacting to these creatures and what it would be like to see them up close. The best moments to me were when the main character was reacting to the Emperor Sea Striders and the Eosapiens.
Things I disliked
- Unfortunately, maybe because I am someone who actually studied biology, I found some of the alien designs very hard to believe, even when I actually tried to suspend my disbelief. I have a very hard time believing that some of these alien designs could've actually evolved naturally. That didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book too much.
Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
August 14, 2017
Perhaps the greatest thing we could ever discover as a species is another world filled with life in a complicated ecosystem. Science fiction has been rooted in the notion of exploring new worlds for over a century. Like a classic naturalist text Barlowe creates a world and explores various animals, plants and their interactions.
A joint human-alien team travels to the planet of Darwin IV. The visit seems like an incredible opportunity for human redemption. In Barlowe's fiction humanity has poisoned the planet earth and lost much of its biodiversity, especially large animals.
Barlowe plays the role of an artist sent along the expedition to capture the natural beauty of the planet and its life. The book is supposed to be his in-fiction sketches and pictures. The images are accompanied by anecdotes and observations on animal behaviour and speculation about how life on the planet works.
Barlowe creates an incredible world of lush, strange and bizarre animals. It's hard not to look at the collection of life and feel they are grounded in reality. Sometimes I have questions about the realism of the world, particularly the locomotion of the animals in certain cases. Still, the beauty of Darwin IV and this book is in the creativity and the imagination. For those who have dreamed of visiting an alien world and exploring the life there, this book is a perfect fit for you.
A joint human-alien team travels to the planet of Darwin IV. The visit seems like an incredible opportunity for human redemption. In Barlowe's fiction humanity has poisoned the planet earth and lost much of its biodiversity, especially large animals.
Barlowe plays the role of an artist sent along the expedition to capture the natural beauty of the planet and its life. The book is supposed to be his in-fiction sketches and pictures. The images are accompanied by anecdotes and observations on animal behaviour and speculation about how life on the planet works.
Barlowe creates an incredible world of lush, strange and bizarre animals. It's hard not to look at the collection of life and feel they are grounded in reality. Sometimes I have questions about the realism of the world, particularly the locomotion of the animals in certain cases. Still, the beauty of Darwin IV and this book is in the creativity and the imagination. For those who have dreamed of visiting an alien world and exploring the life there, this book is a perfect fit for you.
November 16, 2024
This is quite the artistic and (speculative) scientific endeavor. Barlowe takes the reader on a journey to a strange and unique world. The lack of humanoid aliens on Darwin IV is refreshing, and it was fun learning about each creature and the biomes they inhabit. Yet, when I was paging through the book later, I found that I remembered details about the art work far more than the actual words on the page. The story is just the author in his 'parked' cone, mostly; when he tries to bring in elements of drama and tragedy, they miss the mark. For me, the art alone is not enough to make it make a four-or-five star experience, but don't let my opinion discourage you from joining Barlowe on the journey.
March 1, 2024
An adventure unlike any other. Darwin IV is a beautiful and wild world.
This book is a fantastic piece of spec-evo, illustrated beautifully. Darwin IV feels real, it’s both so familiar and so alien at the same time. Creatures that feel so out of place yet on Darwin IV they’re right at home in all they’re strangeness.
The one thing I take away from this book more than any other aspect is the beauty of nature, not just of Darwin IV but our own home. We as species have already done some detrimental harm to this world and we may not have the Yma to save us in reality. Let’s not squander what we have.
This book is a fantastic piece of spec-evo, illustrated beautifully. Darwin IV feels real, it’s both so familiar and so alien at the same time. Creatures that feel so out of place yet on Darwin IV they’re right at home in all they’re strangeness.
The one thing I take away from this book more than any other aspect is the beauty of nature, not just of Darwin IV but our own home. We as species have already done some detrimental harm to this world and we may not have the Yma to save us in reality. Let’s not squander what we have.
October 8, 2025
A gorgeous book, making up for its occasionally iffy prose with the oil-painting illustrations on almost every other spread. Barlowe has a gift for translating the clinical tone of terrestrial naturalist texts into the surrealist alien world he created while maintaining reader interest. Some of the quirks of other nature media from the time are present (especially the focus on predation), but I think Barlowe does enough exploration of other animal behaviors to present a reasonably diverse picture of life on Darwin IV.
December 27, 2018
AWESOME from cover to cover, in every way. This book is written and illustrated as if the artist visited an alien planet as an expedition field illustrator. The alien creatures and their world are incredibly imaginative, and the writing and art perfectly mimics that of actual wildlife field studies. It’s brilliant and eerily believable. My only complaint is that it’s so hard to get a copy and I have to return mine to the library! I hope it is reprinted one day.
July 4, 2019
"Expedition" на Уейн Барлоу е истински полет на въображението и един от най-ярките представители на жанра "спекулативна еволюция". Илюстрациите на автора са изключителни. Пресъздават флората и фауната на фиктивната планета Дарвин IV. Може и да сте ги виждали оживели във филма на Discovery Channel oт 2005г. - "Alien Planet". Заедно с "Expedition", горещо препоръчвам и книгите на шотландския палеонтолог и геолог, Дугъл Диксън - бащицата на жанра.
Want to read
April 19, 2024***Who sucked me in?***
Rachel of The Shades of Orange on YouTube in their More Unique & Quirky Sci Fi Books | SFF Reviews video published on 18 april 2024
The way the book is set up sounds really fun!
Rachel of The Shades of Orange on YouTube in their More Unique & Quirky Sci Fi Books | SFF Reviews video published on 18 april 2024
The way the book is set up sounds really fun!
December 17, 2024
The art was amazing, and I liked how even though the protagonist was supposed to be a space for the reader to engage with the world through, he still has somewhat of an endearing personality. I also really loved the art and uniqueness of the creatures. Overall, this has been my favourite spec evo book since All Tommorows and Rust and Humus
August 15, 2017
Real aliens have radar!
I got this book after watching the (pretty faithful) TV adaptation Alien Planet. Art is top notch and aliens actually look like something from an alien world; not funny-looking humans (cough Star Trek/Wars) or terrestrial animal hybrids (cough Avatar).
I got this book after watching the (pretty faithful) TV adaptation Alien Planet. Art is top notch and aliens actually look like something from an alien world; not funny-looking humans (cough Star Trek/Wars) or terrestrial animal hybrids (cough Avatar).
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