I awoke this morning to find this ceature examing my science fiction library. The stack continues to grow and as well, my list of unread books.
The flying scaucer measures approximately 35w by 30mm tall and is fashioned from resin. It does include fare amount of moulded in details to a silver body with some red and green paint to some molded details. THe clear canopy sits on top of a black center with a set of small colored spheres.
“July 12, 1915 – Arrived this afternoon (3:20 PM.) five beings from Vega XXI.
I have said they glowed and I think by that I mean they glowed in spirit. It seemed that they were accompanied, somehow, by a sparkling golden haze that made happy everything it touched-almost as if they moved in some special world that no one else had found.”
Way Station, Clifford D. Simak
"Welcome to Terranox – a mesmerizing, steampunk-inspired alien planet where time itself is an enigma."
“The keeper of inter-galactic Way Station #18327 had one purpose, to prepare Earth to join the other races of the universe.
The alien planets had many things that Earth lacked, eternal peace and prosperity, advanced knowledge of the sciences and the arts. And they were willing to share their benefits – provided Earth showed signs of being civilized.
As the only Earthman in touch with the universe, the keeper of Way Station 18327 was beginning to hope that his fellow men might prove worthy.”
Way Station, Clifford D. Simak
An interesting find : Science Fiction Studies. Once I have investigated a bit further I might review a bit of what can be found here.
For years no one had invaded the solitude of his lonely farm. But now the watchers in Earth were closing in on him, determined to solve the mystery of who or what it was that went under the name of Enoch Wallace—a man, magician, or nonhuman creature from an alien planet.
Way Station, Clifford D. Simak, Macfadden-Bartell Book (c) 1963
"Up close to the orchestra by the stage it was a cramped clot of men and women, polyglot and many-raced. A slick of vagabonds, petty thieves. and their bosses, discharged foreign soldiers, discharged jailbirds, dissolute rich and tinkers, beggers, pimps and their charges, chancers, knife-grinders, poets, and police agents. Humans, and here and there catus-heads poking over the crowd (allowed in only if their thorns were plucked), the Cactacae,1 and the scarab-heads of the khepri.
Cigarillas hung form mouths, and people banged their glasse or cutery in time while waiters went between them, on the sawdusted floor..."
Iron Council, China Mieville
1The Cactacae are enormous humanoid plant people, often towering over human beings.
Screensnip is from Avatar 2. The miserable bastards have returned to work havoc to Pandora.
Searching through my notes on these occurrences I found that I made two more sightings of alien species some time ago and never documented either specie.
“The Atheleni in Natures lottery had been luckier than most – and yet had missed one of the greatest prizes of all. They had powerful bodies and powerful minds, and they lived in a world which was both temperate and fertile. By human standards, they would have seemed strange but no means repulsive. Their sleek fur covered bodies tapered to a single giant rear limb that could send them leaping over the ground in thirty-foot bounds. The two forelimbs were much smaller and served merely for support and steadying. They ended in pointed hoofs that could be deadly in combat, but had no other useful purpose.”
"The Philen were little creatures, scarcely half the height of the Atheleni and did not hop, they rather walked upon two jointed limbs that seemed very thin and feeble. Fro the other appendages they processed multiple tentacles that they seemed to use very ambidextrousnessley. Its large spherical head was dominated by three huge eyes, set far apart and were capable of independent movement."
Second Dawn, Expedition to Earth, Arthur C. Clarke
I envisioned the Atheleni as being more like a rabbit than a horse.
Where as the Karhidish calendar year is fourteen months long, a month consists of twenty-six days. Usually for clarity, the name of the day is given followed by the month. For an example- Eps in the month of Moth. Local dialects may pronounce these differently.
Number of the month |
Name of day |
Number of the month |
Name of day |
1 |
Getheny |
14 |
Odgeheny |
2 |
Sordny |
15 |
Odsordny |
3 |
Eps |
16 |
Odeps |
4 |
Arhad |
17 |
Odarhad |
5 |
Netherhad |
18 |
Onnetherhad |
6 |
Streth |
19 |
Odstrath |
7 |
Berny |
20 |
Obberny |
8 |
Orny |
21 |
Odorny |
9 |
Harhahad |
22 |
Odharhahar |
10 |
Guyny |
23 |
Odguyrny |
11 |
Yrny |
24 |
Odyrny |
12 |
Posthe |
25 |
Opposthe |
13 |
Tormenbod |
26 |
Ottormenbod |
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
The planet named Winter has 14 a month year. “The solar and lunar calendars concur so closely that adjustment is required only once in 200 years.” The 14 months coincide with four seasons and are named as follows:
Winter:
1. ThernSpring:
5. IrremSummer:
8. OsmeAutumn:
12. GorAlthough you would suspect winter like weather to start in the month of Thern, however snow usually start to fall in the month of Grenda. With up to five months of winter, the planet Winter revieves between twenty and thirty feet of snow.
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Karhidish names for the twenty-six days of the month
On Time and Darkness, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
“As they say in Ekumenical School, when action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable sleep.”
The Mad King, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
"Our entire pattern of soco-sexual interaction is non-exsistant here. The Gethenians do not see one another as men or woman. This is almost impossible for our imaginations to accept. After all, what is the first question we ask about a newborn baby.
Yet you cannot think of a Gethenian as "it". They are not neuters. They are potentials during each sexual cycle - they may develope in either direction for the duration of that cycle. No physiological habit is established, and the mother of several children may be the father of several more."
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin, (c) 1969, Ace Books
My other LeGuin posts
There bodies are massive, animal like. Yet they possess physical and mental powers unlike anything known to men.
They literally wallow in filth. Yet their world is one of complex philosophy and amazing technology. In addition, their intricate minds that live within their strange gigantic bodies may well determine the destiny of life on Earth.”
The Dark Light Years, Brian Aldiss, Signet, (c) 1964
"Although Lioobee was an artist, he looked more like a monster. His brown dragon skin would have stopped a knife. Carved silver-tipped horns marked his knees and elbows, and his huge hands, human in design, nonetheless showed eight retractable claws at the knuckles. No silver there. They were filed sharp and were buffed to a polished glow. The hands were for a strangler not the sculptor he was. His arms were high even in proportion to his ten-foot height. They brushed his knees when he stood up.
But his face gave the true nightmarish touch. Eyeless, nose-less marked only by a gash of a mouth and by a goggle-shaped region above it, where the skin was stretched drum head tight."
Grendel, Neutron Star, Larry Niven
"The Grog was psychic or something similar. It could control minds, even minds as insignificant as a sand rat's.
That was the purpose of the Grog's large brain. Its intelligence was a side effect of its power. For aeons the Grogs had called their food to them. They did not hunt after childhood. Once the brain had developed, they never needed to move again.
They didn't need eyes; they had little need of other sensory preceptions. They used the senses of other animals."
The Handicapped, Neutron Star, Larry Niven
Grogs are an alien life form found on the planet "Down" in the Known Space System.
Added link on 6/8/2013 @ 5:12 PM
"Puppeteers are highly intelligent, herbivorous, and as a species, very old. Their corner on interstellar business is as old as the human Bronze Age. And they are cowards.”
The Relic of the Empire, Neutron Star, Larry Niven
“The human is a highly complex organism, motivated by a variety of emotions- curiosity, courage, cussedness, love, hatred, boredom, and a combination of others.
The puppeteers were gentle-in fact one of their most laudable and dominate characteristics was cowardice-which made for a very high survival factor. At least for puppeteers.
The most admirable thing of course, was that they were willing, (and very able) to pay others aliens to take the risks they were morally obliged not to take themselves. Which appealed highly to the greed in certain life-forms.
Notably homo sapiens…”
Neutron Star, Larry Niven, Ballantine Books, 1968
"A puppeteer is unique. Imagine a headless three-legged centaur wearing two Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent puppets on its arms, and you will have something like the right picture. But the arms are weaving necks and the puppets are real heads, flat and brainless, with wide flexible lips. The brain is under a bony hump set between the base of the neck. This puppeteer wore only its own coat of brown hair, with a mane that extended all the way up its spine to form a thick mat over the brain.
I watched with the rest as it came across the floor, not because I’d never seen a puppeteer, but because there is something beautiful about the dainty way they move on those slender legs and tiny hooves.
A puppeteers mouth are not only the most flexible speech organs around, but they also have the most sensitive hands. The tongues are forked and pointed: the wide thick lips have little finger-like knobs along the rims."
Neuton Star, Larry Niven
Neuton Star, was first published in 1968, is short story by Larry Niven. Neuton Star was publised by Ballatine Books as a collection of Niven short fiction.
Others in this series.
Edited on 5/21/23 @ 11:56 PM: I had forgotten to add quotation marks; 5/23/23 @ 12:04 PM: Added link above
“Pythsyccans were an alien race that had been warring with the Federation for decades. Although the Pythsyccans had not found Earth and its solar system, they were quickly subduing the humans of deep space.
Pythsyccans stood over seven feet tall, were black in color, and were roughly human in general configuration, except that a second pair of arms sprouted from their midsection. The secondary arms were greatly atrophied and were usually folded across the obscene vertical gash of the eating-mouth.
Musculature was light and largely confined to the triple-segmented working arms and legs. The vital organs were externally positioned around the central spine, along black and purple rubbery sacs which heaved and glistened wetly in the spray which simulated the Pythsyccan atmosphere. One last note, the Pythsyccans stank with a sweet rancidity which was hard to purge from ones nostrils.”
The Palace of Eternity, Bob Shaw