Aliens
Speculative fiction has always involved a meditation upon the limits of sentient beings, and the potential for unknown life throughout the universe. This section on "Aliens" showcases works of science fiction about the worlds and creatures beyond planet Earth can be categorized in terms of Invasion or Conquest. Did humans travel to other planets, or did aliens travel to Earth?
Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) stands as a classic of alien visitation to Earth, a device that offers the writer, like time travel, a new perspective on what humans have been trained by their society to consider normal and inevitable. Samuel Delany's Babel-17 (1966) takes seriously the infinite possibilities of linguistic communication in life-forms beyond Earth, creating a prose narrative as symbolically rich and linguistically complex as the characters communicating across the universe.
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- Creator
- Date
- Subject
- Description
- Publisher
- Rights
- Language
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Stranger in a Strange Land
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Robert A. Heinlein
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1961
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Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
Emotions and cognition > Fiction.
Psychic ability > Fiction.
Martians > Fiction.
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The story of Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet super-human in abilities and ignorant of sex as we know it. He shocks the mores of Western culture by attempting to set up a strange and fascinating discipline on Earth: the first step is learning to Grok...
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Berkley Pub. Corp.
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English
Item sets
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The Game-Players of Titan
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Philip K. Dick
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1963
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Survival > Fiction.
Gambling > Fiction.
Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
Psychological games > Fiction.
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The creatures from Saturn's moon could appear human or inhuman, at will. And the elaborate contest they set up with the remnants of Earth's humanity was just as treacherous. For though the war had been fought to a stalemate, the unending series of gambles could upset that truce-and end the world.
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Ace Books
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English
Item sets
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The Man Who Fell to Earth
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Walter Tevis
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1963
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Extraterrestrial beings > Fiction.
Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
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T.J. Newton is an extraterrestrial who goes to Earth on a desperate mission of mercy. But instead of aid, Newton discovers loneliness and despair that ultimately ends in tragedy.
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Lancer Books
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English
Item sets
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The Reassembled Man
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Herbert D. Kastle
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1964
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Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
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The Druggish were much better at their job than all the king's horses had been with Humpty Dumpty. First, the Druggish simply disassembled Edward Berner--tissue by tissue, nerve by nerve. In tanks they stored the million remnants and shreds that had been Berner, and they changed his brain into a fantastic recording device. Then they simply put him back together. Sinew by sinew, cell by cell. But it was not the same Edi Berner. The new Ed Berner was stronger, healthier--stronger and healthier than any other man. And with a sexual appetite and a promised life-span greater than anyone on earth. He was very nearly invincible. Very nearly. Unfortunately, there was a deadly flaw. The Druggish had forgotten to make the new Ed Berner a wiser one.
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Fawcett
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English
Item sets
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- Creator
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- Subject
- Description
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- Language
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Babel-17
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Samuel R. Delany
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1966
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Space warfare > Space warfare / Fiction.
Imperialism > Imperialism / Fiction.
Interstellar travel > Interstellar travel / Fiction.
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Humanity, which has spread throughout the universe, is involved in a war with the Invaders, who have been covertly assassinating officials and sabotaging spaceships. The only clues humanity has to go on are strange alien messages that have been intercepted in space. Poet and linguist Rydra Wong is determined to understand the language and stop the alien threat.
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Ace Books
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SciFi Corpus
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English
Item sets
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This Immortal
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Roger Zelazny
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1966
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Dystopias > Fiction.
Imaginary wars and battles > Fiction.
Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
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"...and call me Conrad!" Such was the only comment that Conrad Nimikos would make on his life-history, an enigma that faded out in lost records and obscurity a few decades back. There were those who said he had since had a different name, that of the liberator of Earth, the man who had fought the star-empire of Vega to a standoff. And some even said that he had had other names, stretching back through centuries...But Conrad wouldn't talk about his past. For the future was at stake now-the future of Earth and her peoples, as the Vegans returned on a mission which would decide for all time the place of Earth among the worlds of the stars.
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Ace Books
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English
Item sets
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Our Friends from Frolix 8
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Philip K. Dick
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1970
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Government, Resistance to > Fiction.
Elite (Social sciences) > Fiction.
Social classes > Fiction.
Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
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In the 22nd Century Earth was controlled by a cabal of genetic freaks, superior to "normal" men because of their powers of telepathy and precognition. Mere ordinary men didn't have a chance. Suddenly, however, there was one ray of hope-Thors Provoni was coming back. Provoni had stolen a spaceship, escaped from Earth and gone out to the stars in search of another intelligent race that would help end the slavery of Homo sapiens-he had been given up for lost. He was coming back now with the representative of a powerful alien race that would champion the rights of man. Who was this inhuman savior? And what was the price of this friend from Frolix 8?
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Ace Books
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English
Item sets
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Solaris
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Stanislaw Lem
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1970
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Extraterrestrial beings > Fiction.
Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
Life on other planets > Fiction.
Outer space > Exploration / Fiction.
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When Kris Kelvin was sent to Station Solaris he expected the usual hazards of galactic research-solitude, hardship, even death. What he did not expect was a haunting. For a strange simulacrum of his dead wife Rheya suddenly became his constant companion, the gift of Solaris' ruling intelligence, A SENTIENT OCEAN, whose vast mind and enigmatic personality was to try and trouble those humans who contacted it, sometimes to the point of suicide...
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Berkley
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English
Item sets
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The Twilight Man
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Michael Moorcock
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1970
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Human-alien encounters >Fiction.
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The Raiders came from space on their way to suicide at the edge of the Universe. In passing, they casually halted Earth's rotation-and the few survivors found themselves in a world without days or seasons, half in perpetual daylight, half in eternal night, bordered by the eerie twilight zones. Now, centuries later, extinction faced mankind. One man held the key to survival-if men dared use it!
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Berkley Pub. Corp.
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English
Item sets
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The Gods Themselves
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Isaac Asimov
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1972
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Extraterrestrial beings > Fiction.
Human-alien encounters > Fiction.
Moon > Fiction.
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In the twenty-second century Earth obtains limitless, free energy from a source science little understands: an exchange between Earth and a parallel universe, using a process devised by the aliens. But even free energy has a price. The transference process itself will eventually lead to the destruction of the Earth's Sun--and of Earth itself.
Only a few know the terrifying truth--an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun. They know the truth--but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy--but who will believe? These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth's survival.
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Fawcett Crest
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English
Item sets
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- Creator
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The Suiciders
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J.T. McIntosh
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1973
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Survival > Survival /Fiction.
Human-alien encounters > Human-alien encounters / Fiction.
Imaginary wars and battles > Imaginary wars and battles / Fiction.
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Cottrell and Bixby had what seemed a hopeless mission: defend civilization againt an onslaught by the Tinkers. There seems to be supernatural forces working for the enemy.
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Avon
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English
Item sets
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- Creator
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Eye of Cat
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Roger Zelazny
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1982
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Navajo > Navajo / Fiction.
Extraterrestrial beings > Extraterrestrial beings / Fiction.
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A shapeshifting extraterrestrial stalks a legendary Navajo tracker in a deadly futuristic confrontation.
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Timescape Books
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SciFi Corpus
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English
Item sets
