# Is there a SF alien invasion story told from the aliens' point of view? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2024, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575 "2024-12-12T23:30:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2024, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/61 "2024-12-14T01:59:12Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > You forgot to mention how he started having all of his middle-age/elderly male protagonists leave their wives and shack up with attractive younger women like he himself had done. That’s a bit of a stretch, even though Asimov was a notorious lech. In any event, although his first wife Gertrude was three years older than he was, his second wife Janet was only six years younger than him. It’s not like he shacked up with one of his fans or one of his students. Also, he didn’t start seeing his second wife until after he had separated from his first wife and moved back to New York City. (Yes, I have read all of Asimov’s autobiographies and even sent him a fan letter in high school…to which he replied by postcard.) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2024, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/62 "2024-12-14T02:03:46Z")
> [@robby](#): > > That’s a bit of a stretch Off the top of my head it happens at least twice, in Robots of Dawn and one/both of the later Foundation novels. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2024, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/63 "2024-12-14T02:04:42Z")
Yeah. I should reread that book ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2024, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/64 "2024-12-14T02:15:06Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Off the top of my head it happens at least twice, in Robots of Dawn and one/both of the later Foundation novels. I don’t remember that, but it’s been decades since I’ve read those novels and I will take your word for it. I was referring more to the part where you said, “…like he himself had done.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2024, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/65 "2024-12-14T02:18:06Z")
In the later Foundation books two characters that I can think of are middle-aged men who are unaccountably attractive to younger attractive women, but neither of them had a previous wife to leave (IIRC) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/66 "2024-12-15T13:03:30Z")
> [@robby](#): > > to > [@GIGObuster](#): > > > [@robby](#): > > > > Anyway, I second that it is a great story. It’s one of my favorites as well. > > > [@Toxgoddess](#): > > > > This is the one I came in to post. One of my favorites too. > > One interesting bit of coincidental trivia: The story takes place in a future where the former star baseball pitcher Fernando Valenzuela did die of natural causes, as some human characters were commenting before the aliens appeared! > > As Fernando passed away just recently in our universe…: > > Keep watching the skies… now!!! 🙂 What do you think all those drone sightings in New Jersey are right now? Not drones. Just alien ships milling around trying to find a place to park. NJ is crowded. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/67 "2024-12-15T22:19:10Z")
I was satisfied with the answer over at “StackExchange” but now it seems like you remember the story the same way I did, with the alien scout being in full black-and-white. Maybe there’s a second story with the same hook only as we both remember it. Especially given that cribbing was a big thing is comics. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/68 "2024-12-15T22:20:22Z")
Grover’s Mill is lovely this time of year. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/69 "2024-12-15T23:15:47Z")
Speaking of comics, is from beneath the Earth alien enough? [![](https://i.imgur.com/JwYOQ78.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/JwYOQ78.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/7fcToEq.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/7fcToEq.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/Ha9pq0T.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/Ha9pq0T.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/70 "2024-12-16T02:29:06Z")
While the majority of chapters (2/3?) are from the Human Perspective, another 1/3 are from the Alien Perspective in [Illegal Aliens](https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Aliens-Pollotta-SHORT-PRINT/dp/1587157969). There’s actually a couple of different “invasions” - from a First Contact with an interesting agenda (the first bit) to a second designed to deal with humanity. Different aliens are more and less sympathetic of course. It’s a comedy of course, but a fun little book from my teens. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/71 "2024-12-16T12:41:04Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Grover’s Mill is lovely this time of year. It is. My wife grew up there, and we went back for Christmas every year untii the family sold the house. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/72 "2024-12-16T14:38:11Z")
A couple came to mind, both by Eric Frank Russell. The first is basically a 21 page rarity called “Exposure” in which a spacecraft lands in what might be the Pacific northwest. The aliens, who are shapeshifters, grab up a couple of guys from an encampment on their way to catch some fish. Eight of them shift to look like the pair, duplicating their personal effects and are then dispatched to four nearby towns to do recon. The aliens made one fatal mistake. They didn’t realize that the two guys they grabbed as models for their scouts were coming from a nudist colony! The other story is a novelette called “Legwork”. This one is a more serious work involving a single scout who comes down in a shuttlecraft. He’s a grade A hypno capable of mentally convincing you that you didn’t see him, saw him as your neighbor, whatever and is quite arrogant, and not unjusfifiably so. I recommend this one if you can find it. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/73 "2024-12-16T16:28:31Z")
What about the TV series “Resident Alien”? An alien on a mission to destroy Earth crash-lands and has to try to fit in as a human while attempting to locate his crashed ship and complete his mission. There are frequent voice-over comments from the alien showing us his perception of things. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/74 "2024-12-16T20:27:42Z")
Arguably about half of every episode of this show was told from the alien POV. 😉 > **[My Favorite Martian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Favorite_Martian)** > > My Favorite Martian is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963, to May 1, 1966, for 107 episodes. The show stars Ray Walston as "Uncle Martin" (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara. The first two seasons, totaling 75 episodes, were in black and white, and the 32 episodes of the third and final season were filmed in color. > John L. Greene created the central characters and developed the core format of the series, which was produced by Jack Chertok. > A human-appearing ex... ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575/75 "2024-12-18T21:01:45Z")
Thank y’all for these suggestions. I just finished a novel and now have new things to put in my reading list. I read _Footfall_ when I was in high school a few years (decades) ago. I should have thought of that one. I may reread it; it’s still on my bookshelf. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-sf-alien-invasion-story-told-from-the-aliens-point-of-view/1011575.md?page=3)