In Alien Earths, Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger introduces readers to a broad overview of planetary science, beginning with our own solar system and quest to explore the cosmos, branching out into our search for Exoplanets.

Dr. Kaltenegger is the director and founder of the Carl Sagan Institute for the Search for Life in the Cosmos at Cornell. It is easy to see the inspiration of Sagan in this work, for better and worse. Dr. Kaltenegger is positioning this book to be for the average reader, an introduction to modern space science with hints of her own work. As an introduction, I think this would work for any interested reader, especially those who have an (illogical) aversion to older works. This book presents the most up-to-date science in a manner that is digestible and crafted to inspire. If you are that kind of reader, with no past exposure to the subject but still an interest to learn, this book is perfect for you. For everyone else, it is harder to recommend.

I am a planetary scientist and an astrobiologist. My focus is on surface evolution of planets and moons in the solar system. I am not an expert in Exoplanets, and I picked this up hoping for a deeper dive into that field. With that said, I can look at this book through both lens: as a reader eager to learn new things versus as an expert learning and/or judging how we can discuss the science we do. I was very disappointed as the learner and still mixed as the expert.

At least half the book or more is a very broad introduction to space and planetary science. I felt like this was done well, but I also think the lay reader could have been given a bit more trust to handle a deeper dive (the book is fairly short after all). My biggest issue with the introduction is that it felt like it didn't significantly reframe the conversation. Many of the analogies and philosophical musings were things I'd heard before. They are effective, but if I was going to recommend a book (or books) on this subject, I would still urge readers to try older works (e.g., Pale Blue Dot). Sure, science evolves and changes, but its more likely that what's changed is the clarity of what we know, like putting on glasses to refine what was already there.

Unfortunately, my disappointment extends beyond the introduction. Even as we venture into the realm of Exoplanets, there remains a vaguery on the subject. I say the introduction is long, but I am not exactly sure it was all an introduction. It wasn't clear that there was a lot of new science to be introduced. It is indicative of the larger style of only dipping the readers toes in anything being discussed. This is where I had my most personal disappointment. I expected this to focus more on exoplanets. We get to hear about her work and the ongoing efforts, but we never really get to immerse ourselves within it.

I recognize I come to this with biased perspective. I am not an exoplanet scientist, but I have a professional familiarity with the science as an astrobiologist especially. Still, it is that familiarity that makes this feel so underwhelming. I felt like I learned more from Dr. Sara Seager's book from nearly 5 years ago now, The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir. That's more a memoir than a science book. If I was going to recommend a book on exoplanet science, that would easily be it. The conversation on exoplanets is secondary, so it is unlikely to overwhelm the reader. It is also a very personal story. It is Dr. Seager's personal story with grief, as a scientist, and as a woman.

Overall, I can easily recommend this to anyone curious to explore the subject for the first time. I still think it fails to really excel, and the recommendation is largely on its recency being more likely to attract new interest in the field, which I am all for. However, that relevancy will fade, and I'll be surprised if became a classic in the field of popular space science books.

3.5/5 stars

Alien Earths by Lisa Kaltenegger is an exploration to discover other planets in our atmosphere. She is a lead astronomer at the Carl Sagen Institute at Cornell.
As someone who is a lay person when it comes to astronomy, she makes it easy to understand. She gives an in depth exploration of Earths history and other planets.

She introduces us to exoplanets and bridges the gap between science fiction and reality. She makes us ponder are we truly alone in this world?

Normally I don’t read to many books like this one but Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger wrote this complex science topics in a way that made it easy to understand.
It’s interesting to learn how scientists go about researching the conditions of life on our planet and what they are looking for on their plants. If you like to learn about our plant and other you’ll find this a interesting book to read

Alien Earths explores the science behind the search for life on other planets. This was a fascinating read and I loved how it was written. This is very beginner friendly and a solid foundation of astronomy isn't required to understand the topics. Dr. Kaltenegger uses simple descriptions and analogies, and breaks down the scientific explanations very well, as if I was in her class and also engaged in the discussion.

Each chapter, while lengthy, is broken down by subchapters exploring the various factors used in the search - such as, what exactly is life? While I have always loved astronomy and am not a beginner to the subject, I learned a lot from this. It made me think more about how we define life, the conditions necessary for life, and all of the scientific processes that are explored when considering what alien planets could hold life.

While this book is more of a summary on the science behind planet hunting, I really enjoyed that she approached all topics based on facts and not hypothetical topics. She breaks down the search for alien Earths by reflecting on what we already know about the universe, our solar system, and Earth - and how we use this information to look for habitable planets. I was never bored; each topic was fascinating and I loved her sense of humor.

4.5 stars - Dr. Kaltenegger's contributions to the field are awe inspiring and I would love to read more from her. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“So yes, Luke Skywalker could have enjoyed a warm day under two suns—but I always wondered where his second shadow was.”

Looking for potentially habitable planets has different meanings to different people. It can be a way to satisfy intellectual curiosity, or desire to find other life so that we know we are not alone, or a way to spread humanity across the universe (whether the universe needs it or not remains quite debatable), or a way for us to have a Plan B in case our wonderful and perfectly suited for life as we know it Plan A of Planet Earth becomes less human life-friendly. Whatever is the reason, the search for potentially habitable exoplanets quickly went from the realm of science fiction to the realm of science.

And the potential for habitable planets is quite impressive. They seem to be pretty much everywhere, apparently. And Lisa Kaltenegger is beyond excited about them.

“We have no photo of the two hundred billion stars in our Milky Way—and we won’t have one for a long while. To fit the entire Milky Way in a photo, a spacecraft must fly far away from Earth, and far above the plane of our spiral galaxy. And no spacecraft has even made it to the next star over yet. The Earth is like a piece of pepperoni on a pizza trying to imagine the whole pizza’s shape. One of the main differences between us and the questioning pepperoni is that we have figured out what our galaxy looks like.”

It’s a very accessible read that can serve as an easy primer on a fascinating subject. Kaltenegger - despite the serious title of the director of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute - keeps it simple and clear, with the end result of it being interesting and comprehensible to pretty much anyone with zero science background. Not to mention extra nerd points for referencing a few science fiction books and films (I like Andy Weir too, Lisa!). It’s a great book to get people interested in the topic without getting bogged down too much in hard science behind it.

3.5 stars that I’m happy to round up.
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Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I find the study of space and possibility of other life out there to be fascinating. The problem with many of the books on the subject out there is that they are often either dry or so technical as to be off-putting to most readers. I’m delighted to say that is most definitely not the case with Lisa Kaltenegger’s Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos. She pulled me in right from the start and when she started talking about the discussions and how she approaches things in her class it made me wish I could sit in on some of lectures. (I did find that she is featured in a number of videos on Youtube and I’m currently making my way through those.) Does she answer the question of are we alone in the universe? Well not definitively. No one really knows just yet. Now I’m not even going to attempt to give a full run down of all the information she imparts, but what she does discuss is explore the why of why we might not have made contact yet and the how scientists are going about trying to discover that answer. This is an informative and easily accessible book for anyone interested in the subject of are we alone in the universe. I’d like to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Alien Earths.

https://www.amazon.com/review/RLIBIRF5JX2O1/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

What kind of plan would you make if you wanted to look for life beyond Earth? Lisa Kaltenegger is one of the people who have done just that and she shares the hows and whys in this very readable book. So where does one begin? The whole process is one of narrowing the fields. Agree to a definition of ‘life’ then decide what is necessary to sustain such life. Then start looking. We all know it’s not that easy and one of the beauties of this book is that Kaltenegger explains complicated ideas and actions in an easy to follow manner. She tells how exoplanets are found and what it’s possible to learn about them. And there is the surprise of worlds that seem impossible. The story is ongoing with anticipation of what new tools, new telescopes, new theories will bring.

Alien Earths is one of those thought-provoking books that I have found myself unable to stop talking about with friends and family. I have long been fascinated by the idea of life outside of our solar system and was aware of research endeavors such as SETI, however I had no idea of the strides the scientific community has taken to search for life without signal intelligence. The more I read about the use of telescopes to detect the chemical compositions of planets along with color and light spectrum, the more interested I became. Dr. Kalteneggar does a phenomenal job of explaining the science in both technical and laymans terms. Her writing is well organized, concise, and full of current and exciting research. I only wish that there were illustrations included to help better visualize things such as binary star systems or to illustrate exactly where the Goldilocks zone might be in different star types.

I highly recommend this book for all the space nerds out there or anyone who is interested in current research into life on other planets.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger, and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio & Netgalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book or not because when I was in school, I thought Science was boring. I don’t know anything about Science or Space but I enjoyed reading this book. This book never felt dry or boring. This book is very readable. I learned so much and it has made me interested in Science. I would recommend this book if you don’t know anything about Science or Space.

This was a highly readable book, explaining what it takes to make a habitable planet. The tone was friendly and accessible to those of us who don't have degrees in the sciences. I appreciated the author's personal stories and her personal insights woven through the material.

Solid Examination of The Field Of Planet Hunting. This is a solid look at how scientists find extra-solar planets and work to determine what they may be like - compositionally, temperature, whether life (as we understand it) may be possible, etc. Written for a general audience by a US-based Austrian native scientist working at the Carl Sagan Institute, the author clearly knows her stuff, but perhaps the English can be a touch stilted at times. It wasn't enough to distract from the book for me, but there absolutely were a few "huh, weird phrasing" moments. Which happens even with fully native English speakers even in the same country - I'm sure there are Americans reading this review who will question even my own phrasing, and I'm a son of the Southern US to the tune that parts of my family have been on the North American continent since the second generation of Europeans to get here at all.

Overall truly a fascinating book, and Kaltenegger's own experiments sound quite fun and interesting to boot. The only flaw I noticed here was such a small bibliography, which is where the star deduction comes into play. Still, this is ultimately a solidly written depiction of a truly fascinating part of interplanetary science. Very much recommended.

I've always been fascinated by space and this book was right up my alley. I loved reading about all of the new ways we are learning and researching. Thank you Netgalley for my advanced copy.

Kaltenegger's book is easy to read, full of easy to understand information, and uses an easy to read narrative. When I started reading this, I hoped to learn more about the topic, and I was surprised to learn as much as I did. Not only about the science being used to hunt for planets, but also about the area around Earth and what we can learn from our neighbors to help scientists learn about distant and potential planets.
If you are looking to learn more about the science used to discover planets outside of our solar system, then this is a great book to get you started.


Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Alien Earths is a very candid and well researched book on discovering new planets in the Cosmos.

This book does not over explain and is very readable for the interested in space but not a scientist audience. I enjoyed reading this one.

Booksellers Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger is the the founder of Cornell University's Carl Sagan Institute. This book would be a great hand sell with any of his books.

This digital review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Netgalley and St Martins Press books for my review copy!

Alien Earths by Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger is a captivating and timely exploration of groundbreaking research that is revolutionizing our comprehension of the universe in our pursuit to uncover the truth about extraterrestrial life. This book is absorbing, informative, and entertaining, making it a must-read for anyone intrigued by the mysteries of the cosmos.

„I see the world around me from a particularly privileged vantage point, the same view that Carl Sagan, the most famous popularizer of astronomy, must have seen as he wrote his books in this same third-floor office of Cornell’s Space Sciences Building […]. His work has had a profound impact on me and sparked the curiosity and imagination of everyone at the institute that carries his name, and of so many other people,” writes astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger, founding director of the interdisciplinary Carl Sagan Institute. This book is both a tribute to the great scientist and a perfect continuation of his life's work.

I was one of the many people influenced by Carl Sagan. I will never forget the first time I read his Cosmos as a teenager. It was a mind-blowing experience that forever changed the way I thought about our place in the universe. And I am happy to say that a new generation now has its own talented science storyteller - and even happier that she is a woman.

You will find much more here than the latest information on the search for the eponymous alien earths. Lisa Kaltenegger puts it into a broader context of astronomy, geology, evolutionary biology, and the history of space exploration. She also mixes it with a memoir of her path to her current prestigious position, and I found those parts particularly inspiring. But I believe that an astronomy novice will find the whole book as enlightening as I found Sagan's work several decades ago.

Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I was provided both an audio and print ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

Cassandra Campbell is a fabulous narrator, and is one of my favorites. This is my first experience with her narrating a non-fiction audiobook. I'm used to her voicing several different characters within a sci-fi or fantasy book, however she takes great care in ensuring the scientific words are pronounced clearly and correctly and if there is a non-English name or phrase it is also pronounced correctly.

This was a great non-fiction book for anyone interested in science of discovering new planets and the investigation of space. The author does a great job of mixing science, personal, experience, and pop culture in to the book without getting overly scientific. She uses real world examples from her own teaching experience and research and references movies and books that readers may be familiar to explain her points about how scientists go about trying to determine if there might be life on other planets. I felt like it was written as if she was having a conversation with you about her favorite topic which made if very approachable and easy to consume. I've read other books on the topic and it can get very technical and overwhelming very quickly depending on how the science is presented. You can tell the author loves her work and tries to make it fun and wants everyone to see the majesty in the cosmos as she does.

I appreciated that the author took the time to write about her life and accomplishments. She notes that it was not always easy being a woman in STEM, but because she had supportive parents and mentors she has had an impressive career. This book would be the perfect gift for an aspiring young lady taking an interest in a STEM career.

I would have appreciated pictures of some of the things Dr. Kaltenegger was referencing at times or links to Hubble images, as I was following along in the ebook. The cover is fantastic, and I hope the final version that comes out in a few weeks does have images, but the ARC does not.

Overall this is a great, easy to digest look at scientific approach to looking for habitable planets and potential life in the universe.

I think I would have liked Alien Earths a lot better if I hadn’t read three other books about exoplanets. It’s not the author’s fault that she’s writing for a general audience and I’m getting bored because I already know how this goes. However, the unfortunate thing is, if a member of that general audience asked me for a fun book about exoplanets I’m not sure this one would make the list. The author is Austrian, and I presume, therefore, her primary language is German, and while the writing is not bad (and for sure, far far far better than anything I would write in any other language), it is at times stilted and not as smooth as I’d like. Ultimately, I think this book is just fine, but there are better books out there on exoplanets.

Where this book truly shines is in the tantalizing and fleeting descriptions of the author’s own laboratory work. I want more details about how they use lasers and microscope parts to generate spectrographs of lava planets. I want to know how she grows a rainbow of mold in petri dishes to get color fingerprints of different kinds of life. I think the time would have been far better spent giving more detail there instead of going over the same broad outlines of the hunt for exoplanets that I’ve read before.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for this honest review.

Dr. Kaltenegger’s book explains how scientists find planets outside out solar system and the requirements for those planets to support life in an engaging and accessible manner, starting from our own Earth and solar system and then working outwards. Using helpful analogies, she offers insight on the universe and our place in it, answering the crucial question: why haven’t we found other forms of life in the universe yet?
This is a very good introduction to the topic for anyone who is interested. I did feel that Dr. Kaltenegger’s personal stories were somewhat poorly embedded in the framework of the text and felt disorganized and unrelated to the current topic. If it had been managed more carefully I think I would have really enjoyed learning more about what it’s like to have a career in astrophysics, but as it was written actually somewhat detracted from the larger point of the book.

I remember being about nine years old and sitting with the son of family friends, discussing if there was life in outer space somewhere. We were both sure there was. Sixty some years later, science has yet to pin down a definitive answer to the question, but I don’t expect to be visited by War of the World type Martians or the giant robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still. What can we expect? And would alien life be recognizable to us any more than we could recognize it?

Alien Earths shares Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger’s quest to discover life in the cosmos. She asks important questions. What is life? What is a habitable world? How does one look for life in the cosmos? She explains the concepts with illustrations geared to the non-scientist.

The author also addresses the difficult environment female scientists face their entire life, counselors and educators and peers entrenched in the belief that women are incapable of making a career in the natural sciences.

Descriptions of alien worlds and the mysteries of life and the universe spur the imagination. We are taken across the known universe as she imagines the environments of other planets.

“If someone has found us already,” she ends, considering how we have impacted our planet for the worse, “I wonder what they think of us.”

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.