Best alien-related fictional story/book?

Kyriakos

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You can suggest short stories, or novels, centered on aliens (extraterrestrials).

Apart from the War of the Worlds, and a number of Lovecraft's works (cause in the early ones the monstrous beings aren't termed as visitors from other stars, or colonists from other worlds), i don't think i am aware of any other *interesting* mythos on this subject, at least originating from an actual written story or longer book. I have heard of some of the concurrent authors durings Lovecraft's lifetime, writing stories with alien beings, but i was not tempted to have a look at their creation..

I'll leave you with the famous "The temptation of St. Cockney":

 
There is 'science' in science fiction. At the time Orson Wells wrote War of the Worlds there was much discussion of the canals of Mars and the alien civilization that built them. That was where science stood, and the fiction made them into invaders. Now, any story based on invaders from Mars would be farcical as robot rovers have wandered the dead landscape and found nothing.

Science fiction has to be based on the available science or be purely fiction such as Star Trek and Star Wars. Any ship which can move about the galaxy at multiple light speed is pulled out of the posterior of the writer and not based in science, its pure fiction.
 
The best alien story I ever read was Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. It explains the potential alienness of an alien species much better than any other book I've read. But then again these won't be your usualy grey aliens with buggy eyes, so you might be disappointed.

It's a really good book, one of my favs, much much better than the Hollywood version - they changed the story quite a bit in that one and made it a romantic thing... That's not what the story was about. Anyway, I read the English translation and it was quite good.

Rendezvous with Rama is another classic I'd recommend, although the sequels get things very wrong, IMO.

There's also an interesting novel by Asimov I believe, where aliens come to visit Earth, but it turns out that the aliens look like.. Satan... all of them. They hide their appearance from us because they are not really evil - but know that we'd think they're evil if we saw what they looked like. Unfortunately I can't remember what the name of this novel is.

There is also the classic Alien by Alan Dean Foster. Very good book.

I have many many more examples sitting on my bookshelf back home, but these are the first couple examples to pop into my head.
 
Thank you all :)

I know of Solaris, and was thinking of watching the original (non english) film. I did try to read a translation of the novel but i can't say i liked the beginning (which obviously is not about the alien planet anyway; i just disliked the descriptions).
 
Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (non-serious answer) - also a TV series, radio series, play & movie.

Chocky, John Wyndham (completely serious answer) - also a TV series.

Callahan novels & short stories, Spider Robinson - sort of serious answer. Great books, they feature aliens, but there being aliens is somewhat incidental most of the time, mostly used for hand-waving plot points or powers, and they're all set on earth.

Dr Who

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

Culture series - Iain Banks

Those are the first few that spring to mind. My bookshelf will have more.
 
Obligatory the mote in gods eye.

I also liked the alien portion of the gods themselves
 
Dr. Who has been delightful. It took about 3 hrs to 'get into' the universe building, but I have zero regrets consuming the entire modern series.

I quite liked the aliens in Pandora's Star, but I'd not call it high literature.
 
^Primarily lack of spikey or spiraling-tentacles or mandible formations :yup:
Robert Silverberg's novel Lord Valentine's Castle (and sequels) has an amazing variety of aliens.

I'd also recommend Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth series (aka Pip & Flinx).
 
The Ender's Game trilogy (quadrology?) has some pretty interesting aliens in it, more specifically sentient forests and piglets, if I'm remembering correctly.

The first book is completely different from the rest, most of the interesting aliens appear in the sequels.
 
There's also an interesting novel by Asimov I believe, where aliens come to visit Earth, but it turns out that the aliens look like.. Satan... all of them. They hide their appearance from us because they are not really evil - but know that we'd think they're evil if we saw what they looked like. Unfortunately I can't remember what the name of this novel is.

Childhood's end by Clarke. The ending is disturbing.
Spoiler :
there are more disturbing ways to picture the end of humanity than alien invasion, natural catastrophy and nuclear war
 
Childhood's end by Clarke. The ending is disturbing.
Spoiler :
there are more disturbing ways to picture the end of humanity than alien invasion, natural catastrophy and nuclear war

I've read that!

Kyriakos, I think you'd really like it. It's actually one of the places we might actually agree on something. :p

(I seriously think you should read it. Some of it feels silly* to me personally, but it's a matter of taste and the narrative is worth it.)

Spoiler * :
the overlords' shape
 
After reading Solaris and watching the Soviet movie several times purposely (which I didn't like before that), I came to a conclusion that what Lem tried to tell in the book he did not managed to tell, he did it weakly, and the movie focused on the other theme (for which Lem criticized it heavily) which is prominent in the book too whether by Lem's intentions or not, and the movie achieved great things in it.

I liked Edem (aliens too, Lem-style) much more than Solaris, it seems to be deeper and touched things which are more important for me personally. However, narrative and language are more cumbersome and worse than in Solaris. And the theme (as well as the plot) might be hard to grasp or to accept for certain people. Lem's getting dull and tough when he's serious, but it is usually worth it.

Strugatsky brothers are often compared to Lem, here in Russia. They have this Roadside Picnic which in some thematic ways is similar to Lem's Solaris (alien-related as well). Many people are fond of it and would call it great probably, there's a movie by the same director and this STALKER game based on the story. I'd say the book is too large for the topic, too unspecific of conclusions and moral. Strugatskies are like that, they tell you a vague story as if there's a specific reason behind it, but it seems to me there's not and that they just play with the reader's fantasy pretending to be deep. Which is cheating and unconvinces me about the fictional world.

If you compare to Lem, he always has specific reason, several layers of it, starting with the obvious and ending with such deep logical and moral details most readers will probably never get into.
 
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