Today’s topic comes from QSFer Theo Fenraven: “How does one go about inventing a believable alien race? Where do you start? What resources do you tap?”
For our purposes, it seems to me that there are two competing parts to this discussion.
On the sci fi romance side, it’s necessary to have an alien race that isn’t TOO different, so they can still interact with, and fall in love with, humans. On the more strictly sci-fi side, the idea that an alien race evolving from a separate ecosystem on a planet hundreds or thousands of light years away would end up being anything like us seems vey unlikely.
So let’s break this into two pieces. If you’re creating an alien race for romance sci fi, how do you make them alien enough but not TOO alien?
And if your story is more on the sci fi side, how do you create truly DIFFERENT aliens?
For both, ask Theo asked, where do you start, and what resources do you use?
And what are your favorite aliens out there in sci fi. books, film or otherwise, and why?
Lots to talk about.