In These Novels About Aliens, the Truth Is Out There

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In These Novels About Aliens, the Truth Is Out There

In these science fiction books, extraterrestrial beings are sympathetic, horrifying and everything in between.

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The New York Times

By

James S.A. Corey

James S.A. Corey is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the authors of the Expanse series, which they also adapted for television. Their latest novel, “The Faith of Beasts,” publishes in April.

April 9, 2026,

5:00 a.m. ET

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Science fiction

is, among other things, the literature of talking about things you’re not talking about. It can be easier to grapple with the seductive nature of tribalism when you’re dealing with Mars vs. Earth. You can use the suffering of asteroid miners to ruminate on class conflict and worker exploitation without appropriating the lived experience of real people. Like horror or fantasy, science fiction is a literature of literalized metaphors.

In that context, aliens become vessels that can hold many different cargos. An alien can be a lost traveler from the stars desperate to save a dying home planet, an invader bent on the destruction of humanity, an incomprehensible oddity that assaults the nature of reality, a victim of human colonialism, the re-imagination of ancient Babylon as seen by the peoples they conquered or any of a thousand other things.

Many of the best works of science fiction drop a net into these waters and come up with very different — and often wonderful — catches. Here are some of our favorites.

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Dawn

by Octavia E. Butler

The first novel in Butler’s Lilith’s Brood trilogy, “Dawn” is set 250 years after a nuclear war devastated Earth. The few surviving humans have been saved — sort of — by the Oankali, an alien species with an unstoppable drive to hybridize with other species.

Spare and beautifully written, the book explores colonization, enslavement, the compromises that survival can demand and the complicated joy and grief of watching a new generation emerge that is no longer easily recognized as human. Butler was a master of the sci-fi genre and “Dawn” is one of her most powerful works; she manages to make the aliens both deeply sympathetic and truly horrifying.

Read more about “Dawn” and Butler’s other essential works

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Dawn

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Blindsight

by Peter Watts

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