Recommend a First Contact novel (sci-fi)

Looking for recommendations of realistic science fiction novels that deal in whole or in large part with the first contact and/or normalization of relationships between humans and E.T.s. Special request for books that explore alien biology/psychology/sociology (Niven & Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye would be an example). Quality “alien invasion” books are welcome.

‘Contact’ by Carl Sagan is a good one. Dry, but the science is realistic as all hell.

‘Footfall’ by Niven/Pournelle is another archetypal ‘first contact with invasion’ book.

Harry Turtledove’s ‘WorldWar’ series posits a world in which first contact occurs in 1942 as an alien race invades during WWII and it’s clear that Turtledove thought long and hard about the culture and biology of the invaders. A main continuing point is the inability of each side to understand the others for a while.

Also, *Speaker for the Dead * by Orson Scott Card. Some hate it, I enjoyed it.

I really liked Greg Bear’s “The Forge of God”. Avoid its sequel at all costs though.

I almost mentioned these as other examples of books I liked. :cool:

Roger MacBride Allen’s The Ring of Charon is a really odd first contact novel, with aliens that can’t seem to notice humans.

I’ll also second the recommendations for Harry Turtledove’s World War books, and the Niven/Pournelle Footfall.

I really enjoyed The Color of Distance.

Robert J. Sawyer’s Calculating God might fall into the category you’re talking about.

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama” is one of my faves. Just avoid all the sequels scrupulously.

I liked the first part, but thought the last few chapters turned into Star Trek V.

I second the Orson Scott Card recommendation (although the First Contact book would be Ender’s Game, not Speaker)

Two books that may fit your description are:

The tripod series by John Christopher. They are classified Young Adult, but I’ve enjoyed them as an adult. In the first book, aliens come to earth and enslave humanity, but the next books deal with humans studying the alien’s habits and physiology to defeat them.

A similar book is The Way of the Pilgrim by Gorden Dickinson. The character uses his linguistic skills to get near the invading aliens and learn how to defeat them.

However, I think the book that you are looking for is Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. The invading force is humans, not aliens, but they still manage to clash with the Martians (killing nearly all of them in the process.)

CJ Cherryh writes fantastic books about going native, mostly - The Pride of Chanur is the first book in the Chanur series, which is about First Contact from the other side. The Mri Wars trilogy, now collected in one volume, is great - not first contact per se, but “first understanding” or whatever - it’s about going native. The trilogies that start with Foreigner have a little bit of First Contact at the beginning but are mostly about understanding an alien culture (and again with the going native theme). She’s done some really great things with that idea (good thing, too, cause she sure does use it a lot) - I think it’s in the Mri Wars books that another alien species goes on about how the strength of humans is their adaptability and their ability to separate a member from the group and have it “go native” and grok another group. I think it’s really interesting.

CS Friedman’s The Madness Season is also good in this regard.

It’s only a short story, by Murray Lenster’s First Contact is considered classic.

You might try Kay Kenyon’s The Braided World or Tropic of Creation. There’s an excerpt from The Braided World at her website.

If you want a Good Alien story, try Julian May’s Intervention series. They deal with humanity’s response to First Contact, good and bad, and also with the next stage in human evolution.

He only had to think long and hard enough to be able to come up with a vaguely sensible reason why a starfaring race, able to traverse 12-odd light years, is attacking with 1990-style weaponry. :dubious:
However, the books are fun, fun, fun, but don’t expect a lot of believability from them.

And for fans of the series (And I own every one of the WW and Colonization books in hardback), the last Colonization novel is set to be released December 28th.

Robert Sawyer’s Illegal Alien.

I’m not an SF fan, but I rather enjoyed this one.

You’re forgetting about the trees.

Maybe, Munch, but I always think of First Contact as first contact with any alien species ever.

This may be easier if the OP had a few more specs. What are these recommendations for, furt?