The Second Apocalypse

Miscellaneous Chatter => Literature => Topic started by: SilentRoamer on May 21, 2014, 09:49:14 pm

Title: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 21, 2014, 09:49:14 pm
Just as title says. Anyone like to post some aliens they like in Sci-Fi - tell me your reasons.

Ill start with two:

MorningLightMountain from Peter F Hamilton Commonwealth series. Absolute genocidal maniac. Like an Ultra Nazi that views all other life forms as a potential threat and therefore an enemy and seeks to ensure it continued survival into the far future.

The Hydrogues from Kevin J Anderson Saga of the Seven Suns just really alien and peculiar and I found them pretty scary antagonists.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Garet Jax on May 22, 2014, 02:02:31 pm
I always liked the aliens in the Darkwar/Demonwar/Chaoswar Saga's by Feist.  Too bad he wasn't slightly more talented to flesh out all of the potential that was there.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Wilshire on May 22, 2014, 02:26:58 pm
Mild Hyperion spoilers:
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 22, 2014, 03:51:22 pm
Quote from: Garet Jax on May 22, 2014, 02:02:31 pm
I always liked the aliens in the Darkwar/Demonwar/Chaoswar Saga's by Feist.  Too bad he wasn't slightly more talented to flesh out all of the potential that was there.

The problem is Feist is talented. Don't get me wrong the guys is no Tolkien but Feist can write - I mean Magician was brilliant. Problem was the rate at which Feist was writing these books they were only ever going to be OK. If you look at the schedule - the books start coming thicker and faster following the Empire Trilogy, it was also after this that the decline in quality and size came into effect.

Such a shame! I recently finished the Magicians End which was the last Feist novel and completed my read of all his works - it was simultaneously satisfying to get a conclusion and disappointing in how it came about.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Garet Jax on May 22, 2014, 05:20:02 pm
Quote from: SilentRoamer on May 22, 2014, 03:51:22 pm
Quote from: Garet Jax on May 22, 2014, 02:02:31 pm
I always liked the aliens in the Darkwar/Demonwar/Chaoswar Saga's by Feist.  Too bad he wasn't slightly more talented to flesh out all of the potential that was there.

The problem is Feist is talented. Don't get me wrong the guys is no Tolkien but Feist can write - I mean Magician was brilliant. Problem was the rate at which Feist was writing these books they were only ever going to be OK. If you look at the schedule - the books start coming thicker and faster following the Empire Trilogy, it was also after this that the decline in quality and size came into effect.

Such a shame! I recently finished the Magicians End which was the last Feist novel and completed my read of all his works - it was simultaneously satisfying to get a conclusion and disappointing in how it came about.

I agree.  I wish Macros had done a better job with his final time in the spotlight.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 22, 2014, 07:26:30 pm
Ok back onto great aliens in literature.

Asimovs The Gods Themsleves features some pretty odd aliens. They inhabit a para-universe and need to soak up energy from their sun, they come as "soft" ones and "hard ones". The soft ones have 3 genders, Rationals, Parentals and Emotionals and the Hard ones have one discernable gender. The interesting thing about them is a bit of a spoiler so I wont post here. Really interesting read and a good novel overall if a little oddly structured. Published 1972 well before I was born.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Wilshire on May 23, 2014, 03:16:53 pm
I have been meaning to read The Gods Themselves. Must remember to pick it up...
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on May 23, 2014, 05:29:06 pm
Really oddly structured little book. The middle part being the best IMO.

I did prefer this to both Nemesis and Caves of Steel, although I liked the ending on Nemesis some parts felt too contrived for me. Caves of steel was good just to start to see emergence of the Robotic laws.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Madness on May 25, 2014, 05:58:02 pm
Any of Lovecraft's creations.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: mrganondorf on May 27, 2014, 04:51:49 am
It's not *literature* but I love the aliens in Aliens!

Love the aliens in Peter Watts' Blindsight--truly and terrifyingly different from humans.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Francis Buck on May 28, 2014, 05:14:54 am
Quote from: mrganondorf on May 27, 2014, 04:51:49 am
It's not *literature* but I love the aliens in Aliens!

Love the aliens in Peter Watts' Blindsight--truly and terrifyingly different from humans.

Just finished this, and agreed. Very unique, "realistic", and creepy aliens.

There's a (free!) short story called Three Worlds Collide, featuring two separate alien races, and they are some of the most creative and well-realized aliens I've ever seen. In addition, the story really delves deeply into matters of morality and ethics, and how radically different such things could potentially be between intelligent races. Anyone who likes Bakker, I think, would be really interested in this. I've actually considered making a thread about it before.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/y4/three_worlds_collide_08/ (http://lesswrong.com/lw/y4/three_worlds_collide_08/)

It's free, and short!
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Madness on May 28, 2014, 01:12:24 pm
Things like this make me wish HE would just make the jump from Westeros. HE brought this up (I'm terrible at estimating relative time) within the last while and tried to make some striking comparisons to the Inchoroi in an attempt to stem the "R. SCOTT RAP3ZT TERRIBLEZ LOLZ."
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Francis Buck on May 28, 2014, 10:35:32 pm
Quote from: Madness on May 28, 2014, 01:12:24 pm
Things like this make me wish HE would just make the jump from Westeros. HE brought this up (I'm terrible at estimating relative time) within the last while and tried to make some striking comparisons to the Inchoroi in an attempt to stem the "R. SCOTT RAP3ZT TERRIBLEZ LOLZ."

He's not here? I'd always assumed he'd taken root (heh) under a pseudonym...
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Francis Buck on June 14, 2014, 10:08:05 pm
Quote from: Wilshire on May 22, 2014, 02:26:58 pm
Mild Hyperion spoilers:
(click to show/hide)

Nearly done The Fall of Hyperion,  I have to agree with this one majorly. The Ousters in-and-of-themselves are just an awesome idea for a future humanity, really different from anything I've see in sci-fi before (though I have admittedly read very, very little sci-fi). The way Simmons handles their introduction and gradual reveal is part of what makes them so cool.

Now, despite only reading Ender's Game and half of Speaker for the Dead, I really like what I've read online about Orson Scott Card's aliens. The guy's a total douche but I must admit that I think his aliens are great, and my reading about online (wiki's, other people's accounts) actually influenced my own alien-design quite a bit.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Madness on June 21, 2014, 01:38:18 pm
I can't believe I missed this.

FB! Finish Speaker for the Dead. Do it! Learn of the piggies!
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on July 10, 2014, 08:40:43 am
Speaker for the Dead is fantastic. I don't often compare it to Enders Game because they are so vastly different.

FB I'm currently reading Hyperion, getting to reveal more about the Ousters now. Very interesting stuff.

Did anyone see the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion? What did everyone make of the Tet? Alien AI or post physical entity? I found it very interesting to think about the Tets back story.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Royce on July 16, 2014, 11:33:25 am
What about The Shrike from Hyperion? Not sure how to define alien here, but The Shrike is a first class monster IMO. I am halfway through the second book, so I am not sure what The Shrike really is yet, but I definitely do not want a fist fight with that bitch.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: sologdin on July 29, 2014, 07:29:51 pm
the ooloi in octavia butler's lillith's brood are creepy like the inchies.  geocentric aliens in clarke's childhood's end.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: The Sharmat on September 03, 2014, 08:29:35 pm
Gotta second Blindsight. All the aliens in that, the Scramblers, Rorschach, and the Vampires, were quite nifty creative and disturbing.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on September 03, 2014, 08:47:53 pm
RE: Speaker for the Dead: I find the Descolada virus more interesting than the piggies.

The Shaa in the Praxis are interesting.
The Shoal in Empire of Light are very funny, especially Trader-In-Feacal-Matter-Of-Animals
Solaris is very interesting if you want to look at Psychology and a really non anthrocentric perspective.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Wilshire on September 12, 2014, 07:32:23 pm
The descolada virus and its origins are the superior alien story, I agree.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on September 12, 2014, 09:08:03 pm
The Descolada virus seems to be to be slightly derivitive of Asimovs Nemesis but with an original twist.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: Wilshire on September 13, 2014, 02:51:27 am
Never read enough Asimov to spot all the ways he influenced the genre.
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: mrganondorf on December 18, 2014, 11:43:09 am
the aliens in Viriconium (second story) are very alien aliens and i recommend it for Bakker fans.  the first story was a cool bit of fantasy, but the second story is the more epic/darker thing.  between the first story and the second, there are some things like nonmen too. 

the third story is fine, but not of special interest to bakkerites, and the fourth and final bit of Viriconium is miscellaneous
Title: Re: Great Aliens in Literature
Post by: SilentRoamer on December 18, 2014, 07:11:39 pm
Nice MG, thats a series I havent come across. Thanks.