Expedition: Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV - Softcover

Barlowe, Wayne Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0894806297 ISBN 13: 9780894806292

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company, 1990

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Wayne Douglas Barlowe is the John James Audubon of otherworld creatures. He attended the Art Students League and Cooper Union, and apprenticed in the exhibition department at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His illustrations have been seen on myriad paperback books, and appear in Tomorrow and Beyond. He is also the author of the Hugo-award-nominated Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials, now with over 267,000 copies in print.

From the Back Cover

THE MOST IMPORTANT TRAVEL BOOK OF THE 24TH CENTURY

New York, March 24, 2366-Five years to the day after returning to Earth, Wayne Douglas Barlowe has published his collection of paintings, drawings, and sketches made during the first manned expedition to planet Darwin IV. His previous and highly acclaimed Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials was nominated for a Hugo Award. Robert Silverberg said of the artist: "Barlowe awes me."

Reviews

An abundance of lavish full-color illustrations and detailed black-and-white sketches dominate Barlowe's fictional account of a 21st-century exploratory space flight to the imaginary planet Darwin IV. Sent along as the mission's artist, Barlowe ( Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials ) describes his "excursions" to survey Darwin IV and the unusual animals he encountered: creatures like the monopodalians, who pogo-stick across a barren, icy landscape, or the winged but flightless Stripewings that are in "evolutionary flux." Numerous "observed" details, such as the length of a Darwinian day (26.7 hours) and the feeding, hunting and mating behaviors of various creatures, help maintain the illusion of realism and immediacy such a first-person narrative demands. SF fans who relish the bizarre for its own sake may enjoy this volume. But while superbly executed, Barlowe's visualization of an alien world falls short imaginatively and is naturalistically unconvincing. Many animals look like dinosaurs designed by a committee and discerning readers will suspect that Darwin IV wouldn't work as an ecological system, no matter how alien.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0894806297
• ISBN 13: 9780894806292
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192