[SilentRoamer]

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.

[Royce]

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.

[sologdin]

the ooloi in octavia butler's lillith's brood are creepy like the inchies.  geocentric aliens in clarke's childhood's end.

[The Sharmat]

Gotta second Blindsight. All the aliens in that, the Scramblers, Rorschach, and the Vampires, were quite nifty creative and disturbing.

[SilentRoamer]

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.

[Wilshire]

The descolada virus and its origins are the superior alien story, I agree.

[SilentRoamer]

The Descolada virus seems to be to be slightly derivitive of Asimovs Nemesis but with an original twist.

[Wilshire]

Never read enough Asimov to spot all the ways he influenced the genre.

[mrganondorf]

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

[SilentRoamer]

Nice MG, thats a series I havent come across. Thanks.