Customer Reviews

Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond Our Sun

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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A very delightful book. The writing by Ray Villard was surprisingly different than most "astro books" by *not* sounding like a textbook. There are many interesting facts and tidbits that I had not heard before that made reading it quite interesting. Lyn's art of course made the book. There are dozens of her trademark-styled images, each illustrating what the writer is saying. I particularly liked Lyn's use of stratus layers in the landscapes. Five of the images must have taken ages to paint with all the layers in there (Greenhouse Earth on pg 49, HD 16141 b and Moon on pg 108, Planet in the Virgo Cluster on pg 190, Terrestrial Planet at 55 Cancri on pg 171, and Planet Near the Siamese Squid Nebula on pg 53). The Siamese Squid image is really eye-catching with it's pink and green layers and Planet at 55 Cancri is a gorgeous painting in brilliant reds and yellows of sunset. Lyn's attention to the way the waves of the lake curve and reflect the light is just amazing, as is the detailed way the shadows of the rocks fall on the water. This is my favorite image of the book. Another very effective painting is HD 177830 b and Moon on pg 117, a beautiful image of a habitable moon orbiting a Saturnian-like panet. Imagine the night view beings on this planet would have! In fact, I found almost every image in the book to be excellent and inspiring. All-in-all, Lyn's done a remarkable job in this book, definitely a "must add" to your astronomical art collection.

The title of this book is "Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond our Sun". However, only a fraction of the book actually deals with extrasolar planets. I purchased this book based on the assumption that it would be about extrasolar planets. Instead most of the book is based on theories of galaxy formations, birth and death of stars and planets, and theoretical extraterrestrial life. It also describes our Solar System in detail. The artwork is very good although other space artists I have seen on the internet have superior artistic ability than Cook. Overall, though, this is still an interesting book. But potential readers should know that this is not a book about extrasolar planets.

The images are everything in this book. Not that the text is badly written. Far from it. But the text is clearly subordinate to letting you see the imagination of many talented artists, as they depict worlds in other planetary systems. Speculative, but based on solid science. And astronomers now have detected over 200 worlds. The book explains how from sometimes single pixels, information is teased out about a world. Impressive. We now have detected enough worlds that we can start talking of classifications and statistics across worlds.

What the book clearly leads up to is a desire for more, better images. Well, you will have to wait at least 10 years, as new telescopes are being constructed.

Science fiction readers might compare these paintings to those made decades ago by Chesley Bonestall. His were necessarily more imaginative. But both types can be very evocative.

I have come to know of Lynette's work over the last 10 years, and had long awaited a book that would showcase her artwork. After much patience, she did not disappoint. Her visions of extraterrestrial scenes in the book boggled my mind. She pays such great attention to detail in the scenes that she has created. When you allow yourself to get lost in her scenes, you feel like you are actually there. I have been a fan of space art for many years, and I can say that without a doubt, she is the premier space artist of our times. It is also worth noting that the supporting text of the book is well done, but let us not kid ourselves, this book is all about the awe-inspiring artwork.

The text and artwork in this volume are first class. The art is exceptionally beautiful and is only enhanced by the story. Together, they bring together what we know with what is likely and expands that to a universe of pure possibility. There's nothing dry about this marvelous work. Infinite Worlds is noteworthy accomplishment.

excellent atrwork of the highest standard; would have been nice to have mentioned HD114762, the FIRST extrasolar planet discovered by the center for astrophysics in 1989.