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Peoples of Other Worlds [Races of Sci-Fi/Fantasy]
An-D
EnthusiastAshevilleRegistered User regular
EnthusiastAshevilleRegistered User regular
Ever since I was little, my favorite part of watching science fiction or fantasy television/movies were looking for all the crazy races that seemed to just come out of nowhere. The idea that all of them came from different worlds, had different philosophies, different technologies, different abilities and yet still all managed to get together to accomplish something amazing.
Or...sometimes, y'know, kill one another. But even then, the battles were incredibly epic.
Between the hundreds of movies I've seen, countless television shows, dozens of comic books and the too many video games I've played, I think I've seen a universe's supply of sentient life.
When it gets down to it, my favorite I think would have to be...well, not to be boring but Humans. For the awful-ness that seems to be going on now in our world, when I see them in Lord of the Rings or Star Trek giving an epic speech and leading the charge, I almost always get choked up a bit. To be such a relatively average race in the universe, yet still able to be the greatest is just inspiring to me. I love it when humanity prevails. One of the big things that I see consistently when humans (especially in Sci-Fi things) is the emphasis on individuality when dealing with other species. Even when everyone is wearing the same uniform, following the same rules and doing the same thing - when it comes right down to it, individuality always turns out to be an awesome strength. I can get behind that.
But, non-Human races...I think would have to be the Saiyans. Thats right. First post, Dragonball Z. So much of my childhood was dedicated to that show and every time some of the mythos of that race was brought up, I was drawn into it. A race of imperialistic warriors that rises up against a demi-god only to get completely annihilated? Sign me up. They live off of fighting, and win or lose, they take that experience and make themselves better. The giant ape and super saiyan thing was also really sweet.
So, you all have seen shows, read books and play video games. Maybe some of you have even created your own race in some kind of story. What are some awesome races out there in existence? What makes them more than just some interesting-looking extra you see at the side of a bar? What say you PA?
An-D on
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Are there any settings where humans are seen as "special" in some way (other than being the best)?
I imagine most of the answers to this will be terribly cynical sci-fi stories in which aliens ask us "What is this "war" you speak of?", but I'm genuinely interested in seeing what authors think our species' defining characteristic would be.
That's kinda special.
I think that ties in a little to what I was saying. I mean you can't really make the humans the "proud warrior race", for example, without people finding it a little odd so we end up being defined by our lack of being a 1-dimensional stereotype.
that's what usually bugs me about most of these aliens in fiction, i mean i've not actually come across any aliens or alien cultures in fiction that came across as truly alien except the reavers from mass effect because they just wipe out all life in the universe every hundred thousand years or so...just because.
There are a lot of cases where alien races do view us as a race of brutish warriors, however. The most recent example of this that I can think of is the Transformers movie.
Course, I don't see what gives a race of robots with weapons built into their very bodies the right to judge us, especially, when their universe spanning war could very well annihilate us as well as them.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
That is rather annoying, I agree. Also the "[climate] planet" phenomenon where every planet is a single mass of desert/ocean/forest/tundra/glaciers or whatnot.
We kind of do that ourselves. For instance, lots of people see Native Americans as a monolithic entity rather than a ton of distinct tribes.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Arch,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_goGR39m2k
Humans are usually placed in a position to be central to the situation... the universe tends to revolve around them, which is a standard device to help readers identify with a character, which I increasingly feel is a bit insulting to the capacity of the literate.
I always liked the aliens from Star Control, Masters of Orion. Very creative visions of how sentient life might evolve on other planets...
I always thought there could be life in forms we can barely imagine, living at a different energy frequency, as gas or plasma, made of crystals, or the stars themselves.
* \m/
U
Book spoilers
Actually, I did read one book like that, called "A Call to Arms", by Alan Dean Foster. The premise is that, of all the races in the galaxy, humans are the only one that have fought wars amongst ourselves. All the other alien species just suck at fighting. So when one race finds us and gives us weapons technology, we're able to completely kick the ass of every other species in the galaxy.
Animorphs did a pretty good job as well.
I only read the series as far as the introduction of those robots, so I have no knowledge of any changes that may have occurred afterward.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Whereas we see the world in a bipolar fashion (hot vs cold, strong vs weak, good vs evil, etc) they saw the world in categories of five.
I thought that was an interesting. It probably wouldn't happen that way, but it was interesting.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Superpowerful alien conquerers? Humanity's plucky attitude wins the day, or the potential for humanity's plucky attitude is worth saving and nurturing.
Universe wide phenomenon destroying the universe? Human ingenuity brings technology from everyone in the universe together and "makes it work" using plucky attitude.
Galactic war with no peace in sight? Humans use plucky attitude to find common ground and form tense but entertaining cease of hostilities.
Ultra-advanced galactic federation deems humans too retarded to go into space? Humanity uses plucky attitude to convince everyone how their plucky attitude is worth all the spacebucks in spaceville. Alternatively, every alien race/culture forsees humans' plucky attitude saving the universe from evil/dark prophecy/tribbles.
And so on. And on. And on.
There have been stories where humanity has been defeated, almost wiped out, imprisoned, locked under a panetary shield, quarantined, enslaved, etc., but at the end, humanity always frees themselves/saves the day/finds the Ultimate Nullifier/discovers technology that saves the universe/etc., all with nothing except their plucky "can-do!" attitude.
Goddamn human bias. We need some scifi written by some freaking aliens, I tells ya.
We can fuck anything.
Anything.
I don't know if it's ever fully explored, but the Yeerks are cast in an increasingly sympathetic light (conversely, this occurs as the andalites are revealed to be less and less perfect than is originally thought) as the story goes on,, which coincides with the story's transition from a "standard" black-and-white morality to a cynically viewed, grey sense of morality.
No. There's a Yeerk resistance and everything.
And while Visser Three is just a straight-up megalomaniacal, mustache-twirling villain, Visser One gets fleshed out a lot and is a pretty complicated character in the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkbf1TYQ6hs
Edit: more seriously, I think the Arbrans from Neil Stephenson's Anathem make up a pretty amazing society. Though I'm not sure they should be counted as non-humans, functionally.
You might like "the gods themselves" by Isaac Asimov. A lot of it is set in an alien race, in an alternate universe, with no mentions of humans.
Alan Dean Foster wrote another great first contact novel called Nor Crystal Tears, written from the aliens perspective, that I remember as being pretty awesome. The protagonist aliens are basically giant, sentient and peaceful preying mantis, and the main character is something of an oddball within his society.
And then there are the fucking Amnion from Steven R Donaldson's Gap Cycle. They are pretty much my favorite example of a species so alien we just don't get them. They are also fairly
Shit, he beat me to it. I don't think those aliens were specifically my favorite but she definitely has a lot of good ones. If I really have to think about it I'd say the hermaphrodites that can change gender would probably have to be my favorite. I'm so jealous.....well not just because of all that crazy gender-bending sex that would go on but because of their community living, religion, and well yeah, because part of their initiation into adulthood is getting sent away to the nearest fuckhouse to get their fuck on. I really see that as my utopian ideal.
Oh yeah, nearly forgot, the thing from The Color From Space by H.P. Lovecraft was pretty awesome. I mean a
Also Pilots and Hynerians are the best.
Anyway, the portrayal of life as a common phenomenon that occurs in any medium capable of supporting information replication leads to some interesting species being developed - generally with reasonably well fleshed out reactions to
Anyway, basically tries to document the rise and fall of a human empire.
Also, blast - someone else already recommended the Color from Space ?
Lovecraft is the best for truly inscrutable aliens.
Small sentient bushes, moving around in little carts manufactured for them by a long gone highly advanced benevolent civilization.
Telepathic weasel-like creatures with a distributed pack intelligence (one individual is made up of 3-5 animals, each contributing uniquely to the personality of the collective individual), where breeding the desired traits in order to replace parts of "yourself" is considered a great art.
Spider-like creatures where the males carry their infants around on their hairy backs, and who hibernates in deep hollows during the long winters where their entire planet freezes solid, while waging WWII-technology war among a wide variety of different factions.
And so on.
Also Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis cycle has one of the more interesting sets of Aliens. Their hermaphroditic ways and different views are really good. I highly recommend the series if you have time, the books are rather thin but great.
Nancy Kress has a few decent ones, most recent one I read was Crossfire. Interesting set of alien races.
Don't want to ruin the books so can't give to much of a description.
In Crossfire though one is much closer related to us physically and one is completely different. Makes for a pretty good story.
:?:
I'm not a fan of most "people" aliens because "depth of alienness" is so often just humanity in a new skin with incomprehensible customs that we know are incomprehensible because the author says they are incomprehensible.
There are exceptions.
I'm in the camp that Aliens (xenomorphs...whatever you want to call them) are sentient - even on a primitive level. Do people agree with that? Or are they just angry ant-animals?
I'll drink to that. Humans have enough trouble not killing eachother over minor differences. It'd be easy to imagine some horrible scary giant spider race descending down upon us and deciding to remove us from existence to benefit the universe.
It makes a lot of sense for such an aggressive, territorial, inventive and frankly, staggeringly violent creature to have either a huge loner ethic, or a massive preconcious tendency to want to stay together and not kill every other member of the species. For the most part this happens.
Sure I mean, crime, but I'm not talking about morals. I'm talking about breeding.
And we automatically band together when conflict happens. We might not make the right choices, but one thing we do is group hug before throwing the missiles.
An intellect without these things probably react towards us pretty damn instrumentally. Are we useful? If no, ignore/remove if in way.
Are we potentially dangerous? Probably wipe out.
Are we farmable? Do so.