SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I just finished reading C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner books, and they got me thinking: some of the alien characters are very interesting and fascinating, but as a whole I wouldn't say the species and setting were my favorite. After a little thought, I'd say that the most believable and enjoyable aliens I've encountered are the Ortheans from Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed.

(Some also-rans: the Vulcans and Klingons from Star Trek, and the various species in John Scalzi's Old Man's War series.)

So, who are your favorite aliens? (Preferably, I'd exclude humans from a parallel dimension and humans who are live on varied planets and are or have become culturally and/or physically different ... but YMMV. These stories can be quite interesting, but these weren't the sorts of aliens that I had in mind.)

Hmmmm, favorite aliens? I liked some of the Godzilla space monsters. My son and I like to watch Godzilla movies to unwind.

Phagors from the Helliconia trilogy (Brian Aldiss) are quite interesting. Even the "humans" of the planet with their "fat death" and "bone fever", that profoundly change their bodies to adapt to the planetary cycle, are pretty cool.

I really like the Moties from The Mote in God's Eye (and sequel). They are truly alien life form with a richly textured alien culture.

I always liked the Kzin from Larry Niven's Known Space tales. The Pierson's Puppeteers annoy me, though.

Actually, my favorite are from another Cherryh series: the Mri in The Faded Sun Trilogy. The way she wove the game of shon'ai throughout their culture was absolutely brilliant, and the way that then became the central metaphor for the entire trilogy just took my breath away.

I think all my favorite aliens, good, bad or indifferent, are all from Alan Dean Foster novels. The Prufillian in Glory Lane, the Thranx in general, the AAnn for bad guys, the silicon bugs on Prism, the big scary dude in Codgerspace, the furry telepaths that build a ship for Flinx, Flinx's minidrag Pip, just about every alien he invented.

I also like some of the alien species in Anne McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet/Planet Pirates series, like the boulder-like Thek, difficult Avian Ryxi, and various others.

Not to leave out practically every single alien in James White's Sector General series about the galactic hospital!

I find the mental difference of Vulcan's fascinating.

Also, the Kzinti in Larry Niven's Known Space series.

And, on television, from "Doctor Who"--The Draconians and the Cyberman.

Zaphod Beeblebrox, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, just because it's such great fun to try and picture a universe that would produce such a being.

Wookiees. Hands down. And whatever the hell Yoda is.

Thennanin, the whole Tandu clan (bonus points for the Espicarch) and the dolphins from Brin's Uplift series, Cherryh's Kif.

Honourable mention for Moties, Fuzzies, Azimov's early robots, Julian May's dune roller, and sand worms/trout.

The Kzin, the Fuzzies, and the Thranx, definitely!
Also, the Cheela (Dragon's Egg / Starquake, the Chanur (C.J. Cherryh), the Sholans (Lisanne Norman), the Dracs (The Enemy Papers), and the Dhrin (Species Imperative series by Julie E. Czerneda).

"love to hate" the AAan, and the Hsktskt (S.L. Viehl).

Not truly 'aliens', but for the purposes of this discussion they fit, the Neanderthals in Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax.

I was thinking about the aliens in S.L. Viehl's Stardoc novels too, especially Hsktskt and Quilp.

Must be the Captain Kirk in me. I've got a thing for scantily clad blue-skinned Twi'leks. ;)

It's got to be the Thranx from Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth series.

Since we're including screened productions, I will also say the Leviathans and Pilots from FarScape.

Would Anne McCaffrey's Pernese dragons count as aliens?

Forgot the Tines from A Fire Upon The Deep

The aliens from 'A Deepness in the Sky' as well...

Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is one of my favorites.

Vulcan's hands down guys :) Although Wookies are pretty freaking cool to. Rygel from farscape. He always makes me giggle. :)

Carolyn wrote: "The Kzin, the Fuzzies, and the Thranx, definitely!
Also, the Cheela (Dragon's Egg / Starquake, the Chanur (C.J. Cherryh), the Sholans (Lisanne Norman),..."

I'd also have to say the Cheela from Dragon's Egg/Starquake. :)

How about the swamp planet mattresses from the Hitchhiker series? Ok, so they're not exactly as dynamic as vulcans, but...

The utods from The Dark Light Years by Brian W. Aldiss

The Thranx are certainly up there with my favs. I'd also include the Atavi, the Dragons of Pern, the Chanur, Ender's aliens )?name), James Hogan's Giants, Czerneda's Dhryn, et al. Those from series.

Stand alone books are another story and there are many.

I liked the Utians from Brian Herbert's Sudanna Sudanna.

Cetagandians (i don't know if it's exactly that word because i read in Spanish) from (Vorkosigan series)

A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson is a Star Trek book, but Robinson (the actor who played him) makes Elim Garak so very alien that it's breathtaking.

Velentians from Galatic Patrol , and most of E.E. Smith's other aliens.

Tines from A Fire upon the Deep. Good book all around.

The Mother Beast from Heinlein's Have Spacesuit Will Travel.

The Old Ones from Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

Tales of Sector General . The aliens from that book. Perhaps the best (only?) books on space medicine ever written.

Hmm...most haven't impressed me enough to even stick in my mind (I could give a much more comprehensive list of ones I adamantly dislike...without even reaching into the Star Treck or Star Wars bag of slush). Someone once said that the problem with aliens in SF is that you can always see the human behind the mask...or something very like that.

So of the ones I remember, I'd have to go with the vug from The Game-Players of Titan by Philip K. Dick. They practice hegemony rather than occupation and even though they have political power of the human characters, Dick allows the humans to treat them with disrespect: one of the characters uses a "vug stick" to shoo unwanted aliens out of his home. Funny!

John Scalzi also had did a nice job with the Yherjak (Agent to the Stars) who needed a Hollywood agent to do PR for them before they could reveal themselves to Earth. Nice one.

...And the infamous Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal...Oh, and the "trophy" from Dimension of Miracles.

I'm going to go for the weirdest ones.

From Sword and Citadel, the Alzabo. A bear-like, huge quadruped with cunning intelligence. Devours victims like an anglerfish - once devoured, it is capable of reproducing the voice, and consciousness, of its victims - in order to lure relatives to their deaths as well.

From Embassytown, the Ariekei, who can only communicate with humans when the humans are in pairs. It takes one consciousness, two voices, to gain recognition by these aliens as a sentient being.

I'm a fan of all the Mass Effect aliens, particularly the asari because of their long lives.

F.J. wrote: "Would Anne McCaffrey's Pernese dragons count as aliens? "

From books, if we're counting the dragons, I'd have to say they're up there.

It has to be the Utods from The Dark Light Years

Stuart wrote: "It has to be the Utods from The Dark Light Years"

Oh, yeah! Liked them!

Jack Campbell has some interesting ones in his Lost Fleet series, but I'm not going to spoil the series for you. 0:)

The Owlies in Rick Cook's Limbo System

Andre Norton's Dread Companion (I think the book is only available in an omnibus now.)

Poul Anderson's "Sargasso of Lost Starships" has some truly creepy aliens. (In The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume 5: Door to Anywhere

And, of course, Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson's Hokas

I don't really mind anything as long as it fits the story and you arn't trying to pull the wool over my eyes.

I have a soft spot for the ones who live south of the border, some of who have a penchant for attempting to cross said border illegally.

Kzin fan here too- my favorite alien character is probably Trainer-of-Slaves from from Man-Kzin Wars 4 & Man-Kzin Wars 6.

The plucky Mesklinites of Hal Clement's Mission Of Gravity are a close second.

Iain M. Banks's THE ALGEBRAIST had one of the most difficult to understand races, the Dwellers.

The hani from CJ's Chanur Series - Chanur was the family name. Also the other species from that universe were pretty exotic and had interesting personality quirks.

I love CJ's Foreigner series, but the atevi are not really unique enough for this list. Lots of Japanese characteristics there.

Oh and Stardoc is the first in a series where a human doctor treats all sorts of species. The later installments go in a different direction, but they are all pretty good.

the president, cause he's from Kenya

Don wrote: "the president, cause he's from Kenya"

Could we skip the cheap politics and birther craziness and keep to discussing books?

Kgwhitehurst wrote: "Iain M. Banks's THE ALGEBRAIST had one of the most difficult to understand races, the Dwellers."

Hmm...I actually didn't find them all that difficult to understand. To me they just seemed like humans in a different body and with a different cultural set of values.

Warhammer 40000 Tyranids :)

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Ty...

I'm a sucker for the original xenopmorphs from Alien.

My favourite are the phagors from Brian Aldiss' outstanding 'Helliconia Trilogy.'

The Salariki of Andre Norton.

The Rilz of Bruce Davis (That Which is Human).

We never actually see them, but the main character gets inside the head of one, so we see their psychology through that individual. I liked the aliens because they were truly 'alien' rather than a jazzed up human in a different body.