Alien first-contact stories are a classic of science fiction, and they’re all the more fascinating because they can feel like predictions of a possible future. Real scientists all over the world are searching for extraterrestrial life. Until they find it, however, we’ll have to settle for stories of imaginary beings from other worlds.
Many of us at Scientific American have been reading alien stories for work and for pleasure for many years. Some of us were inspired as kids to pursue science by such tales; others have used epic extraterrestrial series as escapism from our regular lives.
Here are 24 new and old favorites of the genre that have kept us curious about alien life and encounters with it that could change us as humans.
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(Alphabetical by title)
Ancillary Justice
by Ann Leckie
Orbit
(Tags: Space Opera, Science Fiction)
This groundbreaking novel makes us reimagine gender and identity through the eyes of a ship-based AI consciousness forced to reside in a human body. —Clara Moskowitz, Chief of Reporters
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
4th Estate
(Tags: Eco-Horror, Mystery)
Annihilation (and the rest of the Southern Reach series of books) have an ethereally weird and mysterious vibe. An unnamed team of scientists, including our protagonist, “the biologist,” enters an area controlled by a secretive government agency and encounters an eerie, strangely beautiful but horrifying inversion of nature. The “alien” the team encounters functions more like a shifting conscious ecosystem than an invading little green man (or the movie adaptation’s haunting doppelganger). If you thrive in ambiguity and want literary images and ideas that will keep you up at night, this book should be right up your alley. —Ari Sen, Data Editor
Contact
by Carl Sagan
Gallery Books
(Tags: First Contact, Science Fiction)
This is still one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books, although it’s more based in reality than most of the genre. Sagan harnesses his cosmic knowledge and enthusiasm for the search for extraterrestrial life and trains it on a very human story. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
I watched the movie version in high school and that led me to the book, which got me interested in science and ultimately made me want to become a science journalist. I enjoyed how its depiction of first contact is unique and ultimately more hopeful than many others. —Andrea Thompson, Senior Desk Editor/Life Science
This is the book that made me fall in love with science fiction. It’s as much about fathers and daughters as it is about aliens. Fascinating and beautiful. —Clara Moskowitz, Chief of Reporters
The Dark Forest
by Liu Cixin
Tor Books
(Tags: First contact, Epic)
The Three-Body Problem is the first and best book in Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, but its sequel, The Dark Forest, is the most scientifically fascinating. The concept of the “dark forest,” a proposed resolution of the Fermi paradox (the lack of communication from intelligent life despite the seemingly high likelihood that it exists) based on a game-theory-type argument, has become a mainstay of the SETI lexicon since the book’s 2008 publication. —Joseph Howlett, Staff Reporter
The Day of the Triffids
by John Wyndham
Modern Library
(Tags: Postapocalyptic, Science Fiction)
A 1950s classic with carnivorous plants from another planet, a meteor and a plague that people should talk about a lot more—and it’s really well-written. —Josh Fischman, Senior Editor/Special Projects
The Dispossessed
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Harper
(Tags: Science Fiction, Dystopia)
The Dispossessed is about first contact from the aliens’ perspective. Le Guin depicts an alternative society much like humanity, but with one notable, utopian contingent. A failed anarchist revolution led to a society on a planet’s moon based on free love, mutual aid and the absence of private property. A physicist from this society has unlocked powerful secrets about time and space just as the planet is making first contact with two other alien races, including the Terrans. Le Guin uses this outsider’s perspective to reflect on how us earthlings choose to learn about the universe and the destruction we often wreak on our own world. —Joseph Howlett, Staff Reporter
Embassytown
by China Miéville
Del Rey
(Tags: Space Opera, Semiopunk)
China Miéville is known for mastering new genres with each book, but this one is criminally underrated. It takes place in a post-Earth colonial outpost, where humans have long coexisted (and done strange commerce with) “the Hosts.” These are some of the most truly alien aliens I’ve seen in fiction, and the humans who live alongside them seem content to write them off as fundamentally bizarre and unknowable. But when human hubris introduces a linguistic plague on the creatures, the colonists must work to finally, truly understand the Indigenous population. Embassytown made a literal impression on my sister and me: we have tattoos referencing a pivotal moment of dialogue from the book (“it’s love/it’s love,” for any extant fans). It’s perfect for folks who enjoyed Arrival! —Rachel Feltman, Podcast Host
Ender’s Game
by Orson Scott Card
Tor Books
(Tags: Military Academy, Young Adult)
This is the first alien book I loved. The world-building and political subplot blew my mind, but the experience of main character Ender at space military academy is what really stuck with me. At its core, Ender’s Game is a heartbreaking story of a young boy who simply wants to be loved and live a full life but is taken advantage of by nearly everyone around him; it’s violent and sad in a way children can relate to, even if adults wish they couldn’t. The twist ending made me scream, and I still recommend this book to younger readers looking to expand their reading horizons. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
A Half-Built Garden
by Ruthanna Emrys
Tor Books
(Tags: Fiction, Solar Punk)
First contact set on a future Earth trying to recover from a climate apocalypse. Great characters and a really thoughtful exploration of whether to stay and save Earth or start fresh somewhere else. —Clara Moskowitz, Chief of Reporters
The High Crusade
by Poul Anderson
Baen Books
(Tags: Swords and Spaceships, Alternate History)
An over-the-top classic-era science fantasy that reimagines a band of English crusaders from the 1300s as conquistadors toppling a hapless alien empire, one that suspiciously mirrors our mediocrity-managed modern world. An amusing romp, hopelessly nostalgic about the English longbow in Society for Creative Anachronism fashion, it’s a rollicking good read. —Dan Vergano, Senior Editor/Washington, D.C.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
Pan
(Tags: Science Fiction, Comedy)
The iconic “trilogy in five parts” is as absurd as that sounds and 42 times as brilliant—a funny, weird and surprisingly heartfelt romp through life, the universe and everything. Adams is both witty and wise, and the series is full of genuine insight about the human condition that will stick with the reader long after the books are done. It also features a bestiary of aliens that may be the weirdest and most memorable in all of modern literature, from the Vogons (a race of callous galactic bureaucrats whose poetry is a form of physical torture for those who hear it) to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a creature so mind-bogglingly stupid, “it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you”). —David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief
Hole in the Sky
by Daniel H. Wilson
Doubleday
(Tags: Thriller, Native Nations)
I’m not always a thriller reader, but I couldn’t put this one down. Wilson interweaves Cherokee folklore with modern-day alien tropes in ways I’ve never seen before. I loved the mysterious man in the basement, the way characters question if they’re experiencing aliens or advanced artificial intelligence, and the ultimate message of love and legacy bringing us together. A heart-stopper for sure that I just can’t stop thinking about. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
Hyperion
by Dan Simmons
Del Rey
(Tags: Science Fiction, Adventure)
My favorite alien in sci-fi is the cruciform. The Hugo-winning classic Hyperion is a thinly framed short story collection and the first entry in a series about the title planet. The whole series is great, but it never rises to the bar set by one of the first novel’s stories, “The Priest’s Tale: The Man Who Cried God,” a cosmic horror tale about surrender to the unknown. —Joseph Howlett, Staff Reporter
I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com
by Kimberly Lemming
Berkley
(Tags: Erotica, Science Fiction)
There are few authors I trust with such a silly premise, but Lemming hasn’t let me down yet. This lighthearted romp pokes fun at a lot of expected tropes of any alien story, and anyone who has gone to graduate school will appreciate the jokes about securing lab funding. The sex scenes may surprise traditional science-fiction readers, but the title and cover communicate the overall vibe well: we’re just here for a good time and some kissing with a few surprisingly hot aliens. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Penguin Classics
(Tags: Science Fiction, First Contact)
This story of a lone human trekking with an ambisexual alien to escape from a frozen world is a classic of feminist science fiction and is more relevant than ever. The adventure interlaces Le Guin’s signature sociological observations about our own culture with the discoveries of an alien world in a way that still resonates today. —Dan Vergano, Senior Editor/Washington, D.C.
Lilith’s Brood series
by Octavia E. Butler
Grand Central Publishing
(Tags: First Contact, Series)
I read the first book in this series, Dawn, for my book club but quickly bought the rest to read on my own! The plot is a brilliant mix of impossibly horrifying actions and terrifyingly relatable reactions—it explores not only how humans will experience first contact but also how aliens will experience contacting humans. I recommend this series to anyone looking to explore more stories with aliens, especially ones without a straight white male protagonist. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
by Becky Chambers
Harper Voyager
(Tags: Space Opera, LGBTQ+)
This is the multispecies future I want to live in. A lovable crew of diverse aliens and humans work together to understand each other and the universe. —Clara Moskowitz, Chief of Reporters
Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir
Ballantine Books
(Tags: First Contact, Adventure)
A charming and funny save-the-world adventure. First contact in this book is on the smaller scale but is heartwarming and pure fun. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor
The Road to Roswell
by Connie Willis
Del Rey
(Tags: Humor, Romance)
I read this in 2023 and loved it! I put it on our staff favorites list! —Meghan Bartels, Senior Reporter
The Sirens of Titan
by Kurt Vonnegut
Dial Press Trade Paperback
(Tags: Science Fiction, Satire)
Vonnegut’s novel is a gem from a simpler era of possible space exploration, complete with the dumbest Martian invasion in literature, kitelike beings that subsist on Mercury’s vibrations, and, of course, Vonnegut’s perennial alien characters, the Tralfamadorians. There’s also the “Church of God the Utterly Indifferent” and a revelation of the meaning of life. It’s the perfect balance of madcap and heart-wrenching—a book I’ll keep rereading every decade or so. —Joseph Howlett, Staff Reporter
The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
Ballantine Books
(Tags: Science Fiction, Philosophical)
A harrowing but beautiful story about how misunderstandings between species can go so wrong. —Clara Moskowitz, Chief of Reporters
Spread Me
by Sarah Gailey
Nightfire
(Tags: Body Horror, Erotic Horror)
What if the creature from John Carpenter’s The Thing had a prurient interest in one of the researchers? And what if that researcher was ... surprisingly into it? This book puts a uniquely erotic spin on the tropes we’ve come to expect from first-encounter fiction. Whether the book’s more sensual scenes make you feel tingly or make your skin crawl (or, in all likelihood, some combination of the two), it’s not going to be like anything you’ve read before. —Rachel Feltman, Podcast Host
My Teacher Is an Alien
by Bruce Coville
Aladdin
(Tags: Science Fiction, Young Adult)
I read this in elementary school, and the rest of the four part series this book belongs to really stuck with me. The alien is first believed to be a villain, but his motivations are slowly revealed to be morally gray. I can’t remember too many books with that kind of complexity aimed at young kids. —Adam Kovac, Breaking News Reporter
The Trouble with Gran
by Babette Cole
Putnam Publishing Group
(Tags: Picture Book, Adventure)
I read this book when I was a little girl, and rediscovering it with my own child has been such a joy. The story is told from the perspective of a young child going on a rainy school trip to the seaside, accompanied by his grandmother. She spices things up with her secret alien abilities, and when they miss the bus home, she even whisks the entire class to her home planet. It’s a fun and silly book, with some incredible illustrations that any young child will almost certainly enjoy reading. —Claire Cameron, Breaking News Chief
