Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom - Hardcover

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

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

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

"Reading Barnes' prose is a bit like peeling a rather elegant onion, as he gradually reveals secrets about his life through the medium of the natural world."--BBC Wildlife Magazine

"Entertaining and informative."--Kirkus

"Naturalist and novelist Barnes, always with keen wit, shows how animals evolve to survive and become ancestors, not progress to higher life forms."--Booklist

"Always with keen wit, the author shows how animals evolve to survive... A great update for readers who took biology classes long ago."--Booklist

"Mr. Barnes's writing resembles that of one of his heroes, the naturalist Gerald Durrell. It also harks back to an earlier naturalist tradition of connecting the wonders of nature to the mysteries of the spirit."--Wall Street Journal

"Barnes's tone...makes for an immensely readable narrative. TenMillion Aliens is sure to impress anyone with interest in the natural worldwho wants to learn more about the more obscure creatures we share our planetwith. But it is also important for all readers because of its ultimate message: We should take care not to destroy and squander the life that we share ourworld with, both for their sake, and for ours."--Christian Science Monitor

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.