Brushworm Speaks!- Expedition by Wayne Douglas Barlowe
Brushworm Speaks!
Expedition: Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 AD. Voyage to Darwin IV
by Wayne Douglas Barlowe
****
For nearly a decade, ever since the release of the Discovery Channel special, Alien Planet, this book has been on Brushworm’s wish list. He kept meaning to buy it but he got distracted by other things, the price got too high, lack of funds and other things. Last week, though thanks to an infusion of funds, he finally bit the bullet and purchased this book. Was it worth the years long wait? Lets find out!.
The Story: In 2358, wildlife artist Wayne Douglas Barlowe joined the first manned flight to Darwin IV, fourth planet in the recently discovered F-Class binary system 6.5 Lightyears 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.
The Good: Where to begin?
Wayne Barlowe creates a world that is alien in every since of the word. Everything about it is different from Earth in every conceivable way. Makes every other creator of an alien world and species created seem woefully inadequate. Darwin IV feels alive. Darwin IV feels like an alien planet. Creatures don’t have eyes nor do they have jaws or teeth. They feed on liquids not meat. Its quite clear that Wayne Barlowe did his homework because this book really does feel like an account of a real life adventure to another planet. The way he describes the various biomes of Darwin IV and how the various animals fit into the habitat. Some may say the various landscapes are too unusual to be realist but the truth is we have no idea what alien life is like. It could very well be that alien planets don’t look, sound, or even think, anything like something native to Earth. Stanislaw Lem understood that and so does Wayne Barlowe.
Wayne Barlowe is a genius. One of The Worm’s favorite books of all time is Wayne Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials which showcases the full extent of his prolific imagination. His illustrations are the work of a master, the colors and the lines are excellent. A signature of Wayne Barlowe’s work is the lack of angles. In Brushworm’s explorations of his work, there are not that many depictions of machinery. There are the hover pods used by the expedition members but that is only one page. His comfort zone is in curves and natural lines, not the hard angles of vehicles and starships. On that front: Wayne Barlowe delivers. The alien creatures really look like they could be real. There is no fur on Darwin IV, but he depicts the rolls of skin and pockmarks extremely realistically.
Some may argue that the choice of the image on the cover: the Rugose Floater seems odd being how briefly the creature is characterized. Why not use a more “impressive” creature like the Arrowtongue or the Emperor Sea Strider? It is fitting though. The Arrowtongue, while very unusual, is a bit more ‘rooted’ than the Rugose Floater, two legs, a head, all that jazz. The Floater is alien, the way it moves and the way it reproduces, truly alien. Aside from that…sometimes less is more. Sometimes books on the wildlife of Africa, simply show a line of birds soaring across the sunset.
The Flaws: The main flaw is that sometimes the seams between the pages can obscure certain aspects of the image’s subject. For example…it is hard to tell if the Prairie Ram has any legs. Sometimes on certain pages there would be an illustration of a creature but the main text would not go into detail about it until the next few pages. Some would not be expanded on at all, which was very disappointing. Sometimes the reverse would happen, the main text would mention a certain animal but the illustrations would be lacking.
Wayne Barlowe is a very imaginative forger of alien creatures, but some of them may be a bit too odd to make a lot of sense. They are just bizarre for the sake of being bizarre. One of the main gaffs a legitimate biologists might make is the concept of multiple leg configurations. Many creatures have three or even one leg, and while Brushworm is no biologists, that is kind of weird as most large fauna on Earth tend to follow the same evolutionary pattern, four or two legs. Even insects tend to have even numbers of legs. Perhaps Barlowe was trying hard to be weird. Then again, many creatures from the land and seas of Earth could be described exactly the same way. Weird.
Final Verdict: Expedition is a must read for any reader or writer of Science Fiction. One must study the masters if one is too mater their own craft. Was this Book worth the decades long wait? Absolutely Yes!
Five out Five Stars
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