SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Recently, I've been trying to get back into sci-fi and fantasy after having read very little these past couple of years. I've had some success and am enjoying the genre again but there is a type of book I've had trouble finding.

When it comes to sci-fi I prefer books that focus on creating well-developed, complex, and realistic alien species and worlds. Spaceships and futuristic technology is nice and all, but not really what interests me in sci-fi. My problem is it seems typical of sci-fi to create alien species that are monocultural, monolingual, with one big government. Often all members of an alien species are portrayed as pretty much the same. The aliens sort of just become exotic window dressing rather than deep characters with motivations of their own.

Can anyone perhaps offer some recommendations for books that avoid these trends (preferably something a bit more recent, but that isn't too important)?

I'm not sure I've ever read a book like you're asking for!

I think you generally see aliens in SF coming in only 3 flavors: monsters (the xenomorph from Aliens for example), mysterious agents (the aliens in 2001: A Space Odyssey or the Martians in War of the Worlds, or the Heechee from Frederik Pohl's Gateway books), and as humans in a different shaped body. Often that latter categorization includes humanoids who are only slightly different from modern humans (Iain M. Banks's Culture novels have a lot of these, as well as a few aliens in very different bodies, but who in their actions seem very human.

So, though I don't shy away from works with aliens, I tend never to really see them as aliens. There are severe difficulties in portraying them as actually alien. Stanislaw Lem did pretty well in his old book Eden (though they still fall into the mysterious agent category because you never really know what the heck they're all about).

Well...perhaps Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained fit the bill, now that I think about it. They do have an alien monoculture, but how it got to be that is actually part of the story. There are some other good aliens in there as well, like the Raiel, for example seemed pretty good. Sufficiently alien with their own motivations.

Complex books, though, heavily into action and there's a good deal of war in them...not everyone's cuppa, but I liked them a lot.

The only books that come to mind is the brainship series by Anne McCaffrey.

The books are mostly more related to tech than to aliens but the series is set quite far in the future. There's at least one book that is mostly set on an alien planet. The aliens are not human like at all. I just can't remember the name of the book...

I'd suggest The Left Hand of Darkness, though the 'aliens' in this case are a different type of human. The book is mostly told from the point of view of an off-world diplomat, who visits two different societies in his travels.

There tends to be a greater variety of aliens in books like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Space Captain Smith, Bill, the Galactic Hero and their ilk, but I assume you're not looking for books that play it for laughs!

Steph wrote: "There tends to be a greater variety of aliens in books like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Space Captain Smith, Bill, the Galactic Hero and their ilk, but I assume you're not looking for books that play it for laughs..."

I thought the same thing. HHGTTG has a lot of really creative alien ideas in it, though none of them are dwelt on for longer than their comic effect warrants.

Jennifer, for interesting aliens, you might check out these series that begin with
Valor's Choice
Stardoc
Code of Conduct
Legion of the Damned

I would suggest David Brin's Uplift series- it starts with Sundiver, although I think that Startide Rising is a better starting point for the series. There are definitely quite a few 'individual' aliens in it, who often differ quite markedly from their civilization. And it's a great series :-)

Foreigner, or Freedom's Landing, perhaps.

Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature is fun to page through, and also points you to a number of interesting fictional aliens (and, of course, the works they come from).

I think the OP is saying that aliens should *not* be monocultural.

I'm interested in the same kind of books. I've found some; let me see if I can remember them or find the old list I had.

Meanwhile, thanks for the tip about the Barlowe's - that looks interesting!

Speaker for the Dead springs to mind immediately. There's quite a bit of tech in it but it is really mainly focussed on the alien life on this planet.

Sequel to Ender's Game, but basically unrelated.

That's an interesting question. I can't think of too many books that fit the criteria.

Poul Anderson wrote in several SF subgenres, including encounters/clashes between hi-tech and non-tech cultures. I've not read many of them, but I think The Merman's Children is onee uch, as is The Earth Book of Stormgateseries.

This discussion on librarything.com might be of help: http://www.librarything.com/topic/90231

I'll second the recommendation of Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh. She has a lot of sci-fi with lots of really interesting aliens, often with internal divisions and strife. Her work is probably the closest to what you're looking for.

I second David brin's star tide rising. But the second on the first trilogy uplift war is the best in bothe the first and second trilogies in that universe. Sun diver is sort of a prequel.

Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature is indeed an excellent reference, if your library has a copy. Sure, seeing the aliens on the page means your imagination won't get exercised when you do read the book, but it does give you lots of ideas of what to read next to catch up on some of the classics! I'm glad my library system had a copy.