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nellasbookplanet · 11 months ago

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Book recs: alien intelligences

Intelligent spiders, octupi, plants, bacteria, and even entire oceans, intelligence without sentience, extra terrestrials and strange intelligences evolved right here on Earth - alien minds can take many forms. Allow me to share with you some books featuring the most alien and fascinating ones.

Previous book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, many worlds: portal fantasies, many worlds: alternate timelines, robots and artificial intelligences, post- and transhumanism

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of an empire, a planet once part of a project to uplift other species to sentience is left to develop on its own, resulting not in the intelligent monkeys once intended but in sentient giant spiders. Millenia later, what remains of humanity arrives looking for a new home, only to be met by the artificial remains of the ancient woman who once led the uplift project - and she is not willing to let them on her planet.

Semiosis (Semiosis duology) by Sue Burke

A generational story following a group of humans trying to survive on a new planet, where a strange and unkowable intelligence is finding ways to use them to its whims. As the humans come across an abandoned city wrapped in the roots of a strange plant, they slowly come to the realization that mutual communication is the only path to peace and survival.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

While I felt the characters could’ve been better developed, this is undeniably a well-written novel featuring an alien race and culture developed on a planet vastly different from ours. Firmly in the realm of hard scifi, this is a realistic, fascinating and slightly terrifying look at how first contact may look.

Brain Plague (The Elysium Cycle) by Joan Sloncewski*

Chrys, a struggling artist, agrees to become a carrier for a sentient strain of microbes. With their help, Chrys breathes new life into her career. But every microbe society is different - some function as friends and brain enhancers to their carrier, while others become a literal brain plague, a living addiction taking over the life of their carrier. And like every society, the microbe community is in constant flux - inluding the one inside Chrys's head.

Rosewater (The Wormwood trilogy) by Tade Thompson

In Nigeria lies Rosewater, a city bordering on a strange, alien biodome. Its motives are unknown, but it’s having an undeniable effect on the surrounding life. Kaaro, former criminal and current psychic agent for the government, is one of the people changed by it. When other psychics like him begin getting killed, Kaaro must take it upon himself to find out the truth about the biodome and its intentions.

Dawn (Xenogenesis trilogy) by Octavia E. Butler*

After a devestating war leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, survivor Lilith finds herself waking up naked and alone in a strange room. She’s been rescued by the Oankali, who have arrived just in time to save the human race. But there’s a price to survival, and it might be humanity itself. Absolutely fucked up I love it I once had to drop the book mid read to stare at the ceiling and exclaim in horror at what was going on.

Blindsight by Peter Watts*

Vampires and aliens and questions of the nature of consciousnesses, oh my. A ship is sent to investigate the sudden appearance of an alien vessel at the edge of the solar system, but the crew, a group of various level of transhumanism, isn’t prepared for the horrors awaiting them. No, seriously, this book will fuck you up, highly recommend if you’re okay with a lot of techno babble and existential horror.

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson*

Utterly unique in world-building, story, and prose, Midnight Robber follows young Tan-Tan and her father, inhabitants of the Carribean-colonized planet of Toussaint. When her father commits a terrible crime, he’s exiled to a parallel version of the same planet, home to strange aliens and other human exiles. Tan-Tan, not wanting to lose her father, follows with him. Trapped on this new planet, he becomes her worst nightmare. Enter this book with caution, as it contains graphic child sexual abuse.

Fragment (Fragment duology) by Warren Fahy*

The reality TV show Sealife is having a rough time - as it turns out, a ship full of scientist doesn’t make for the kind of drama they hoped for. Hoping for some excitement, they reach Hender's Island, a fragment of a lost continent that may contain an interesting new ecosystem. But as they step foot on the island, they quickly come to realize the ecosystem isn’t just new, it’s highly dangerous and very hungry. Among all this life is one single species that may be more dangerous than any other, but which may also be the salvation of the scientists on the island. A bit wonky, but genuinely one of the most fun books I have read, I love it so much.

Axiom's End (Noumena trilogy) by Lindsay Ellis

It’s 2007, and a leak has just confirmed that the US has reached alien contact. Cora wants nothing to do with it, but as her absent father is the whistleblower who dropped the news the media won’t leave her alone. Even worse, she soon finds herself meeting and being pursued by the alien presence itself as it tries to remain in hiding - and discovering that there is a much larger threat on the horizon.

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis*

Francie has just traveled to Roswell to attend her college friend's wedding to a UFO conspirasist. Not a believer herself, Francie is shocked when she finds herself abducted by an alien. Her abductor is not much what popular media would have you believe, looking more like a tumbleweed than a grey alien, and is clearly on some kind of mission it isn’t willing to put on hold for the sake of Francie attending to her duties as a bridesmaid. As more people get roped along - among those a conman, an old lady, a ufo conspirasist, and a retiree with an RV - Francie finds herself getting closer to the alien and wanting to help it succeed.

Bonus rec: if you like this book, you may also enjoy the movie Paul, which has a similarly humorous tone and similar plot.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir*

Ryland Grace just woke up up from a coma, unable to remember anything. He finds himself alone on a space ship, and as his memories slowly trickle back, he realizes he's been sent on a mission: to find a solution to the impending doom of the earth. Still struggling with holes in his memories, Ryland tries to fulfill his mission, but as he gets closer to his goal, he discovers someone else got there first. And they aren't anything close to human. Funny, heartfelt, and heavy on the science.

Survival by Julie E. Czerneda

Mac, a biologist studying salmon on Earth, has little interest in life beyond her own planet. Despite this, she’s sought out by Brymn, an alien archaeologist hoping her expertise as a biologist can help him solve the secret behind the Chasm, a region of space completely devoid of life. Trying as she might not to get incolved, Mac has little choice as she and her colleagues come under attack by the mysterious Ro, the species Brymn's people suspect to be the cause of the Chasm.

Translation State by Ann Leckie*

An exploration of the alien as filtered through the human. At what point does the human become something else? When does something else become human? Is it a question of biology or culture, nature or nurture? Can we choose it? Can it be forced upon us? Set in the Imperial Radch universe, Translation State follows three different characters embroiled in the question of what makes a human. The alien Presger can only communicate with humans using their translators - people they’ve created that are not quite human and not quite alien. But as news of a translator fugitive arises, conflict brews regarding what right they have to choose their own identity and home.

Exo (Exo duology) by Fonda Lee*

Young adult. Earth has long since been under the control of an alien presence. Donovan Reyes is an exo, a human enhanced with alien technology, working to keep the colony and its people safe. The biggest enemy is Sapience, a terrorist organisation opposing alien rule by any means necessary. When a mission goes awry, Donovan finds himself abducted by Sapiance, something that risks a war. While it took until the second book for me to be fully sold on this series, it features a genuinely nuanced take on oppression and resistance rarely seen in YA genre.

Needle by Hal Clement

1950s classic. A small island in the pacific ocean and a fourteen-year-old boy have just become the center of an interstellar chase between an alien Hunter and the criminal he's pursuing. Robert is a regular boy, but he has a very special passenger: an alien symbiont hiding inside his body. The alien became stranded on Earth as he pursued a criminal of his own species, and now they are both trapped on the same island, playing a game of cat and mouse as Robert and the Hunter struggle to find their prey before it finds them.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper just got a job on the motley crew of the Wayfarer, a spaceship that works with tunneling new wormholes through space. With a past she wants to leave behind, Rosemary is happy to travel the far reaches of the universe with the chaotic crew, but when they land the job of a life time, things suddenly get a lot more dangerous. A bit of a tumblr classic in its day, this is a cozy space opera with an episodic feel and vividly realized characters and cultures.

Under the Skin by Michel Faber

A dark allegory of alienation and dehumanization, Under the Skin follows Isserley, a woman traveling along the roads of England and picking up hitchhikers. Little does her passengers know, she’s an alien hiding her true self, and they are her prey and a delicacy for her species.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

1960s Polish classic. Arriving on a station orbiting the planet Solaris, Kris Kelvin is meant to study the strange, possibly sentient ocean that covers its entire surface. But the effects of the ocean are far reaching - Kelvin finds the crew of the station secretive and unstable, and is shocked to wake one day to the embodiement of a long dead lover. Was it created by the brain-like ocean, and if so, why?

West of Eden (West of Eden trilogy) by Harry Harrison

65 million years ago, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs never arrived. Without it, the dinosaurs lived and thrived, allowing a the complex society of the matriarchal Yilanè to arise. Meanwhile, in the new world, humans still evolve, and when an impending ice age forces the Yilanè across the ocean in search for a new home, the two are destined to clash. A bleak story of the cycle of violence and hate leading to war, West of Eden is a marvel of world-building.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

Triptych by J.M. Frey

Kalp is a widower and alien refugee newly arrived on Earth; Gwen is a language expert secretly recruited by the United Nations to help integrate a ship of alien refugees; Basil is an engineer who loves them both. Together they must defend their relationship against a violently intolerant world.

The Sparrow (The Sparrow duology) by Mary Doria Russell

When proof of alien life is found, the United Nations are too slow in their plans for a first contact mission. Instead, the Society of Jesus overtake them and send their own ship, but the crew could never have been prepared for what they will find.

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Something massive and alien crashes into the ocean off the coast of Nigeria. Three people, a marine biologist, a rapper, and a soldier, find themselves encountering this presence, and have to race to save humanity before it's too late.

Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: Salvaged by Madeleine Roux, Exodus by Nicky Drayden, The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull, Embassytown by China Miéville

#nella talks books #the doors of eden #children of time #semiosis #the three-body problem #brain plague #rosewater #xenogenesis #blindsight #midnight robber #fragment #axioms end #the road to roswell #project hail mary #species imperative #translation state #exo #needle #the long way to a small angry planet #under the skin #solaris #west of eden #there are more alien centric books that I love #but this list is pretty focused on books where the truly alien unkowable and inhuman is central #so anything featuring human looking or acting aliens got disqualified #same as books where the aliens themselves weren’t very central #also i need you all to know that i have had official art of the 'alien' from Fragment as my screensaver for a decade #that book is so silly goofy dialogue and absolute gory slaughter i love it so much #i still have one of these rec posts in my drafts but! will soon post a new poll in preparation for more

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imaginidol · 1 year ago

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Kyungsoo: Picture Perfect

Kyungsoo walked into the studio room where you’d been waiting for a recording session.

You were at this point collaborating on a song with the EXO star, being a singer yourself, and today the schedule called for a filmed dance practice.

“Hey,” he smiles, nodding in your direction.

“Hi, Soo,” you wave back, smiling.

He sets his backpack down on the floor against a wall, pulling out the tripod stand where the camera would be set. He sat criss-cross on the floor, carefully setting up the camera and attaching its lens.

“Are you sure you don’t need help?” You look over his shoulder as he finished the last of the set up.

“C’mon, you know me,” he teases, making sure the camera was on and set to record at any given moment. “Do me a favor and go stand over there, let me test out the quality focus.”

You obey and skip to the center of the room, plopping your feet on the floor and rehearsing a few moves of the choreography.

“How’s this?” You say, outstretching your arms and pulling a quick cartwheel across the room.

He laughs. “It’d be fun if that was part of our choreo,” he says, jogging towards the center of the room when he finished and pulling a cartwheel of his own after you.

“Okay,” you say, excitedly garnering your first position at the center. “I’m ready when you are, my lover!”

Kyungsoo coughs and lets out a loud laugh.

“What did you just say!?”

“You’re my lover now, apparently! Haven’t you been sneaking all over social media!?”

He blushes slightly, and you knew the answer to your question.

“I guess it’s gotten pretty public, huh?” He says, rubbing a nervous hand behind his neck. He hoped his face wouldn’t redden so obviously.

“Yeah, but I find it pretty cute that our collab suddenly went from being a fun song showcasing our vocals together to being… an all-out relationship speculation fest! Those shippers are wild and so quick to spread things.”

“Trust me, the boys won’t let me live it down,” he mutters, thinking back to Baekhyun’s non-stop teasing about you being Kyungsoo’s alleged new romantic partner behind closed doors.

“And it doesn’t help that the pictures they caught of us grabbing coffee together twice seem pretty convincing,” you say, finishing the last of your leg and arm stretches.

Kyungsoo laughs nervously, trying to focus on his own stretching before the rehearsal.

If only it didn’t sound like you were taking it as a fun little joke, he thought quietly to himself.

“Ready?” You say happily, standing in front of him with your back facing his chest.

First position, right, he nervously wraps his arms around you, as the choreography called.

The first practice round goes rather interestingly, with a few awkward poses here and there in between transitional moves. When you finish, you both gather around the camera to watch the recording.

“Uh,” you say, looking closer at the camera.

Shoot, Kyungsoo thinks, knowing what’s probably already going through your mind.

“This was okay… but some of the moves are a little…”

“…awkward,” he finishes your thought, noting how far and distant he was from you at certain points throughout the choreography.

You look up and smile at him. “It looks like you’re trying too hard to debunk these rumors about us being a thing.”

“I mean, it’s best if we don’t—”

“Nonsense,” you say, placing the camera back on the tripod and pressing the record button.

“Come here,” you say, outstretching your arms and placing his hands into yours. “Have fun with this choreography, Soo! The whole song is about being in a fierce relationship with another person.”

He follows you back to the center of the room and you stand in first position again. When he wraps his arms around you, you tug at his arms to get closer to make him get closer.

“Don’t be shy with it, Soo. This is art, after all. We have to convince our audience of the performance’s message!”

The shy boy smiles and allows his hands to relax against your waist.

The second practice goes much smoother than the first. There are only less than a handful of awkward steps here and there, but it’s a greater improvement than the prior.

“See, Soo? This looks much more… intimate!” You smile down at the camera whilst replaying the second practice round.

He nods and shifts his gaze from the camera towards you.

He can’t help but wonder if he’s struggling to separate the intimacy of the dance, with some sort of a personal connection to you…

“One more time?” You look up, smiling.

“Let’s do it,” he says, this time reaching out to place your hands into his.

This is what had slowly pulled the boy closer to you. The way you loved your job, the way you gave your strongest efforts into any project, song, and choreography arrangement. It was the way your enthusiasm could fill a room when you submitted yourself to outpouring the best vibe into a project. Not only that, but the way you could make just about anyone comfortable around you.

Especially Kyungsoo.

He felt very comfortable around you in and out of practice, always looked forward to your small coffee dates (though you couldn’t really call them romantic dates, but more of friendly ones), and always looked forward to performing the new song you both had worked on.

Outside of being co-stars, you’d also grown much closer than you’d anticipated, and he couldn’t help but sometimes wonder if you’d grown any sort of romantic interest in him as he had towards you.

He wrapped his arms around your waist at first position, this time pulling you slightly closer than the last.

“Oh, wow, Mr. Loverboy,” you look up, sticking your tongue out at him.

“The message of the song is pretty intimate, so I won’t hold back this time,” he smiles down to you, feeling a surge of bold assurance overtaking him.

For this practice round, Kyungsoo lived up to his word. The choreography felt a lot more intimate than any of the previous practices you’d had to date.

He spun you firmer, swayed his hips against yours smoother, and towards the bridge of the song, his mouth actually made the slightest bit of contact against your neck.

You loved it all.

You loved having a fierce partner who could really pull off a gorgeous, convincing performance. A performer with passionate vocals like his, and now a fierce and shameless dancer to play alongside of you.

Many things about the boy dancing alongside of you fascinated your interests, from the way you grew close as co-stars to the way you grew even closer as friends.

Could he possibly be.. the person I’d always dreamed of being with…?

He most definitely has met all my personal qualities in a strong friend and more.

…

I wonder.

The final move of your choreography arrangement consisted of both you and Kyungsoo hitting a harmonizing high note as you fall back into his arms, landing inches away from his face.

Needless to say, this was played out flawlessly.

The song ends, both you and Kyungsoo are leveled eye-to-eye, your smiles only centimeters away from each other.

Then, he does the unthinkable.

He smiles.

And it is the kind of smile that catches you so off-guard, you can’t help but feel your face flush with reddening heat as you giggle your way out of his embrace.

“Soo, gosh, I think that was our best performance yet!”

You still can’t stop smiling and gushing over the boy’s perky smile replaying over and over in your head. As you make your way to the camera to rewatch the video, your smile immediately fades almost instantly.

“What’s wrong?” The boy asks, jogging up behind you.

“You’re not gonna believe this… it wasn’t recording.”

“What!?” The boy’s eyes widen tremendously at the thought of the best performance having gone to waste.

“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t—”

“That’s okay,” he assures, smiling down at you. He takes the camera from your hands and presses the record button firmly, making sure the camera was rolling surely this time. “Who says we can’t do it beautifully again?”

You smile as he holds his hands out for you to take, and you accept. He leads you back to the center of the room and you assume first position as you knew before.

It may sound impossible, but this practice round was miraculously funner and more synced than the last. It felt as if you both had finally found your own personal click with the song in and out, and were finally getting to truly showcase it for what it was meant to be.

The last few moments of the song came in several unexpected surprises. Kyungsoo had once again delivered his end of the final choreography beautifully, and when you met face-to-face again for the dance finale, you impulsively did the unthinkable.

You kissed him.

He didn’t pull back, didn’t make a fuss.

Instead, he gently wrapped his arms around you and kissed you back.

What am I doing!? You think, wanting to pull away from his soft lips but not daring to.

The initial shock hit Kyungsoo for a second, but he didn’t jerk back. He felt as if his manifested thoughts had miraculously turned into reality.

So long I’d been wanting to do this, he thought, but I never guessed what you felt in return.

I’m happy.

Eventually, you pull away first.

“I—I’m sorry—” you stutter, not knowing how to react at the sudden impulse of actions.

The fond boy smiles softly.

“Don’t be,” he whispers.

“But—”

“You did what I’ve been wanting to give you for a while, but could never find a way to,” he admits shyly, cheeks completely flushed.

Oh, you think, not knowing what else to say.

Did I just kiss Do Kyungsoo?

And…

Did Do Kyungsoo just admit that he likes me!?

You turn towards the recording camera and gasp, hopping over to turn it off.

“I guess we can’t post that,” you say flatly. He laughs, taking the camera away from you and studying the video.

“Crop the end, that’s all. At least we waited more than a couple seconds,” he teases.

You reach for your water bottle, still processing the last five minutes of your life.

“Uhm, Soo?” You dare yourself to make eye contact, searching for any signs of possible concern or regret coming from his end.

Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem scared at all.

In fact, he seems a lot more relaxed that he had been all evening.

“Yes?” He smiles at you fondly.

“Uhm… nevermind,” you mumble, turning your attention back to your water bottle.

“Hmm,” he ponders, walking up to you after putting the camera stuff away. “I’m not gonna pretend like nothing happened, but we can keep it a secret.”

“What if I cost us a scandal?”

The boy looks up to the ceiling, then back down to you.

“I think you’ve forgotten we’re supposedly already in a scandalous secret relationship,” he smirks.

You giggle at the realization that you, in fact, are.

“I have a proposition,” he says, holding his hand out towards you. “How about another scandalous coffee date, but this time, you’re my secret lover for real?”

You smile warmly as you place your hand in his, letting him lead you out of the practice room and out to a very familiar and delicious coffee shop near by.

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