This book wasn't quite what I expected, its basically an overview of all the things that had to go right in order for intelligent life to arrive on earth. So it goes from galaxy to star to planet formation in a fair amount of detail. I felt like this was the author's strong point that he has the best understanding of and it was interesting. He also spends a lot of time on the history of the earth and moon and seemingly unimportant things that had a significant effect on allowing intelligent life to evolve on earth.

The author stops talking about probabilities and odds about halfway through the book when he finishes talking about the types of stars that could possibly support intelligent life. After that the improbability of life is largely implied through talking about specific things that exist on the Earth that allowed for the development of intelligent life.

I felt that the book is an extremely good history of the earth and where it came from in an astronomical view. I felt that the author made his point that intelligent life developing on Earth only came about through extremely unlikely occurrences that would probably not be replicated on other planets.

Overall the book was more about why our planet is unique than about being alone in the universe, which is why it gets 4 instead of 5 stars. I am glad that I read it though and I probably would not have read it if it was titled about how our planet is unique. ( )

Bad news for SETI enthusiasts. Our intelligent, technological species and civilization are the result of a long chain of very low probabilities. Multiply together a string of very small numbers, (i.e. the Drake Equation) and you get a vanishingly small number. Gribbin, as usually, provides a clear, cogent review of how we came to be. Finally an antidote to the Drake/Sagen groupies who think the universe is teaming with radio astronomers. Fermi's unanswered question. "Where are they?" has been answered. They are not there. ( )

Gribbin's argument in this book might be summarized: Since so many ridiculously improbable factors led to our sun, our planet, its history and conditions, life in general, the rise of humans, and the technology we developed that it's almost certain that we're the only thing the universe has going.

The evidence he sets forward may be factual and his argument may even be sound, but he presents it a way that feels manipulated; as if he skewed everything in one direction. Since we arose at a time when both the north and south poles were covered with ice, for instance, the likelihood of intelligent beings arising without such a condition would be slim to none. That's just one small example. He had many good stories along the way, but his aim was clearly to reduce all of the elements in the Drake Equation (i.e. probability of other intelligent life in the universe) down to zero -- even adding additional zero elements based on our specific history.

Again, his facts may be right but it seems contrived. (I dare say it's comes off like a man who wins the lottery explaining that no one could ever win the lottery unless they were fortunate to do exactly as he did the day he bought ticket.)

I'm neither pro-SETI nor con-SETI, by the way. I just like a good science narrative. This book is an okay read, but not one I would re-read or recommend.

Find more of my reviews at Mostly NF.