Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Y’all have no idea how hard it was for me to narrow this reply down to only one topic.
I desperately wanted to write at least six different posts in response to this prompt because there are so many specific things I love reading about.
But I will follow the rules and only gush about one of them!
Aliens are something that always make my ears perk up when I see references to them in blurbs or excerpts, especially if they’re written as something other than an antagonist.
1. They make the universe seem friendlier. Since life evolved on Earth, it makes sense that it would develop on other planets and moons, too!
2. They stretch our imaginations. Sentient, humanoid aliens are interesting, but I’m even more interested in the ones that don’t feel familiar at all.This summer I’ll be reviewing a film called Life here about this precise topic.
3. They are thought provoking. How would people really react to new life on Mars, Europa, or some other faraway place?
4. They make learning from history mandatory. To tie into #3, I think we’d need to do a lot of soul-searching as a species when it came to how we’ve treated people from other countries and continents if we were to have any hope of not repeating the many mistakes of the past.
5. They say more about us than they do real aliens. Too often, alien stories assume that beings from other planets would be violent and cruel. I see no reason to believe that assumption is correct.
6. They give me an excuse to use this gif.
And what could possibly be better than that?