I’ve been captivated by science-fiction since I was little, and from an early age I gravitated towards creature-features and stories which gave me a window into their perspectives. I’m a romantic at heart in the classic sense; I like stories which feature a sense of exploration and adventure, and have something in their moral centre I can aspire to. When people ask me what got me interested in sci-fi, and more specifically xenofiction as a genre, there are a few which stick out. Here follows a few inspiring sci-fi stories which really sparked my imagination growing up.
Animorphs
These books were a damn revelation to me when I was small. K.A. Applegate’s saga was full of excitement and danger, which thrilled kids worldwide, but also wasn’t shy about showing the toll of war on its young protagonists. This series centered on a group of teenagers on earth who waged a guerilla war against a species of parasitic body-snatchers called the Yeerks. They weren’t alone in their fight; the Yeerks were opposed by the noble Andalites, and it was their Prince Elfangor who gave the Animorphs their weapon in the fight: an ability to morph into animals. Early on in the story, Prince Elfangor’s little brother, Ax, would join the Animorphs after crash-landing on earth.
There wasn’t much glory in saving the world for the Animorphs. By the end of the series, all of the characters were emotionally broken after years of fighting and killing for the cause. In fact, the very bleak epilogue set several years later showed the team about to suicide charge another, newly-revealed foe.
As a kid, my mother and I would go to a bookstore in the city most Saturdays. She would pick out a movie magazine to read, and she’d buy me an Animorphs book to devour. My favourite books from the saga were spin-off/prequel novels which featured Andalite protagonists. These were called ‘The Andalite Chronicles’ and ‘The Hork-Bajir Chronicles’. I must have read them a dozen times each. I was fascinated by the exploration of planets, the discussion of Andalite culture, and the cover illustrations by Roman Kukalis.
Bambi: A life in the woods
Written by Felix Salten and published in 1932, this book is probably most known in connection with the adaptation by Walt Disney in the ’40s. The film is definitely a masterclass in animated storytelling, but the book sticks with me for its atmosphere and lyrical prose style. Bambi is of course the story of a young deer as he navigates the highs and lows of life. Love and loss is a major theme in this book, and the ever-present danger of human hunters is the boundary around all things.
There are two sub-plots in this book which I find unforgettable. The first are the characters of Gobo and Marena. Gobo is rescued and nurtured back to health by humans after a harsh winter, and upon returning to the forest, he meets and falls in love with the spiritually enlightened Marena. They are happy for a time until another group of humans enters the forest. Gobo approaches them, thinking that these humans are friendly like the ones he met before, and is shot dead. Marena vanishes shortly afterwards.
The second sub-plot is Bambi’s relationship with his father, the Old Prince. The Old Prince is always there for Bambi and is a continual source of guidance and inspiration. Bambi craves closeness with his father, but only really receives it at the very end when the Old Prince himself vanishes as well, leaving Bambi as the new leader.
The forest Bambi inhabits is lush and full of life, but it is also filled with hostile forces both within and without. Bambi and his fellow deer are truly at the mercy of the unarguably more powerful humans, who possess tools and cunning far beyond any of the human creatures. In this interpretation, humans are the eldritch and unknown creatures who visit cruelties upon the forest animals for reasons known only to them. In spite of all the hardship, however, love endures.
Mass Effect
The Mass Effect series was one of the pop cultural highlights of my adolescence. From the very first moment it captured my imagination with the combination of its epic scope and grounded characters. This video game series puts players in control of Commander Shepard, a dedicated human soldier on a galactic search to uncover an alien conspiracy. Shepard isn’t alone; he or she will lead a multi-species team comprised of people who may become friends, rivals, or even lovers.
Along the way, Shepard and friends explore different planets. Some, like Illium, are cosmopolitan and jaw-dropping in scale, others are barren places which instill a sense of quiet contemplation.
For me, the Mass Effect trilogy really is gold-standard. The gameplay is fun and the RPG elements are satisfying. The xenofiction in the trilogy sparked my imagination; I spent a lot of time reading all the codex entries on the different species and worlds shown in the game, marvelling at all the worldbuilding the Bioware team had done to bring the galaxy to life. Inspiring sci-fi? Yes!
There are so many good characters in the Mass Effect series but if I had to pick some standouts, I’d be crazy not to mention Garrus Vakarian. Shepard’s best friend and possible love interest, Vakarian undergoes significant character development during the story as a result of his experiences. There is a part in the Shadow Broker chapter of Mass Effect 2 where a piece of Garrus’ lore is revealed in a computer terminal. A few short paragraphs were all it took to tell players of how much burden is upon Garrus’ shoulders. He is willing to risk his life to battle injustice, but is not able to spare his mother from a terrible illness, nor help his sister in caring for the family matriarch.
(In fact, what struck me about the Shadow Broker DLC was that fan response was most effusive regarding the computer terminals containing character lore, proving that you really don’t need complex gameplay or polished graphics to get an audience to emotionally invest.)
Other characters I thought were well-written included Dr. Mordin Solus, Urdnot Wrex, and perhaps controversially, Ashley Williams. I didn’t like Ashley Williams for many years, mostly on account of what I perceived as her brusque dismissal of the alien crewmembers. In hindsight, however, I think Ashley is a well-written character. She has good reasons to be skeptical of any human-alien alliance, and the events of Mass Effect 3 prove that some of her skepticism isn’t unwarranted.
Reflecting upon my own writing, its undeniable that Mass Effect is a major influence. Thought went into the different species’ biology and culture, but I wanted to write about characters experiencing emotional drives I could relate to. The Mass Effect original trilogy, for me, is my kind of sci-fi, and my kind of xenofiction. In fact, I was so crazy for this series that I ended up writing my own continuation (of sorts) for the story along with some of my own artwork. You can check it out here.
Black Beauty
Anna Sewell wrote Black Beauty in response to the cruel treatment of horses she had witnessed. Sewell suffered from mobility issues for most of her life after a childhood accident, and her dependence on horses contributed to her love and respect for them. Black Beauty is sometimes described as a children’s book, but as far as I know, it was not intended as such. Interestingly enough, when reading this book you’ll note the very many references and instructions related to care for horses, which were of course meant to be informative at the time. Reading the book now, when we all just drive cars, these passages now come across as worldbuilding rather than instructional, which is pretty funny to think about.
Written from the perspective of the titular horse, Black Beauty is an account of his life from his carefree days as a foal, to the misery and pain he experiences as a draught horse. After much hardship, Black Beauty is returned to life in the country where he can live out the rest of his days in contentment. The book has a lasting legacy as initiating the abolition of the bearing rein, as Sewell’s description of the practice created a public backlash.
Black Beauty is a story that I think demonstrates how xenofiction can prompt us to be more compassionate to animals, and more thoughtful in the way we treat our environment. Animal-focused xenofiction is probably the most common type of this genre, and I think it is in large part because of this desire to connect to nature.
As an aside, the movie isn’t bad for a kid’s movie (although I don’t really like narration in films and I wonder if the movie would have been stronger without it). I admit I will always shed some tears in the final third of the film where Black Beauty and his friend Ginger endure horrific conditions. The final scenes in the movie involve Black Beauty’s eventual rescue by his human friend Joe, and Black Beauty thus getting the happy ending he deserves. A classic book which deserves to be read by all and if not necessarily inspiring sci-fi, certainly inspiring xenofiction!
Star Trek
The O.G. What more can you say? Everyone knows Star Trek, even the people who have never watched it. When I was a kid, we had DVD box sets of several Star Trek series and over the course of school holidays one year I watched all of them. We had the Original Series, Next Generation, Voyager, and Enterprise. I’ve seen a couple of episodes of Deep Space 9, too.
What I like about Star Trek are its utopian themes. It acknowledged the darker parts of galactic civilisation and was willing to discuss cultural issues in a nuanced way. At the same time, the men and women of the Federation looked forward and always tried to do the right thing. The thing I like about the series I mention was that they each struck a good balance between humor, adventure, and a hopeful vision of the future.
Everyone has their favourite but for me, the series I always return to is Voyager. I liked the set-up of the ship being stranded hundreds of years from home, and the mix of personalities on the crew is always fun to watch. In fact, when I picture my favourite character from Star Trek in general, that character is the Doctor from Voyager. An emergency medical hologram (EMH), the Doctor evolves over the course of the show and becomes a fully-fledged person. He grapples with his nature as a hologram and how that collides with the fact he is “just” a hologram, usually confined to the sickbay (at least at first!). The Doctor isn’t human, and he isn’t flesh and blood, either, and part of the difficulty he experiences is related to his attempts to assert himself as a sapient individual rather than a simple computer program.
Doc is one of the most entertaining characters I’ve met in fiction (another I can think of is Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and part of that is his great chemistry with every other character. He’s smart, daring, and full of joie de vivre, but he’s also snobby, vain, and sarcastic. In fact, I’d say watching the Doctor do anything would probably be entertaining because of how well-evolved his traits are and how perfectly Robert Piccardo, his actor, performs in the role.
In terms of xenofiction, Star Trek of course offers a plethora of alien species. They’re on a budget, so most are rubber-forehead aliens as far as their appearances go, with some exceptions like Species 8472. On the other hand, the alien characters are frequent conduits to explore both analogous and speculative stories. The sheer variety of concepts and themes which emerge from Star Trek in general makes it such a good source of inspiration for writers. Many of these themes simply couldn’t be told just with humans alone, and for that reason, they have to be considered as having a xenofiction element. Inspiring sci-fi, for me, is something which makes me think, and so many of Star Trek’s episodes really get a discussion going (should I bring up the episode ‘Tuvix’?).
So there you have it, my quick list of xenofiction which got the snowball going and rolling down the slope. Now that I’m looking back over what I’ve written, I’m starting to think of some other examples that could have been honourable mentions..but maybe I’ll cover those in another post.
You can read some of my sci-fi stories here.
(And if you want a more comprehensive list of xenofiction and other inspiring sci-fi works, I suggest checking out TV Tropes’ ever-growing list of general xenofiction and xenofiction literature!
