Thursday, 19 May 2016

Avian Aliens

Flying aliens are not necessarily avian-descended aliens or vice versa. After posting about "Bird Folk," I checked out Poul Anderson's Ramri of Monwaing's Katkinu because of a vague idea that he was genuinely non-humanoid. However, Ramri also has familiar body parts, differing only in details:

two legs;
clawed toes;
thin arms, we assume two;
three opposable, four-jointed fingers on each hand;
long thick neck;
large round head;
hooked beak;
throat pouch;
blue feathers;
white tail and crest;
like the Bird Folk, wearing nothing except to carry things.

So how many avian-descended aliens have we got?

Monwaingi;
Chereionites;
blue-feathered, bipedal Arulians in "Outpost of Empire";
Benford's and Niven's Bird Folk;
Tomar Re in the Green Lantern Corps.

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