# Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials

Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials (1979; second edition 1987) is a science fiction-themed book by artist Wayne Barlowe, with Ian Summers and Beth Meacham (who provided the text). It contains Barlowe's visualizations of different extraterrestrial life forms from various works of science fiction, with information on their planetary location or range, biology, and behaviors, in the style of a real field guide for animals. It was nominated for an American Book Award and for the 1980 Hugo Award for Best Related Work.
The second edition has an added foreword by Robert Silverberg.
After the success of the work, in 1996 Barlowe and Neil Duskis wrote a second book, Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy.

## Summary

The book contains descriptions of the following species:
| Alien | Author | Work |
| Abyormenite | Hal Clement | Cycle of Fire (1957) |
| Athshean | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Word for World Is Forest (1975) |
| Black Cloud | Fred Hoyle | The Black Cloud (1957) |
| Chulpex | Avram Davidson | Masters of the Maze (1965) |
| Cinruss | James White | Hospital Station (1962) and Star Surgeon (1963) |
| Cryer | Joseph Green | Conscience Interplanetary (1972) |
| Cygnan | Donald Moffitt | The Jupiter Theft (1977) |
| Cygnostik | Michael Bishop | A Little Knowledge (1977) |
| Czill | Jack L. Chalker | Midnight at the Well of Souls (1977) |
| Demon | Keith Laumer | A Plague of Demons (1977) |
| Demu | F. M. Busby | Cage a Man (1973) |
| Dextran | David J. Lake | The Right Hand of Dextra (1977) |
| Dilbian | Gordon R. Dickson | Spacial Delivery and Spacepaw (1961) |
| Dirdir | Jack Vance | The Dirdir (1969) |
| Garnishee | Harry Harrison | Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (1973) |
| Gowachin | Frank Herbert | The Dosadi Experiment (1977) |
| Guild Steersman | Frank Herbert | Dune Messiah (1965) |
| Ishtarians | Poul Anderson | Fire Time (1974) |
| Ixchel | Madeleine L'Engle | A Wrinkle in Time (1962) |
| Ixtl | A. E. van Vogt | The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) |
| Lithian | James Blish | A Case of Conscience (1958) |
| Masters | John Christopher | The Tripods trilogy (1967, 1968) |
| Medusan | Jack Williamson | The Legion of Space (1947) |
| Merseian | Poul Anderson | Ensign Flandry (1966) |
| Mesklinite | Hal Clement | Mission of Gravity (1954) |
| Mother | Philip José Farmer | Strange Relations (1960) |
| Old Galactic | James H. Schmitz | Legacy (1979) |
| Old One | H. P. Lovecraft | At the Mountains of Madness (1936) |
| Overlord | Arthur C. Clarke | Childhood's End (1953) |
| Pnume | Jack Vance | The Pnume (1970) |
| Polarian | Piers Anthony | Cluster (1977) |
| Pierson's Puppeteers | Larry Niven | Neutron Star (1968) and Ringworld (1970) |
| Radiate | Naomi Mitchison | Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962) |
| Regul | C. J. Cherryh | The Faded Sun: Kesrith (1978) |
| Riim | A. E. van Vogt | The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) |
| Ruml | Gordon R. Dickson | The Alien Way (1965) |
| Salaman | Brian Stableford | Wildeblood's Empire (1977) |
| Sirian | Frederik Pohl | The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969) |
| Slash | Piers Anthony | Kirlian Quest (1978) |
| Soft One | Isaac Asimov | The Gods Themselves (1972) |
| Solaris | Stanisław Lem | Solaris (1961) |
| Sulidor | Robert Silverberg | Downward to the Earth (1970) |
| Terran (human) | | no specific novel — an image of a human (the author) used in the size comparison chart in the book. |
| The Thing | John W. Campbell | Who Goes There? (1938) |
| Thrint | Larry Niven | World of Ptavvs (1966) |
| Tran | Alan Dean Foster | Icerigger (1974) |
| Triped | Damon Knight | Rule Golden (1954) |
| Tyreean | James Tiptree | Up the Walls of the World (1978) |
| Uchjinian | Jack L. Chalker | Exiles at the Well of Souls series (1978) |
| Vegan | Robert A. Heinlein | Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958) |
| Velantian | E. E. Smith | Children of the Lens (1954) |
* ↑ Alternately spelled 'Sulidoror' by both Barlowe and Silverberg

## Reception

Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials received a mixed review from Wendy Bousfield in Library Journal. Bousfield commented that the book's drawings were "colorful", but also "somewhat static and artificial-looking, with less vitality than the preparatory sketches from the artist's notebook included at the end." She also criticized the omission of "the facts of publication of the novels", but concluded that public libraries might still be interested in the work. The book received a positive review from Claudia J. Morner in School Library Journal. Morner praised the book's "colorful drawings" and "fold-out comparative size chart" showing the size of aliens relative to human beings. She concluded that it was a "fun browsing book" that would appeal to "young people fascinated by monsters" as well as to science fiction readers.
Barlowe's work was nominated for an American Book Award and for the 1980 Hugo Award for Best Related Work.