Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 7, 2014 11:34:52 GMT -5
The Dark Light-Years
Brian Aldiss
c. 1964
I'll leave some space here in case y'all want to avoid it.
Not much to the characters here(they're all pretty much from central casting), it's pretty much straight social SF. Set in 2035(but then mostly flashing back to 40 years earlier), it's a first contact with a race called the Utods, which are basically giant six-legged Rhino whose civilization is based on wallow in the mud and their own excerement.
Clearly, the humans didn't get that, so they don't believe they're intelligent. Meanwhile, war rages between England and Brazil, taking place on Charon (the planet after Pluto, used to keep the civilians out of the war). It describes London as pretty much trashed, but not by the war, rather a 'lack of unskilled labor'... streets dirty and close due to lack of road work... people wearing gas masks to block out the fumes from cars, etc. The irony is certainly striking.
In the midst of the war, a explorer looking for planets to settle finds an Utod colony ship, takes them as dangerous beasts and kill all but 2, who are wounded and brought to Earth. Just before they leave they find their ship, but most of the men (those that found the sport of killing the giant aliens exciting) assumed they were test animals, like the monkeys or dogs we used on Earth.
As it turns out, the Utods have 2 heads and 8 'orifaces', and have an extremely complex language, much of which is beyond human range. They decide since the humans don't understand the importance of filth, the refuse to speak.
While a few scientists try to work it out, pressures of war and the hope that their seeming imperviousness to pain could be weaponized lead to the live aliens getting dissected, and a trip to find more.
Some big game hunting ensues, until they find one group of Utods (which leaves near some natural predators) that have guns and fight back. One of the scientists stays behind, to try to learn the language and see what the aliens have to offer, with a promise to be picked up in a year, and the expedition returns home.
Flash forward to the 'present' that started the book, and the old man living with the Utods (the one who was left for a year) gets picked up. We find the proxy war on Charon got out of control, and destroyed most of Earth, and most of the system the Utods lived in (which, of course, was promptly colonized).. the life's work of working of their language is mostly irrelevant, since Utods were near extinct (collateral damage).
This is about as dark and depressing a first contact story as I'd read, all the more so because it seems so very plausible, especially from the world of the 60s. A most excellent read!
Brian Aldiss
c. 1964
I'll leave some space here in case y'all want to avoid it.
Not much to the characters here(they're all pretty much from central casting), it's pretty much straight social SF. Set in 2035(but then mostly flashing back to 40 years earlier), it's a first contact with a race called the Utods, which are basically giant six-legged Rhino whose civilization is based on wallow in the mud and their own excerement.
Clearly, the humans didn't get that, so they don't believe they're intelligent. Meanwhile, war rages between England and Brazil, taking place on Charon (the planet after Pluto, used to keep the civilians out of the war). It describes London as pretty much trashed, but not by the war, rather a 'lack of unskilled labor'... streets dirty and close due to lack of road work... people wearing gas masks to block out the fumes from cars, etc. The irony is certainly striking.
In the midst of the war, a explorer looking for planets to settle finds an Utod colony ship, takes them as dangerous beasts and kill all but 2, who are wounded and brought to Earth. Just before they leave they find their ship, but most of the men (those that found the sport of killing the giant aliens exciting) assumed they were test animals, like the monkeys or dogs we used on Earth.
As it turns out, the Utods have 2 heads and 8 'orifaces', and have an extremely complex language, much of which is beyond human range. They decide since the humans don't understand the importance of filth, the refuse to speak.
While a few scientists try to work it out, pressures of war and the hope that their seeming imperviousness to pain could be weaponized lead to the live aliens getting dissected, and a trip to find more.
Some big game hunting ensues, until they find one group of Utods (which leaves near some natural predators) that have guns and fight back. One of the scientists stays behind, to try to learn the language and see what the aliens have to offer, with a promise to be picked up in a year, and the expedition returns home.
Flash forward to the 'present' that started the book, and the old man living with the Utods (the one who was left for a year) gets picked up. We find the proxy war on Charon got out of control, and destroyed most of Earth, and most of the system the Utods lived in (which, of course, was promptly colonized).. the life's work of working of their language is mostly irrelevant, since Utods were near extinct (collateral damage).
This is about as dark and depressing a first contact story as I'd read, all the more so because it seems so very plausible, especially from the world of the 60s. A most excellent read!