Review — Extraterrestrial

This book was disappointing. I’d leave it at if I could but since this is 2021 and we all feel like our voice should be heard so I’ll keep writing. ‘Extraterrestrial’ is written by Avi Loeb who has a much better resume than I do. In fact I’d get real close to putting him up upon that pedestal if genius. However, he lacks the ability to tell a solid narrative and in all reality, this book should have been a long article in National Geographic or Scientific American vs being a book.

Loeb’s book is about the discover of ‘Oumuamua’ which is Hawaiian for ‘Scout’. This…thing was discovered in 2017 and was around for about 2 weeks. I’ll let you Google the rest but basically Loeb makes the compelling argument that this was not an asteroid or comet as it did some peculiar things such as rotate every 8 hours, deviated off of its projected/logical route and it accelerated out of the solar system.

Whaaaaat?

It didn’t take much to convince me that Oumuamua wasn’t an asteroid or comet but I didn’t need Loeb to tell me that or try to spend over 200 pages trying to explain his argument. To be honest, what really needs to happen is for a great author like Michael Lewis or someone to take this store on and put it into a book. Not someone who is stupid smart like Loeb who’s previous day job was the longest serving head of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard.

Bottom line is this, if you believe Oumuamua was and alien artifact or from one then Loeb’s argument will only confirm your belief. If you believe otherwise then Loeb may make a valid argument. If you are on the fence, well then pick up the book. If you could give two shits about aliens or the existential question ‘are we alone?’ then go read something else and wait for a better book. What Loeb’s better argument is is that we should take chances and young smart people should jump into the discipline of searching for extraterrestrials and he gives an outline on how to do so.