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Wildlife on the Planet Furaha: A Speculative Biology Guide to Alien Life Forms
On the planet Furaha, Gert van Dijk creates a biosphere on a new world along with its solar system. Evolution on Furaha found solutions to life's problems that remained unused on Earth. There are in-depth accounts of habitats where marshland mixotrophs use bioluminescence to catch animals, where four-sided radial cloakfishes swim in tropical waters and where tetrapters flitter through the air, using radial flight. With over 180 stunning illustrations, this is a book that all fans of science fiction, biology and science will enjoy, and that will inspire artists to think beyond the limitations of our own planet.
'Major works on speculative biology are rare but Furaha is a welcome addition to the genre and gives a well-considered account of life on another planet, along with stunning illustrations. This is a must-read book, which I heartily recommend.' ~ Dougal Dixon The father of speculative zoology
'Major works on speculative biology are rare but Furaha is a welcome addition to the genre and gives a well-considered account of life on another planet, along with stunning illustrations. This is a must-read book, which I heartily recommend.' ~ Dougal Dixon The father of speculative zoology
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 3, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 31, 2025
Recent Reads: Wildlife On The Planet Furaha. Gert van Dijk's speculative biology explores a world where evolution has taken different paths: one dominated by hexapods, and with a different take on radial symmetry. A fascinating look at a world very alike and very different to ours. Beautiful art.
Review of advance copy
World creation as an act of pure joy. Crystalline, jewel-like. A planet *not* to have adventures on. (Unless they are careful, scientific adventures).
Did you ever have a _really precise_ dream? One where the precision was part of the pleasure? "We must imagine the clockmaker joyful." I mean really vibing on those cog-teeth, absolutely in the mix like a dance DJ. The book was made for pleasure, the book is colourful, vibrant, lively, and really really really carefully worked out, down to the smallest detail, down to the orientation of skeletal joints and the exact forms of varied radial symmetry.
An act of world creation, in detail and in depth, as a perfect mirror to the world-discoverers of the 17th to 19th century. Really a _calm_ book, of mild humours and deep curiosity. Very much an enlightenment text; this is not a demon-haunted world or an especially mysterious man, but one whose passions and intellect are fully synthesised. And he does _have_ passions; one cannot paint, write, engineer and conceive a whole world of such depth, beauty and complexity, without being driven by strong, even overwhelming, passion. _This is not the kind of thing a normal person does._ But I suspect if one were to meet Gert van Dijk, one would not come away with the feeling one had met a passionate man.
For most humans, combining joy and precision is relatively rare, but not for this guy, and the metaphor of "clockwork" or clock-like action is wrong, limited, clocks are entropic, limited, bound and wear down. They also only do one thing. But for an act of exhultive precision there are few metaphors. van Dijk takes the same pleasure in the deep mechanisms of evolutionary selection as a child does when confronted with a shelf of varied sweets, his is the pleasure of the naturalist, perhaps one of this in the borderlands period where a global awareness has become possible, but not yet splintered and degraded into endlessly-holographic splinter-cults of micro-analysis. He is a BIG MIND guy and his view and his pleasures are essentially those of Darwin on the Beagle; getting out there and looking at a bunch of wonderful stuff and working out how it relates, except in this case, 'out there' is 'in here' and 'working it out' is literally building life from the ground-up.
And to some degree, a science-fiction sociology of a strange planet, populated by the descendants of scientists and explorers. Not quite an Eden, but an ascended world from the point of view of a scientist-artist himself; a world made the way _they should be_ and not as they are. I wonder what kinds of stories one might tell about Furaha? This (comparatively) under-populated near-pristine wilderness where apparently the bugs and viruses of Furuha don't immediately devour humanity, and where the bugs, bacteria, horses and factories of humanity don't immediately ruin Furuha. It feels like the kind of place for murder-mystery, no doubt involving some environmental complexity or wonder, and with the motive being the kind of thing academics lose their toast over, like a love-affair wrapped up in the classification of a Ghnathocranium jaw or something.
Of course I want to go to Furaha, but sadly if I did, they wouldn't let me do anything interesting. Maybe some very low-environmental impact Saffari's would be available, or horseback tours.
Being who and what I am, I immediately find myself sympathising with whoever I imagine the Furuhan underclass to be. Some low-IQ non-academic types who don't particularly care about animals or the environment, happen to have been born in this wonderland which offers nothing for them, and who just want to build a car-park or something. I wonder also, considering the nature of humanity, how long this tender softness in humanity can last. Surely there must be arguments over resources, or ideas, or _something_. I'm not trying to turn Furuha into 40k but someone at least has to stab someone, or lead them into the Pied Stickers hunting range at the wrong time of year (deniable). Who is the Furuhan Columbo? What are the Furuhan ethnic divides? Is everyone just upper-middle class? These are petty thoughts considering what the book is actually about, but they are at times, my thoughts.
Being an image of evolution on a massive scale, (van Dijk even removed his balloon-flyers when the physics didn't work out), 'Furuhan' is also a kind of tacit commentary on evolutionary theories. van Dijk creates not one, but two species who honestly seem like they might be about to get intelligent; the Wardens and the Snafe. The fact that neither of these, especially the Snafe, despite superficially _seeming_ to be smart, have not kindled into tool-use and self-reinforcing complexity, is perhaps a kind of joke, or mildly sardonic aside on the part of van Dijk; 'we really still have no idea what makes it "go".'
A great book if you like beauty, evolution, quiet wonder or long BBC documentaries about the sea.
Did you ever have a _really precise_ dream? One where the precision was part of the pleasure? "We must imagine the clockmaker joyful." I mean really vibing on those cog-teeth, absolutely in the mix like a dance DJ. The book was made for pleasure, the book is colourful, vibrant, lively, and really really really carefully worked out, down to the smallest detail, down to the orientation of skeletal joints and the exact forms of varied radial symmetry.
An act of world creation, in detail and in depth, as a perfect mirror to the world-discoverers of the 17th to 19th century. Really a _calm_ book, of mild humours and deep curiosity. Very much an enlightenment text; this is not a demon-haunted world or an especially mysterious man, but one whose passions and intellect are fully synthesised. And he does _have_ passions; one cannot paint, write, engineer and conceive a whole world of such depth, beauty and complexity, without being driven by strong, even overwhelming, passion. _This is not the kind of thing a normal person does._ But I suspect if one were to meet Gert van Dijk, one would not come away with the feeling one had met a passionate man.
For most humans, combining joy and precision is relatively rare, but not for this guy, and the metaphor of "clockwork" or clock-like action is wrong, limited, clocks are entropic, limited, bound and wear down. They also only do one thing. But for an act of exhultive precision there are few metaphors. van Dijk takes the same pleasure in the deep mechanisms of evolutionary selection as a child does when confronted with a shelf of varied sweets, his is the pleasure of the naturalist, perhaps one of this in the borderlands period where a global awareness has become possible, but not yet splintered and degraded into endlessly-holographic splinter-cults of micro-analysis. He is a BIG MIND guy and his view and his pleasures are essentially those of Darwin on the Beagle; getting out there and looking at a bunch of wonderful stuff and working out how it relates, except in this case, 'out there' is 'in here' and 'working it out' is literally building life from the ground-up.
And to some degree, a science-fiction sociology of a strange planet, populated by the descendants of scientists and explorers. Not quite an Eden, but an ascended world from the point of view of a scientist-artist himself; a world made the way _they should be_ and not as they are. I wonder what kinds of stories one might tell about Furaha? This (comparatively) under-populated near-pristine wilderness where apparently the bugs and viruses of Furuha don't immediately devour humanity, and where the bugs, bacteria, horses and factories of humanity don't immediately ruin Furuha. It feels like the kind of place for murder-mystery, no doubt involving some environmental complexity or wonder, and with the motive being the kind of thing academics lose their toast over, like a love-affair wrapped up in the classification of a Ghnathocranium jaw or something.
Of course I want to go to Furaha, but sadly if I did, they wouldn't let me do anything interesting. Maybe some very low-environmental impact Saffari's would be available, or horseback tours.
Being who and what I am, I immediately find myself sympathising with whoever I imagine the Furuhan underclass to be. Some low-IQ non-academic types who don't particularly care about animals or the environment, happen to have been born in this wonderland which offers nothing for them, and who just want to build a car-park or something. I wonder also, considering the nature of humanity, how long this tender softness in humanity can last. Surely there must be arguments over resources, or ideas, or _something_. I'm not trying to turn Furuha into 40k but someone at least has to stab someone, or lead them into the Pied Stickers hunting range at the wrong time of year (deniable). Who is the Furuhan Columbo? What are the Furuhan ethnic divides? Is everyone just upper-middle class? These are petty thoughts considering what the book is actually about, but they are at times, my thoughts.
Being an image of evolution on a massive scale, (van Dijk even removed his balloon-flyers when the physics didn't work out), 'Furuhan' is also a kind of tacit commentary on evolutionary theories. van Dijk creates not one, but two species who honestly seem like they might be about to get intelligent; the Wardens and the Snafe. The fact that neither of these, especially the Snafe, despite superficially _seeming_ to be smart, have not kindled into tool-use and self-reinforcing complexity, is perhaps a kind of joke, or mildly sardonic aside on the part of van Dijk; 'we really still have no idea what makes it "go".'
A great book if you like beauty, evolution, quiet wonder or long BBC documentaries about the sea.
January 22, 2026
4.5 stars. Phenomenal speculative evolution book bound to join the likes of the Isla Project as an example of great alien spec in the genre.
One thing that I think all spec should do alongside developing inventive species is attempt to teach the reader general principles of biology - and this book accomplishes that in spades. Almost every species represented in this book shows off biological features that are also common to life on Earth.
It also invents its own, entirely new categories, which were both interesting and plausible. The mixotrophs were a big highlight for me and I wish the author showed off more of them.
All in all great and with some fantastic illustrations.
One thing that I think all spec should do alongside developing inventive species is attempt to teach the reader general principles of biology - and this book accomplishes that in spades. Almost every species represented in this book shows off biological features that are also common to life on Earth.
It also invents its own, entirely new categories, which were both interesting and plausible. The mixotrophs were a big highlight for me and I wish the author showed off more of them.
All in all great and with some fantastic illustrations.
March 23, 2026
I love the art and world, but I despise the humor. So many jokes about scientists being pedantic and annoying (in the sense that we shouldn't pay attention to what they say), so much insulting the animals saying they're dumb, and a couple sexist jokes brought my enjoyment down so much.
I also didn't like the illustrations comparing our size to them, especially one where an insect is put next to a hand that is about to flick it. I might be too sensitive about animals that don't exist but alas.
I also didn't like the illustrations comparing our size to them, especially one where an insect is put next to a hand that is about to flick it. I might be too sensitive about animals that don't exist but alas.
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March 29, 2026Goodreads says this book hasn't been published yet, but I ordered it from Blackwell's in February and while I have the physical copy in my possession at this very moment, I can't rate it, because it is not an advance copy but just a regular copy from the UK.
This is a beautifully illustrated and intricately imagined alien world, that any Spec Evo enjoyer will love to explore. 5 stars.
This is a beautifully illustrated and intricately imagined alien world, that any Spec Evo enjoyer will love to explore. 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews