If all the extraterrestrials in an sf work have recognizable bodies with limbs, sensory organs and a mouth for both eating and speaking and if, also, their dialogue is indistinguishable from that of human beings, then these are not plausible aliens. Minds should differ as well as bodies.
(i) Squat, blue-furred, snouted, six-fingered. (CHAPTER THREE, p. 240)
(ii) Half a dozen different races, warriors. (CHAPTER FOUR, p. 247)
(iii) Broad, four-armed, tailed, large-headed, whiskered, fanged, split-pupiled, yellow-eyed, naked, blue-gray-furred, introduces himself politely. (pp. 250-253)
(iv), (v) A long-beaked being and a centauroid. (p. 253)
(vi) The last Vro-Hian: four feet high with a massive head-body unit, many seven-fingered hands, large golden eyes, stumpy legs and hooked beak not used for speech because he is a telepath.
(vii) The Anvardian Imperial pretender: a recognizable face and green hair. (CHAPTER FIVE, p. 267)
(viii) A hundred million years in the future: gray fur and yellow eyes. (CHAPTER SIX, p. 283)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't entirely agree with this insistence of yours on non-human intelligent races being TOTALLY unlike to or incomprehensible to mankind. I can imagine evolution on many worlds favoring four limbed species gradually freeing up the forelimbs from being used for locomotion and being used for grasping and manipulating things. And encasing the brain in some of protective "box" near many of the senses (sight, hearing, odor, taste/eating) also makes sense in evolutionary terms.
So while I would expect many intelligent races to be as different as you would like, I would not be surprised if other species followed parallel lines of evolution analogous to what happened on Earth.
Ad astra! Sean
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