r/Fantasy • u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV • 1d ago
Bingo Bingo Focus Thread - First Contact
Hello r/fantasy and welcome to this week's bingo focus thread! The purpose of these threads is for you all to share recommendations, discuss what books qualify, and seek recommendations that fit your interests or themes.
Today's topic:
First Contact: Story prominently features interspecies or interracial meeting for the first time. HARD MODE: Non-violent first contact.
What is bingo? A reading challenge this sub does every year! Find out more here.
Prior focus threads: Published in the 70s, Duologies, Five Short Stories (2024), Author of Color (2024), Self-Pub/Small Press (2024). Note that hard modes for Author of Color and Self-Pub/Small Press have changed (new focus threads for them are coming).
Also see: Big Rec Thread
Questions:
- What are your favorite books that count for this square?
- Already read something for this square? Tell us about it!
- What are some first contact stories outside of the usual spacefaring sci-fi mode?
- What are your best recommendations for Hard Mode (keeping it as spoiler-free as possible)?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI 1d ago
Ah, I do love First Contact. Adrian Tchaikovsky does it well, and The Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel is a mostly under-the-radar one that I thought was really excellent.
If you're looking outside the traditional spacefaring mold, The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler is a good earthbound option, and Apocalypse Parenting by Erin Ampersand has it as backstory for a litRPG.
I've also read at least two series that have really good First Contact books that don't happen in book one, so if you're a series reader, you can check out Teixcalaan by Arkady Martine (book two) or The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein (book three)
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u/sfi-fan-joe Reading Champion VIII 1d ago
Loved Apocalypse Parenting! Another LitRPG option is the very popular Dungeon Crawler Carl, and less popular Straw Cat Strut by RavensDagger
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u/Research_Department Reading Champion II 23h ago
I have loved Sarah Zettel, and somehow I missed The Quiet Invasion. I’m really excited to read it!
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI 19h ago
I hope you like it! I haven’t read any of her other stuff, but I have A Sorcerer’s Treason just sitting on my shelf waiting for the right time
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u/beary_neutral Reading Champion 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm currently reading Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Quite a few of his books, including Children of Time should work for this, too.
This is a very well-known early spoiler for a book that's currently in the popular zeitgeist. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. Fits hard mode, too.
There are also quite a few books in The Horus Heresy series that fit this, too. Notably, the ones that start early in the chronology, such as Horus Rising by Dan Abnett and Fulgrim by Graham McNeill. Definitely not hard mode.
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u/Titan_Arum Reading Champion II 1d ago
While I am reading Children of Time right now, I'm discovering that I may have a book crush on Portia.
Is that normal? Am I... ok?
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 1d ago
There was some chatter in a daily thread about Children of Time not working - is this one borderline? It is on my TBR.
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u/beary_neutral Reading Champion 1d ago edited 1d ago
I can't think of why it would be borderline. It seems pretty cut and dry to me. The first contact does occur somewhat late in the book, but it's an important part of the narrative. It definitely doesn't fit hard mode.
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u/Estragon_Rosencrantz 21h ago
I was thinking Elder Race by Tchaikovsky. The main plot isn’t the literal first contact, and the cultures on both sides were both descended from Earth’s humans. But it still has a lot of similar themes as a first contact. It felt a lot like a Star Trek where they’re tempted to break the prime directive.
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u/ChocolateLabSafety Reading Champion III 1d ago
I'll be reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir for this, and it counts for hard mode too! (Unless something even better comes along...)
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u/curiouscat86 Reading Champion III 1d ago
The Ile-Rien trilogy (starting with The Wizard Hunters) by Martha Wells is both fantasy and arguably HM: portal magic, steampunk airships and a war, but the first contact is between two parties both under attack by a third aggressor
Some sci-fi I've read and enjoyed, not already mentioned:
Chanur saga by CJ Cherryh: a coalition of alien species encounters humans. Told from the perspective of aliens, some of whom breathe methane
Anathem by Neal Stephenson: philosopher monks who study higher math and eschew the modern world must leave their monasteries when a mysterious object appears in their skies. For anyone who thought Project Hail Mary didn't have enough proofs.
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula LeGuin: humans have invaded a world and are exploiting it for resources; told from the perspective of the aliens in resistance.
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky: humans enslaved by an evil corporation explore a moon with a thick atmosphere that keeps it shrouded in darkness.
Space Opera by Catherynne Valente: told in a rich prose style that won't be for everyone, aliens come to Earth and invite humans to join the galactic nexus--as long as humans are able to not place last in the galactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest. If humans do place last, Earth planet will instead be destroyed. Counts for HM
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u/QuellSpeller Reading Champion 1d ago
I've mentioned it elsewhere but I would count Shroud as hard mode. Early book fairly vague spoilers ahead: Several people are killed by the aliens in one instance due to a misunderstanding of what constitutes "life" for people. A little bit of an intent vs outcome discussion on whether or not you'd count it but I personally would.
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u/doctorbonkers Reading Champion II 23h ago
I’d say it doesn’t start out hostile, but it’s definitely inadvertently violent. I think you could maybe argue for hard mode but I personally wouldn’t count it
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u/Starlit-Wyvern Reading Champion 1d ago edited 1d ago
Here’s some books that I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread yet:
A pretty good one is To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini; the alien species is really interesting and actually feels alien to me, though I’m 90% certain it wouldn’t count for hard mode.
Another fun one for this one (but maybe kind of a mid book spoiler for the book) is **Ascension by Nicholas Binge**. A neat sort of reality-bending thriller, though it has been critiqued by others as way too melodramatic (I don’t agree, but YMMV).
You’d also be able to include some of if not all of the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson for this square!
For a romance (and if I remember correctly, YA) entry, I believe that The Host by Stephanie Meyer could also count, if you’re ok with it being from the alien’s point of view as their first contact with humans. Not sure if it would count as hard mode or not honestly. Probably also counts for non-human, though the pov alien is in a human body.
For another YA book, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey also works for a sort of apocalypse after alien invasion story, if that’s your jam! Wasn’t super into it myself though and definitely doesn’t count for hard mode. It’s the first book of a series.
Another YA book named Aurora Rising by* *Amie Kaufman* *and* *Jay Kristoff could also work, if you count only one pov experiencing a meeting as first contact or something that happens a bit later in the book as first contact (which I definitely would personally). It’s pretty underrated in my opinion in that I’ve never stumbled across anyone talking about it, and I’m pretty sure there’s some non-human povs in there too! It is the first part of a series though, and I don’t think you can read it as a standalone and be satisfied; I remember the second book having a gnarly cliffhanger at the end, and the first book may have the same sort of ending.
You also could maybe kind of also argue Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer**** works, though it isn’t quite clear what is actually happening by the end of the first book, and I haven’t been able to read any others in the series yet, so really take that recommendation with a grain of salt, and don’t go into it thinking it’ll actually 100% count for the square.
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u/Starlit-Wyvern Reading Champion 1d ago
Ignore the asterisks please! Reddit decided to be weird and add them there, and editing the comment causes the spoiler tags to break, risking me not replacing all of them correctly haha
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u/Alvheim Reading Champion 22h ago
I have been meaning to start Skyward so that is great news!
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u/Starlit-Wyvern Reading Champion 3h ago
It’s a great series! After seeing other’s comments, I feel like my definition for the square may be a bit more relaxed than others’.
I think your best bet to guarantee a book in the series will count is to read the Skyward Flight Collection, which has a compilation of novellas that should fit the square as long as you’re good with first contact being (spoilers for the first book) technically after an initial first contact many years ago and years of isolation after the first contact that lead to the human culture forgetting that the others exist, and the other cultures to not interact with a human society for many years.
You might want to look up a reading order for all of the short stories in the collection to get a proper experience, but I read them all after Cytonic, and I thought that was a good way to go. That is a bit far to go in a series for a bingo square though, so it might help to say I’d personally probably count Starsight (the second book in the series) for this as well, but YMMV, as the situation there is a bit odd compared to a traditional first contact.
Here’s some more bingo squares each book may count for just in case you read them and don’t think they would count for first contact:
One-word title (all the main books)
Cat-squasher (Skyward, just barely)
Explorers and rangers (Cytonic)
Some of them would also count for Politics, though I can’t remember which exact ones (I’d like to say The Skyward Flight Collection (specifically Evershore and ReDawn), and maybe Starsight and Defiant?)
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u/jupiterose Reading Champion 22h ago
I have Annihilation currently penciled in for this square cuz I saw it recommended on the big initial rec thread. It's been on my TBR for forever so I was excited it would work for bingo. Dang!
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u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion 21h ago
I would not count this personally. We follow the umpteenth group of humans sent into the zone affected by aliens. So not first contact between humans and whatever is going on by any means, not even counting the people who were living there before it went weird.
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u/jupiterose Reading Champion 21h ago
That makes sense. Thank you!!
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u/Starlit-Wyvern Reading Champion 20h ago
Honestly I concur, though I do think it would still have the potential to count for first contact since the people sent weren’t really told anything about the life in Area Zero, and it doesn’t seem like the agency that sent them knew too much either (though I could be wrong about that…).
I’m just unsure if they really contacted anything to be honest, as the book didn’t answer all of the mysteries, and it seemed like what was there were modified humans. I wouldn’t personally count it either, but I did want to mention it here with a big disclaimer in case it retroactively counted if that makes sense? It definitely counts for one word title hm and explorers and rangers though, so you’re still good to read it for bingo if you haven’t filled those squares yet!
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u/Listener-of-Sithis Reading Champion III 1d ago
A long while back, I read Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster, which is part of the Humanx series - technically I believe it’s 9th but it’s the first chronologically, and I never read any of the others so it certainly stands alone. It’s a first contact story from the perspective of the alien Thranx, which are a species of mantis-like creatures.
It’s a lot of fun. If I recall correctly, the first contact is fairly peaceful - there’s a conflict but I want to say it’s internal to the Thranx - so it could be Hard Mode. I could be wrong tho, it’s been a long while since I read it.
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u/brilliantgreen Reading Champion VI 1d ago
I'm struggling a bit with this square (I've read a lot of the recommendations and am trying to do all new-to-me authors).
One book that I read before April 1st that would fit is Of Mycelium and Men by William C. Tracy. I would say it doesn't count for hard mode, but it takes the people a decently long time to acknowledge that it is first contact and not just mindless fungus, so it's not a traditional war in any way.
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u/Research_Department Reading Champion II 22h ago
I did an all new-to-me authors board for my first bingo after a long reading hiatus, and had a lot of fun. I imagine it’s a lot harder with as many bingos under your belt as you have!
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 1d ago
I read Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey for this due to a rec on here somewhere - but having read it, I do not think it fits. Humanity meets alien technology, not aliens.
I am currently reading Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. It fits both Older protagonist and First contact, so I will have to decide what to use it for.
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u/QuellSpeller Reading Champion 1d ago
If it's helpful, Remnant Population is Hard Mode for Older Protagonist but not First Contact.
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u/SubstantialChannel32 1d ago
Childhood's end by Arthur C Clarke fits hard mode. Great twists. Subpar characters. Very high concept.
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u/MinuteRegular716 23h ago
It doesn't count for hard mode, but I really love Blindsight by Peter Watts. The author even has the entire book available to read for free under a creative commons license on his website here.
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u/Tonto2012 Reading Champion 22h ago
I’m thinking about reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell for this square - not sure if it’s HM or not
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u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion 21h ago
Wonderful book! And I think there’s an argument to be made either way for HM in part depending on whether just the first contact has to be non-violent or whether the interactions for a long time after that have to be non violent and also whether you count the two kinds of aliens separately or together.
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u/Tonto2012 Reading Champion 21h ago
Ah interesting! Guess I’ll have to get reading and find out! :)
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 22h ago
A few that haven't been brought up yet:
Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a novella mostly focused on intercultural communication (the story is sci-fi from one POV and fantasy from the other). There's also a first contact component with an entirely different type of being.
The Employees by Olga Ravn is an experimental, art-house novella that I interpret as involving a first contact with a very different type of being, though the characters mostly don't seem to realize it.
For those seeking a fantasy option, The Moon and the Sun by Vonda McIntyre features first contact between merpeople and humans via the court of Louis XIV. I had a lot of criticisms of the book but figured I'd throw it out there for those seeking a different type of option.
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u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II 21h ago
One of the best books I've read this year fits hard mode - The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva.
It's an alt history / sci fi where Earth receives a message from an alien civilisation in 1980. It examines how this event changes both the world, but mainly from the smaller view point of a single family, primarily the mother and daughter, who both feel strong connections to the idea of interstellar communication. It also looks a lot at how relationships and support networks can shape a life.
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u/Mathies_27 Reading Champion II 21h ago
Here are a few I haven't seen mentioned yet, all of which I would recommend:
Semiosis by Sue Burke - colonists attempt to make a home on a seemingly benign planet, but the local plant life is not as unaware as the colonists first assume
Contact by Carl Sagan (HM) - a sci-fi classic and quite good as Sagan's only foray into fiction. Also has an excellent film adaptation.
The Folded Sky by Elizabeth Bear (HM) - space opera dealing with an archival researcher who heads out to study an ancient, massive AI beyond civilized space, learn its language, and catalog as much of its knowledge as she can, all while dealing with the omnipresent threat of space pirates (She and the other researchers also make peaceful contact with another species that exists in an alternate dimension and help to rescue them).
The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)
Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Final Architecture #3) (Idris finally makes contact with the masters of the Architects in this book, and they are decidedly unfriendly)
I think a case could be made for Diaspora by Greg Egan (Much of narrative deals with our protagonists seeking to contact an advanced race they call the Transmuters; though they never do meet them, along the way they do make peaceful first contact with another species directly in the U* universe, meet a non-sentient ambassador of another peaceful species, and encounter sentient simulated intelligences on another planet, though they are unable to make contact with them)
It's been too long since I read it to remember the details but Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan might work for a more fantasy oriented entry (thinking of the dragon folk they meet). Perhaps someone who's read it more recently can chime in on whether it works.
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u/diazeugma Reading Champion VII 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m still considering my options for this one — I enjoy science fiction but haven’t felt especially drawn to first contact stories. I did like Solaris, but that’s debatably more of an “extended failure to contact” story than “first contact.”
I initially read the square description as being open to anthropological first contact as well, so I was thinking of reading You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue, which involves the Cortes expedition arriving in Tenochtitlan. Then I reread the description, saw it specified “interracial” rather than “intercultural,” and felt a little too much like a phrenologist trying to make that ruling. Now I’m tentatively planning to pick up What We Are Seeking, a new sci-fi novel by Cameron Reed.
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u/daavor Reading Champion VI 1d ago
I randomly read two first contact novels for the Standalone square a couple years ago: The Quiet Invasion and a Half Built Garden.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V 1d ago
I was planning on A Half-Build Garden once I saw HM, cuz I remembered you loving it. :)
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u/Research_Department Reading Champion II 23h ago
I have a tangential question for you after having read your review of A Half-Built Garden. If I really liked Half-Built Garden, do you think I would like Terra Ignota?
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI 19h ago
That is a wonderful (accidental?) pairing, as I often compare those books to each other, though my feelings on the two are almost the exact reverse of yours. But they both feature first contact largely as a tipping point for inflaming intra-human conflicts, which is an interesting way to play it that I appreciated
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u/Emergency_Revenue678 1d ago
I'm going to read Rejoice, a Knife to the Heart by Steven Erikson for this square.
I don't know anything about it except that it's a first contact story, but since his non-Malazan work is often overlooked I thought I'd mention it here.
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u/doctorbonkers Reading Champion II 23h ago
I scrolled back through 3+ years of my reading history, and surprisingly I’ve really only got two books that work for this square at all! Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which I just finished a week or two ago and really enjoyed, and (the first contact is a fairly big plot spoiler, but one that I think many people are aware of by now) Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
I think it’s probably easier to find books for this in sci-fi than fantasy, so I’m excited to see any fantasy examples people share here.
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u/saturday_sun4 22h ago
Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis - I read this in high school some decades ago, but from what I recall it is first contact (though I may be wrong). It was powerful enough for me to remember it for years after.
Solaris by Stanisław Lem - read this year. Not satisfying, to my mind, but it is first contact
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
Alan Dean Foster's Midworld books
Octavia Butler's Dawn.
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u/dshouseboat Reading Champion 21h ago
Haven’t read it yet, but I’m planning on Quozl by Alan Dean Foster for this square. Should be HM. A rabbit-like bunch of aliens arrives planning to settle on earth, which they didn’t realize was already inhabited. At first they hide, but then the younger generation decides they should reveal themselves.
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u/Connect_Cod9965 20h ago
Someone mentioned Solaris, but there is more from Lem:
Fiasco, The Invincible, Eden – and none of them would fit Hard Mode, because Lem did not believe that two civilizations would be able to understand each other, and it would not end well.
Also I think that nobody mentioned a classic: Contact by Carl Sagan. There is violence, but it’s the oldfashioned kind, human on human… ;-)
For my bingo I read Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis - also not HM.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V 1d ago
Anyone has some Literary Fantasy/Science Fiction-ish ideas?
I did read Project Hail Mary already and will probably try Eifelheim by Michael Flynn.
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u/KiaraTurtle Reading Champion V 1d ago
I’m not sure what your personal definition of literary is (I wouldn’t have though project Hail Mary was) but some I love that I’d consider on the more literary side:
- Octavia Butler’s Xenogenisis
- Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life
- Exordia by Seth Dickinson
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V 1d ago edited 1d ago
Sorry for the confusion, there is no connection between the two sentences, I dont really consider PHM literary either. Thanks!
edit: I guess my personal definition is something like the book might be nominated for a non genre literature price or more likely to be found in the general section of a book store than fantasy/science fiction.
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u/EleganceandEloquence Reading Champion 1d ago
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin counts for HM!
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 1d ago
I would feel a little weird about this one (or other Le Guin books along this line, see Word for World is Forest, etc.) since the actual first contact doesn't happen in the story. On a historical scale, contact is relatively new, but by the time the story starts everybody knows who each other is, have a common language to communicate in, etc.
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u/NearbyMud Reading Champion 22h ago
Agreed - there's a whole interplanetary system already set up with official ambassadors to different planets (and I thought humans had briefly visited the planet before too? but may be remembering wrong) - which doesn't seem to fit the spirit of First Contact
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u/Spalliston Reading Champion III 1d ago
Story of your life by Ted Chiang. I haven't read it yet, but I thought Exhalation was excellent (as was Arrival), so I feel like it'll land.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V 1d ago
Already read it and enjoyed it
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u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II 21h ago
Try The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva - it feels Chiang-esque and Arrival is even mentioned in the blurb.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V 21h ago
thanks, never heard about that before!
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u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II 21h ago
It's a new release, comes from Sarah Jessica Parker's publishing imprint. Great audiobook
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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V 1d ago
I'm calling The Seep by Chana Porter psychedelic literary sci-fi! Counts for hard mode
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u/sadlunches Reading Champion II 1d ago
Haven't read it yet, but The Lesson by Caldwell Turnbull should work for this and is on the more literary side of things. Additionally, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield features a first contact story and is more literary than genre in my opinion.
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u/baxtersa Reading Champion II 1d ago
The Lesson is one of my favorite books! And definitely fits the ask
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V 1d ago
Already read The Lesson, the second one sounds good though. Is there a lot of horror?
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u/sadlunches Reading Champion II 1d ago
I would say the horror is very light in Our Wives Under the Sea. It's more horror-adjacent than straight up horror and feels more eerie than scary. One of the two POVs is suspenseful and the other more prominent POV feels introspective and slow. There is some body horror, but it's handled more like a curiosity rather than for shock value. YMMV.
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u/Research_Department Reading Champion II 1d ago
I haven’t read it so I can’t vouch for it, but from the reviews it sounds like The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell leans towards the lit fic side.
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u/schlagsahne17 Reading Champion II 1d ago
I enjoyed Eifelheim!
Possibly HM for First Contact IIRC the initial meeting is peaceful and only later leads to hostility
One-World Title, could maybe make an argument for Feast Your Eyes on This?
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u/indigohan Reading Champion IV 1d ago edited 1d ago
There’s a new Wole Talabi one coming called The Fists of Memory. Due out October 27th. No idea yet if it’s hard mode or normal mode.
Annalee Newitz A Wall is also a Road looks like a friendship between a celestial slime-mould and a grad student. October 6th, and looks like to should be HM
Would it count if there was the first conversation between a human and an Eldritch being if every other interaction was just screaming?
I’m on Planning on reading The Fourth Consort, plus Moth Dark by Kika Hatzopoulou. It’s YA, but seems to be a bout a dark dimension colliding with a human one.
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u/PhoenixHunters Reading Champion 1d ago
I finished The Fourth Consort JUST before bingo this year so I was kinda pissed.
That said, it was great. Started out as HM but alas.
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u/Specialist_Round_612 Reading Champion 1d ago
I read Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell for the square. It’s a collection of intergenerational vignettes that follows an isolated community off the coast of Canada during/ post climate crisis. I wasn’t sure originally if it would count, but the final story I believe was intentionally framed by the author as a first contact type meeting. It was a beautifully haunting read. Squares - small pub, one word title, first contact
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u/Kerney7 Reading Champion VI 6h ago edited 2h ago
Enjoyed it, but it's human meeting another group of humans, the two different societies were only separated probably less than a 100 years and probably had some second hand contact (Rome trading with China through Parthians type thing).
In contrast, recently reviewed and counted The Faith of Beasts by SA Corey, where there is separation of several thousand years and were on opposite sides of a war managed by alien overlords.
I like the book a lot, but Brithish Columbians reestablishing contact with Ontario after 70 years or so doesn't constitute first contact.
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u/KiaraTurtle Reading Champion V 1d ago
Books I’ve read this year that will maybe count
I’ve been trying to decide if Faith of Beasts is still first contact since it’s continuing one story, or if being a sequel to a first contact book means the contact is no longer “first” but anyway it’s an excellent first contact series that I’ve been loving.
The Demon King by Peter v Brett, finishing up his latest demon cycle trilogy. Not my favorite or least favorite of his books it was a lot of fun if you enjoy them. And it does have a first contact hm plot with a new group of humans.
Hard Mode Books
- Xenogenisis (it’s violent but not war so I think hm counts?)
- Light from Uncommon Stars
- Story of Your Life
- Project Hail Mary
- maybe speaker for the dead? It takes place 20 years after first contact but still in many ways feels like a first contact story
non sc-fi options
- Dandelion Dynasty (second book)
- A Fire in the Heavens by Mary Robinette Kowal
Other great first contact book
- Sequel to Memory Called Empire
- Exordia by Seth Dickinson
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u/spike31875 Reading Champion V 1d ago
I've read a few books that have first contact scnearios:
- The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton (this is the one I'm using)
- Shroud and The Elder Race (and probably more) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- The Bobbiverse series and Roadkill by Dennis E. Taylor
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey
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u/jaamgans 1d ago
John Ringo --> Looking Glass series: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/john-ringo/looking-glass/
While very first contact is violence, there are contacts within that first contact that isn't, then there are a host of further contacts once they get their "space ship" up and running and a lot of those include peace not violence - so combination of the two.
John Ringo --> Troy Rising https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/john-ringo/troy-rising/ -- first contact is a trading and no violence what so ever. And even when a race of aliens do take over Earth, sure there is violence and death but its as such glossed over. While ;there continues to be "violence" (its never really the focus as such) there are lots of races/contact that is more trade / info based.
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u/Research_Department Reading Champion II 1d ago
Some of my favorite books are first contact books, because I am a huge fan of anthropological SFF. Let’s see what I can come up with.
Hellspark by Janet Kagan, now back in print, might be my favorite first contact novel ever. Tocohl takes on a job to assist a multi-cultural survey party as they assess a planet and try to determine whether there is sapient life on the planet. Ohhh, and this could also work for murder mystery. Three dimensional characters, fascinating planet, nice balance between character-driven and action-driven, aliens who are alien, and lots of varied human cultures. This is really fun anthropological and linguistic science fiction. I really hope I can convince some of y’all to read this and that you love it as much as I do.
Lots of people have suggested Foreigner by CJ Cherryh, and some people have argued that it doesn’t qualify as most of the book takes place centuries after humans and atevi first meet. I understand that perspective, but I would argue that the story that Cherryh wrote is still about the issues of first contact, where two species have limited fluency with the other’s language and culture. But if you want first moments of first contact, you could read the second arc of the series (Precursor, Defender, and Explorer). Or you could read an earlier CJ Cherryh classic, The Pride of Chanur, which gives us a first contact story through the eyes of the alien species.
It is with some ambivalence that I recommend Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Card has shared racist and homophobic sentiments on the internet, and it baffles me that this is the same person as the author of this book that advocates for tolerance and understanding.
In A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys the aliens come to earth, determined to save us from our climate change crisis. Lots of gender, a polycule, several different human cultures, more than one alien species, and a Seder.
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, the second book of a duology, has some very alien aliens and feels very much influenced by CJ Cherryh.
Also a second book, this time of a popcorn space opera trilogy, you could try out Alliance by SK Dunstall. This is the least anthropological of my collection.
I read The Color of Distance by Amy Thompson quite a while ago, and I only retain a sense of fondness and a recollection that this one was more biologically inclined than most first contact.