[SilentRoamer]

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.

[Garet Jax]

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.

[Wilshire]

Mild Hyperion spoilers:

(click to show/hide)

The Ousters in Dan Simmons' Hyperion. The Ousters themselves were once human, but genetically modified themselves to better fit all manor of environments, including the high radiation and hard vaccum of space, or the intense weather/gravity of Gas Giant planets. They also formed themselves a coalition with all the other sentient races of the galaxy.

[SilentRoamer]

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.

[Garet Jax]

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.

[SilentRoamer]

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.

[Wilshire]

I have been meaning to read The Gods Themselves. Must remember to pick it up...

[SilentRoamer]

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.

[Madness]

Any of Lovecraft's creations.

[mrganondorf]

It's not *literature* but I love the aliens in Aliens!

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

[Francis Buck]

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/

It's free, and short!

[Madness]

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."

[Francis Buck]

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...

[Francis Buck]

Mild Hyperion spoilers:

(click to show/hide)

The Ousters in Dan Simmons' Hyperion. The Ousters themselves were once human, but genetically modified themselves to better fit all manor of environments, including the high radiation and hard vaccum of space, or the intense weather/gravity of Gas Giant planets. They also formed themselves a coalition with all the other sentient races of the galaxy.

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.

[Madness]

I can't believe I missed this.

FB! Finish Speaker for the Dead. Do it! Learn of the piggies!