This is the most intriguing and exciting nonfiction book I’ve read so far this year. What would our solar system look like if we could visit each feature as a tourist? Part science lecture, part imaginary travelogue this book manages to both review the basics and reveal new scientific discoveries on a whirlwind tour of the universe. The writing is vivid and lively. I picked this up to learn about new discoveries in astronomy but the imaginative writing is what kept me reading. It was pure pleasure to learn from this book. I will definitely use it with my high school students.

It almost feels like blasphemy to say it, but I think I may actually slightly prefer Phil Plait’s books even to those of Neil deGrasse Tyson. I’ve been a fan of Plait since I first found his “Bad Astronomy” blog and then the eponymous book, and this latest offering from him cemented my sincere love of his writing. He’s not only enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but has a knack for making astronomy accessible and engaging, and is excellent at adding just the right amount of levity and humor to it to make it really enjoyable.

“That’s more or less been my modus operandi ever since: talk science, but have fun doing it.”

In Under Alien Skies Plait describes - and imagines - what you’d see looking up at the skies from an alien world. From our neighborhood Moon (illuminated by the shine of the full Earth!) to Mars (butterscotch skies and dust devils) to asteroids and comets (hey, did you know that you would basically fall INTO a rubble asteroid? Me neither) to staring at those majestic rings through the atmosphere of Saturn (I agree, Saturn IS a “gateway planet”) to tiny frozen Pluto overlooked by ever-present Charon (planet or not, it’s still pretty cool) — and imagining what the exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1 would be like, and the sights of globular clusters and nebulae and even black holes.

“When it comes to Saturn, there’s nowhere bad to look. In fact, it’s so stunningly gorgeous that many astronomers—myself included—say that seeing Saturn through a telescope when they were young was what inspired them to make science a lifelong pursuit. Saturn is a gateway planet.”

The universe is a majestic place, but stay away from black holes if you don’t want to get spaghettified —but if you find a sufficiently large black hole you may skip pastafication altogether. (You’ll still meet your end though, but it will be spectacular).

Oh, and I do love his footnotes. I’ve always been partial to funny footnotes done well, and if you share my love of these then this book will not disappoint.

“To calibrate early observations, astronomers needed to use a small chamber filled with hydrogen fluoride gas, which is extremely—and I do mean extremely—dangerous. It can cause severe skin and tissue damage, especially if breathed in. It’s so awful that the government has guidelines on what to do if terrorists use it in an attack. But astronomers used it to find planets. Go on, make fun of science nerds. I dare you.”

5 stars. Loved every page of it.

“The universe is a puzzle that never ends. The more pieces you find, the more there are. There is always more of it to discover. More events to witness, more places to explore.
More things to see.
We will never run out of alien skies to understand and, perhaps one day, to stand under.”

——————

Thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Drawing on the latest scientific research, Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes the reader on an entertaining and illuminating journey through the cosmos. From the rings of Saturn to distant nebulae, the book immerses the reader in experiences like a Martian dust-storm or the birth of a star. It's a fascinating and easy-to-read look at the universe.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

A spectacular and very accessible guide to the cosmos.

I am usually quite reserved when giving reviews, but this simply ticked all the boxes for me.
It is hard to find a book about astronomy which straddles the thin line between being detailed and yet still remaining accessible for all, This book does that and also in a fashion which makes the subject matter extremely relatable and human. Not only do you get plenty of scientific theories and facts but there is also plenty of humour thrown in for good measure.

Phillip Plait takes us on a tour of some of the most spectacular, and almost unimaginably beautiful sights and occurrences in our universe, This tour takes us to our closest neighbours, our Moon and Mars, Detailing their origins and some of their most astonishing features. From there we travel to the very edge of our solar system, visiting Pluto and its remote and icy brothers and sisters. From there the journey takes in many weird and wonderful sights including worlds almost straight out of science fiction and the giants of the universe, stars, nebulae and possibly the strangest objects of all, black holes.

This was one thrilling journey, just don't get too close to those black holes they may be the last thing you ever get to see.
I simply loved this book

This fun and interesting read is the perfect travel book for all your extraterrestrial destinations. You want to go to the Moon? Better get used to the gravity. How about honeymooning in Mars? Plait has you covered. Even if you have “visiting a black hole” on your bucket list (better make it the last item), this book will tell you what to expect. There is a lot of science, but in a way that is easily understandable. The author has such a funny sense of humor that I was laughing at times. The last few chapters were a little too much for me, so I had to go slowly. Some concepts remain too technical but, if you pay attention, it eventually makes sense. It’s amazing to realize what huge leaps our technology is taking, since many of the information here was unknown just a few years back. Like the author, I really hope that we’ll eventually get there. The Orion Nebula sounds like a great destination for my retirement.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#W. W. Norton & Company!

DNF @ 32%. While I enjoy Philip Plait's work as a science communicator and find his tweets entertaining, Under Alien Skies is proving a bit too dry and repetitive for me. It does have some truly striking photography, but the text itself isn't really firing up my imagination as much as I'd hoped. Sorry, Philip! (Please disregard the mandatory star rating.)

As a lifelong science fiction fan and general science nerd, I have often wondered what the cosmos would look like if viewed from somewhere other than Earth. Although I will never be an astronaut (thanks, eyeballs), this book gave me a close enough idea that my curiosity is sated at least a little bit.
The scenarios discussed in this book range from wholly plausible to far off dreams. While all of them are ultimately grounded in science, I gravitated toward the chapters dedicated to our own solar system because, for the most part, we can actually get there. That being said, every chapter offered evocative descriptions about what all these distant worlds may look like. Throughout the book, I was filled with wonder and awe.
I appreciated that the book explained not only how things would appear from other planets, but why. I learned a lot, including about the resonance of orbits. The astronomy presented in this book is easily digestible for general audiences - my background is not in physics and I understood everything just fine. The casual, conversational tone ensures that even the information dense sections are fairly easy to read.
The second person stories at the beginning of each chapter also drew me in and sparked my curiosity. I think fellow science fiction fans would appreciate them. Overall, I recommend this book to sci-fi lovers, budding astronomers, and anyone else curious about intergalactic sightseeing.

This is imaginative but not too entirely fantastical; I definitely felt like I could almost take steps with my own feet through the solar systems

Under Alien Skies explores what it might be like to be a tourist on worlds in our solar system and beyond, in a distant future where such travel is possible. Filled with wry humour, and scattered throughout with fictional descriptions of the tourists experience, this is a book that really seeks to transport you.

Plait has a wonderful way of capturing the vast expanse and condensing it into a breathtaking personal experience, weaving current cosmology and universal knowledge into the awe.

Anyone who has difficulty imagining the size and scale of the universe - and the worlds we inhabit it with - will find this book easy to get to grips with and highly engaging. And if you're someone who spends a great deal of time thinking about the vast tract of the known and unknown beyond our solar system, well. There's plenty to both reassure and unnerve you here, too.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Anyone who loves traveling will love this book!
I've been to 125 countries, and I'm sad that I will never explore another planet.
This book helps you visualize what you're missing.
It places you in the driver's seat of a spaceship that explores our solar system & beyond!
I highly recommend the journey!

This is exactly what a pop science book is supposed to be. Funny tone, lots of science but in accessible form, a little bit of fun speculation. I really appreciated the lack of diagrams and conceptual scenarios that have plagued my recent reading. Instead, you imagine yourself as a space traveler, physically going to all these places. It was a little silly, but in an educational way that worked amazingly.

I've been a fan of Phil Plait since stumbling onto Death from the Skies, his 2008 book about the different ways the universe can (or eventually WILL) kill us all. He's a great science communicator that is best for people who have some understanding of space already but want to learn more. This book is more of the same from him if you're familiar with his work, and I mean that as a compliment.

This book doesn't deal with impending death but instead the spectacular views that are denied to us being stuck on this rock. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Saturn, asteroids (they're not necessarily solid rock but a collection of pebbles!?) and black holes. For some reason I really fixated in on the apparent brightness of stars or planets from different alien worlds. It's cool to think of the sun being a still blinding pinpoint in the sky from the outer solar system. Where else would you have that presented to you? He answers questions I didn't realize I had.

If I had one complaint it was that he tries to explain every concept. I didn't need an explanation of what static electricity is. Especially when a few pages after that he's explaining something a little more complicated that I didn't quite grasp completely. I think the intended audience for this would be an older teen, someone who has already read a bit about space and is comfortable with the basics.

Philip Plait takes the reader on an imaginary journey to different locations around the solar system. His descriptions entertain and inform, providing a physics lesson in a bottle, and allow us to see space travel like an intrepid tourist. Plait is so quick-witted and amusing it is easy to forget that this is hard science based on data, rather than the personal travel experiences of the author. Enjoyable and highly recommended. This book is for anyone who loves astrophysics, but not the math.

My favorite part of the book is the author’s obvious and contagious enthusiasm for the subject matter. I also enjoyed the conversational tone of the book and I felt that Plait was talking directly to me. By-and-large, the science was clearly explained but there was some information that was over my head. I also enjoyed the great photos and figures, and the footnotes, which were well worth reading. Plait also writes with a good sense of humor and comes across as a completely likeable person. Overall this book is well worth reading. Thank you to Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company for the digital review copy.

Fascinating! (to quote a famous Vulcan--though the exclamation point effectively takes it out of Vulcan parlance)

I very much enjoyed Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe by Philip Plait. I was already familiar with him from his previous work and his participation in The Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast. His expertise, wit, and ability to communicate science in an approachable fashion all shine in this book. As an example, there is no other science book that I am aware of that compares the breathtaking views of the night sky to warm pajamas. I also find myself much better equipped to properly use "spaghettification" in a sentence.

All joking aside, this book will take you on a journey that, science would suggest, may never be possible otherwise. It will allow you to virtually sand on multiple planets in our own solar system and then explore systems and bodies millions of light years away. I left the book with not only a greater appreciation for the vastness and grandeur of the world we live in but also with greatly increased knowledge of how that world works.

Dr. Plait summed it up pretty well: "The universe is a spectacularly beautiful place. There is certainly a lot to see, and it's awfully interesting, too."

Highly recommended.