Saturday, February 19, 2011

Question for Writers: Very Alien Aliens, or No?

Usually in science fiction, if aliens are going to be our enemies, they're very unlike us in appearance, language, and social mores. If they're going to be our friends, they look like us with pointed ears. The same thing happens in fantasy often enough - again with the pointed ears versus bat-like demons and so forth.

Lets say your aliens, or your fae, or what have you, are going to be fairly neutral. They aren't going to blow us up, but they aren't going to kiss us either. So what kind of aliens would you want? How much would they be like us? They'd have to have something in common with us, for instance a desire not to be blown up, but how far would you take that?

Feel free to answer/ramble in the comments. If the question inspires a Flash Friday or something similar, feel free to link to your story in the comments and please link back to here on the applicable webpage.

Ready. Set. GO.

1 comment:

  1. My 'neutral' aliens are based on established environmental, behavioral and evolutionary principles, so they share enough similarities that they can be recognized as living organisms in a logical system, but I try to make the results of those influences to be as divergent from earth systems as I can imagine. Which is really, really hard, but satisfying when done.

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