Why Write About Aliens?

Reasons for writing about aliens, and how this book will help you make yours more believable and memorable

Basic Questions

Potential Starting Points

Goals of This Book

What Is Plausible?

The importance of plausibility in science fiction and how to achieve it in your own SF writing

The Difference Between SF and Fantasy

Knowing Your Sciences

Astronomical Basics

How astronomers collect and use data, how stars and planets form and how to use this information in your world-building

Tools of the Trade

From Big Bang to Galaxies

A Menagerie of Stars, and How It Grew

A Most Important Spinoff: Planets and Moons

A World-Building Primer

The Importance of Your Star

Day Length and Axial Tilt

Biochemical Basics

Universal properties of life and some alien alternatives

Life on Earth

Alien Alternatives

How Common Is Life? The Fermi Paradox

Engineering Organisms: Alien Bodies and Minds

Creating aliens that fit the conditions of their environments

Convergent Evolution

The Square-Cube Law

Intelligence and the Alternatives

Problems and Solutions: A Catalog of Options

Some Closing Tips

Creating Alien Societies

Devising alien societies based on aspects of human (as well as insect and animal) societies

Elements of Culture: Our Past and Its Implications

In Times to Come: Older and Wiser?

And If They Aren't Like Us?

Alien Language

Creating a medium of information exchange for Your aliens

Tools of the Trade: A Mini-Museum of Linguistic Curios

Beyond Human

Practical Tips

Interaction With Humans

The dynamics of human-alien interface

Making Contact: The Physical Problem

Why Hasn't It Happened? The Fermi Paradox Revisited

Kinds of Interactions

Writing About Aliens: Showing Alien Character and Motivations

Sculpting alien characters and conflicts

Humans in Funny Suits

Aliens Are Individuals

The Danger of Lecturing

Viewpoints

Language Problems

Case Studies

Some examples of integrated alien/alien world combinations

A Few of My Own...

...And a Few by Others

How Should You Begin?

Farther Out: Life Not As We Know It

Stretching the parameters of science fiction

Beyond Planets and Chemistry

Beyond Known Science

Conclusion

A Xenologist's Bookshelf: References, Including, Journals and Software

A Glossary of Selected Terms

Index