A really intriguing look at the search for life here on earth as well as in the stars. Ward presents some compelling arguments for destinations and processes. Additionally, he tackles the topic of artificially created life here on earth and the ethical implications. Ward also argues, somewhat convincingly, that our current tree of life might be better as a bush. ( )

Highly speculative. Boring and repetitive. Irritant style. Final chapters seem loosely slapped on. What irritated me most was the use of the noun / adjective "terroan" for "earth life". ( )

A readable book that discusses : What is life? Can there be kinds of life different from our kind of life? Where in our solar system might we find Earth-like life and/or alien life? Could life have originated in the places where it could now live? My only problem with this book is that it really needed another round of copy-editing before publication. Otherwise, it is an enjoyable book on an interesting subject and it is fairly up to date, discussing findings as late as 2004.

Regarding the possibilities for extraterrestrial life, Ward is somewhat less of a killjoy here than he was in _Rare Earth_.

This strikes me as an adequate, if opinionated, popular science text. The author would do better to concentrate the text with more science and less filler. For example, I do not care at all that the author had dinner with the "scary smart" Paul Allen. Leave name-dropping to the gossip rags, if you please. Not bad for a library book, but I won't read anything else he wrote that doesn't first withstand peer review. The few pages of taxonomy aren't quite worth the price of admission. The call for a manned Titan mission intrigues me, but his time estimates assume no one with will to use nuclear pulse drive. (Milksop!) ( )