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Science Fiction Books About Aliens
- linsomniac 3y agoI really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, which has quite an interesting alien in it.
- option 3y agoi really enjoyed it as well. Also there’s seems to be a movie in the works based on it
- a_bonobo 3y agoHappy to see Stanislaw Lem on this list! He was obsessed with humans not having the capability of seeing or understanding aliens. His Master's Voice is about a SETI-like project that found a recurring signal, and the international effort to decode that signal (spoiler: it fails, gets defunded, the book ends) Fiasco is a bit more 'normal' in its first contact story, but here too the communication fails abruptly for no apparent reason. Eden is my favorite - it's a bit like the Rama books, a space crew explores an alien land and can't make heads or tails of it.
- georgecmu 3y agoOne of my favorite alien stories is _The_fourth_profession_ by Larry Niven: https://libcat.ru/knigi/fantastika-i-fjentezi/240989-larry-niven-the-fourth-profession.html https://libcat.ru/knigi/fantastika-i-fjentezi/240989-larry-n...
- gumby 3y agoThe Bug Wars by Robert Asprin has no humans at all.
- jhallenworld 3y agoI've not read it (yet), but I've been watching "Quinn's Ideas" videos about The Three Body Problem. Basically all the aliens kill your planet due to game theory, so best stay hidden. Then there is All Tomorrows... is it even a novel? Let me just say that you don't want the Qu to find you: https://web.archive.org/web/20061124141617/http://www.nemoramjet.com/alltomorrows.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20061124141617/http://www.nemora...
- Gys 3y agoGame Theory and the Three-Body Problem: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348439715_Game_Theory_and_the_Three-Body_Problem https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348439715_Game_Theo...
- SigmundA 3y agoBlindsight anyone? https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
- katabasis 3y agoThis is a great first-contact novel, probably my favorite example of this genre. The book concludes with some ideas about the nature of consciousness that I found to be legitimately frightening. I read the book years ago but it feels even more relevant now as we watch new forms of “intelligence” like ChatGPT beginning to emerge.
- deepspace 3y agoExactly. Blindsight is a hard read, but it is as frightening as any horror story I have ever read. It absolutely deserves a place in the list of best alien stories. Every time I use ChatGPT, I think about Blindsight's premise of intelligence without consciousness. Interacting with the AI feels so much like the alien interactions in that book, it is scary.
- duskwuff 3y agoAt least none of the LLMs I've worked with have decided to refer to themselves as Rorschach. Yet.
- MattPalmer1086 3y agoYes! The aliens, non-humans and neuro-diverse humans were set off against each other brilliantly. I'd also add "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky for aliens who are still alien but also manage to be people. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-time https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-tim...
- SigmundA 3y agoJust finishing Children of Memory. They were ok, not on the level of Blindsight IMO. Also reminds me of Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge, which was also superior IMO.
- danielrpa 3y agoStar Maker... A book so good, after reading it, I couldn't believe it was possible to write a book like that. Please do yourself a favor and give it a try, it's not that big. Arthur C Clarke and Stanislaw Lem cite it as an inspiration.
- jbgt 3y agoYeah I'd also recommend this (and Last of Men) by Olaf Stapledon. Written in the 30s, it shows an incredible breadth of vision in space and time.
- teh_klev 3y agoThe same site from last time around, but with a bit of a wider scope: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35853131 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35853131
- canistel 3y agoI never imagined Science Fiction could mix with Catholicism, but the weird combination sets an interesting backdrop for The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. (There is the book A Canticle for Leibowitz too, or at least these are the ones that I have read)
- gumby 3y agoThe book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
- bombcar 3y agoIf you liked Canticle check out some books by Lafferty, though mainly a short story author, Past Master was well received.
- eesmith 3y agoTwo other books which mix Catholicism with SF are Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" and James Blish's "The Day After Judgment".
- elorant 3y agoSecond that. Also "Children of God" that complements it. The story is very profound and has stayed with me for years. It's a rarity to read something that original in sf these days.
- dsign 3y agoI think that science fiction should tangle more with both science and religion, and not because "it's an opportunity to write something interesting," but because in our real world the two are still fighting and, for now at least, one of them has the upper hand on fundamentally shaping our perception of human nature and on loudly proclaiming what's the meaning of life. Sadly, your run-of-the-mill author and your run-of-the-mill editor are often shy of that type of conflict, and more interested on writing about interstellar conflicts and exploitative mining mega-corporations.
- jackhack 3y agoThe best scifi alien short story, ever. Meat https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/think...
- timonoko 3y agoAlien meat farm. (We might be too). https://www.scribd.com/doc/100964572/Larry-Niven-Bordered-in-Black https://www.scribd.com/doc/100964572/Larry-Niven-Bordered-in...
- all2 3y agoI'll throw in Saturn Run. I enjoyed it quite a lot.
- JALTU 3y agoAgreed, and pleased to see this one mentioned. "Lighter" than the usual stuff that gets lauded as great sci-fi but very enjoyable with enough realism to draw you in.
- zokier 3y agoTbh science fiction books without aliens is much more interesting category to explore/discuss, seeing that aliens are dime a dozen in scifi. In general scifi is such a weird genre. Basically anything set in space gets labeled as scifi regardless if they have anything to do with any sort of science. But then you also have all sorts of non-space scifi too like cyberpunk.
- WalterBright 3y agoAliens are also always look like earth animals, or a chimera like a human with a cat head, and can have sex with terrans to produce hybrids.
- defrost 3y agoSure. Except for the alien ocean in Solaris, the cheela in Dragon's Egg, .. and all the other not earth-animal-like aliens. Those aside, sure.
- WalterBright 3y agoYeah, I've read Dragon's Egg. There are exceptions. But there are an overwhelming number of scifi books featuring aliens that are human except they have a cat head. Might as well have ChatGPT write them. I also move on when any synopsis says "the fate of the universe hangs in the balance" and "journey to the end of time". Star Trek, of course, is infamous for aliens merely having an appliance glued to their face. Zzzzzz....
- nine_k 3y agoEven aliens that formally resemble Earth animals, like those in Blindsight, can be made utterly, unhumanly, unearthly alien, if the author has deep ideas about what a radically different life form could be.
- bryanlarsen 3y agoReally? That's a good description of the SF section of literotica.com, as well as visual SF like movies, tv and comics, but written SF is much more diverse. If there is any trope, I would say that a disproportionate number of evil aliens are arachnid in appearance.
- duskwuff 3y agoI'll throw in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky for consideration. A significant element in both is a first encounter between a group of (mostly) human characters and something distinctly nonhuman. The two novels are conceptually part of a series, but each can stand alone.
- wrp 3y agoI can't get enough of good SF with interesting aliens, not because I'm such a voracious reader, but because there is so little of it. My suggestion for the list would be the Sector General series by James White. It's a bit like the TV series House but with alien patients. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_General https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_General)
- fredski42 3y agoI recommend the Stories by Alastair Reynolds in the Revelation Space universe. The Inhibitors and the Pattern Jugglers come to mind.
- ultrablack 3y agoEnders game series. Almost goes without saying. :)
- duskwuff 3y agoEnder's Game is fairly weak on the aliens front. They make no direct appearances until the very end of the book. The (unrelated) aliens in the sequel Speaker for the Dead are considerably more interesting. I wouldn't recommend any of the other sequels/prequels/sidequels, though.
- radku 3y agoLegendary Iain M. Banks is a true classic now. For some hard sci-fi I do highly recommend Neal Asher, which reminds me of Banks universe. And a classic "We are Bob" by Dennis Taylor, which is a very easy way to introduce anyone to sci-fi.
- pmontra 3y agoJohm Brunner's The Crucible of Time. There are only aliens in that book, even if the aliens behave quite humanly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible_of_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible_of_Time
- hovering_nox 3y agoIt might not be a published novel but I really enjoy "War Queen", a web novel about first contact from the (hive mind) aliens' perspective. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46850/war-queen https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46850/war-queen