James Kasting

There are a number of books out now that talk about the discovery of exoplanets in the last twenty years or so. This is one of the few that deals with the science of exoplanetology and presents the topic at a semi-technical level. Also appreciate the well sourced bibliography in the book. Serves as a nice bridge between the general popular accounts and the move advanced material from Dr. Sara Seager and others.

The first half consists of eye-glazing (for me at least) geoclimatology and Venus/Mars planetology. Then he gets to the Ward/Brownlee "Rare Earth" thesis (the dubiousness thereof), habitable zones, methods for exoplanet detection, and spectrographic searching for biogenic gases in atmospheres of exoplanets. I just hope the Terrestrial Planet Finder and Life Finder space missions he so authoritatively describes *do* get launched one of these years.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this book, as overrall I found it a bit boring. I have read other science books, and astrobiology and astronomy books, but this one was way too technical for me. There were only a few chapters I could grasp, and the rest I just skimmed because it was too much. Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this book unless you have a firm grasp on the topics discussed, or enjoy going back to old chemistry notes to understand what is going on.