Filled with amazing photographs and armed with well-presented facts, Darren Beyer’s short book Out There is a fascinating read in itself, and a fantastic resource to anyone dreaming science fiction stories with alien life-forms. The book is easy to read and filled with well-chosen, full-color, images. Details of past space missions combine with explanation of life’s prerequisites, competing theories of life, and scientific reasons to suspect the presence of life. By the end of the book, a reader will be ready to question whether we are alone, and to ponder what not being alone might mean. The solar system comes intelligently to life in this short book. And life comes to the reader’s imagination.

“Venus is one nasty place. Its atmosphere is made up of …” Read it and see. Meanwhile Mars may not be actively avoiding exploration. This is a book to enjoy, to learn from, and to treasure.

Disclosure: I was given an ecopy and I love it. ( )