Stream of consciousness books can be very tricky if you are not already familiar with them and a lot of people give up because they find the prose to be too dense for them. If used properly, this method of writing can draw readers in, in ways that no other style can. But, in the hands of an amateur, the ever changing flux of thoughts can be a jumbled, distorted mess. One of the most famous authors to ever use this technique is of course Virginia Wolf and I highly recommend reading her essays on the topic if you have not yet done so already. "Modern Fiction" is one of her best I think. As for actual books, I would once again suggest giving Woolf a try. Her books, Mrs, Dalloway, To The Lighthouse, and The Waves are all prime examples of this form of writing.
He is still alive, but there is a very good reason why every fan of A Song of Ice and Fire is a bit annoyed with George R. R. Martin at the moment. I mean it is great and all that we got a neat television series, but we would still love to finish the books that most of us began reading in the late nineties. Winds of Winter is so delayed at this point, that it will be a miracle if it eventually does come out. In turn, George is getting annoyed with fans who are watching his every move in an effort to calculate how healthy he is and what the odds are of him shuffling his mortal coil before finishing the books. If the worst comes to pass and he does die, then we are truly up a creek without a paddle because he has stated on multiple occasions that the series will not continue if he dies. A part of me secretly hopes that George is just trolling us and that the books are all done, so that if he dies they are released and he is considered a hero. This is a little unlikely, though, so in an ironic case of life imitating art, the future is very uncertain where these books are concerned.
I also have a weak spot for books with aliens and to me movies or television shows just can't compare in this regard. Whenever I see aliens in movies or television shows they inevitably look human-like because they are basically people in makeup and costumes or fake as well because they are CGI. There are some notable exceptions, such as the xenomorphs from the Alien movies, but for the rest I think books are the best, especially if authors have vivid enough descriptions so you can paint your own mental pictures.
My favorite books about aliens are from the Known Space series by Larry Niven and his novella, Neutron Star, in particular. In the story he describes the most bizarre and improbably race of aliens ever, Pierson's Puppeteers. These aliens only have three fit, two in the front and one in the back and two snake like heads that sprout from their bodies. Each of these two heads only have one eye, but their actual brains are in their bodies and not these heads. Since they don't have any form of hands or arms (they have hooves on their feet), they have to use their mouths instead. To help them with this, their lips are rubbery and have knobs that they use like fingers. Oh, and to top it all off, they communicate with what sounds like orchestral music, but can also speak to humans after contact was made. I could go on and on about these fascinating aliens, but I would suggest reading the books to find out more about them.
People roll their eyes at books about aliens as most of them only have enough imagination to picture bug eyed monsters invading the planet with ray guns. Personally, I think science fiction books about aliens are some of the most imaginative and fascinating stories out there. I'm not going to argue that you do get lazy writers who just use the usual tropes and run with them, but there are also a few that really manage to capture the essence of first contact with a species that is utterly alien to our way of thinking. These are the ones that I think are the absolute best and I will try my best to explain why.
I'll start with my absolute favorite, which is "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. It is a novella that you can find in the second volume of the Starlight series or in "Stories of Your Life and Others." The story recently got a movie adaptation from one of my all time favorite directors, Denis Villeneuve, who called it Arrival. The pace of this story is a lot slower than what people expect from books that involve aliens, but reading about how humans are trying to figure out how to communicate with extraterrestrial beings in order to discern whether their arrival is peaceful or not is riveting stuff. There is also a lot of very deep stuff happening in the tale, which I'm not going to spoil because I don't want to rob anyone of the feeling you get when the penny finally drops.
The next book is one from Ben Bova, which is titled "Jupiter." It is part of his Grand Tour series and it is about a young astrophysicist who has to spend a mandatory four years on a space station near Jupiter as part of his public service. His orders are to spy on the other scientists who are onboard the station as there are rumors about the discovery of life in the liquid ocean in Jupiter's core. This book is a great example of humans encountering aliens in a way that is completely plausible. The focus is more on human drama, but it really is a terrific book.
The Forge of God by Greg Bear is another favorite of mine and unlike the typical alien invasion books where humans fight back valiantly, in this one our planet is just annihilated by an overwhelmingly powerful foe. Some humans are rescued from the destruction by another alien race, which is where things get really interesting. This book was followed by one called "Anvil of Stars" and both of them come highly recommended if you want to read a slightly different take on the usual alien invasion trope.
I'll finish things off with Eater by Gregory Benford. Be warned, this is a hard science fiction novel, but trust me that if you commit to this one you will not be able to stop reading. It explores the question that what if the aliens heading in our direction are not little green men in space ships, but a massive cosmic being in the shape of a black hole. This is terrifying enough, but when this black hole actually starts sending messages to Earth that it would like to converse, things become even freakier. I'm not going to say more, but the title of this book should be a good indication of what is to come.
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(view all)My favorite books about aliens are from the Known Space series by Larry Niven and his novella, Neutron Star, in particular. In the story he describes the most bizarre and improbably race of aliens ever, Pierson's Puppeteers. These aliens only have three fit, two in the front and one in the back and two snake like heads that sprout from their bodies. Each of these two heads only have one eye, but their actual brains are in their bodies and not these heads. Since they don't have any form of hands or arms (they have hooves on their feet), they have to use their mouths instead. To help them with this, their lips are rubbery and have knobs that they use like fingers. Oh, and to top it all off, they communicate with what sounds like orchestral music, but can also speak to humans after contact was made. I could go on and on about these fascinating aliens, but I would suggest reading the books to find out more about them.
I'll start with my absolute favorite, which is "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. It is a novella that you can find in the second volume of the Starlight series or in "Stories of Your Life and Others." The story recently got a movie adaptation from one of my all time favorite directors, Denis Villeneuve, who called it Arrival. The pace of this story is a lot slower than what people expect from books that involve aliens, but reading about how humans are trying to figure out how to communicate with extraterrestrial beings in order to discern whether their arrival is peaceful or not is riveting stuff. There is also a lot of very deep stuff happening in the tale, which I'm not going to spoil because I don't want to rob anyone of the feeling you get when the penny finally drops.
The next book is one from Ben Bova, which is titled "Jupiter." It is part of his Grand Tour series and it is about a young astrophysicist who has to spend a mandatory four years on a space station near Jupiter as part of his public service. His orders are to spy on the other scientists who are onboard the station as there are rumors about the discovery of life in the liquid ocean in Jupiter's core. This book is a great example of humans encountering aliens in a way that is completely plausible. The focus is more on human drama, but it really is a terrific book.
The Forge of God by Greg Bear is another favorite of mine and unlike the typical alien invasion books where humans fight back valiantly, in this one our planet is just annihilated by an overwhelmingly powerful foe. Some humans are rescued from the destruction by another alien race, which is where things get really interesting. This book was followed by one called "Anvil of Stars" and both of them come highly recommended if you want to read a slightly different take on the usual alien invasion trope.
I'll finish things off with Eater by Gregory Benford. Be warned, this is a hard science fiction novel, but trust me that if you commit to this one you will not be able to stop reading. It explores the question that what if the aliens heading in our direction are not little green men in space ships, but a massive cosmic being in the shape of a black hole. This is terrifying enough, but when this black hole actually starts sending messages to Earth that it would like to converse, things become even freakier. I'm not going to say more, but the title of this book should be a good indication of what is to come.