# Something where aliens WIN? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081 "2003-05-09T10:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/21 "2003-05-09T17:20:19Z")
What about good old **Battlestar Galactica** , the humans are reduced to a small escaping fleet of ships. For literature, anything be **H.P.Lovecraft** has the Aliens winning. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Hand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mr.Hand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Hand)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/22 "2003-05-09T18:22:00Z")
In the play (not the movie version starring Rick Moranis and featuring Steve Martin), Little Shop of Horrors, the aliens win. The play ends with the cautionary song (after all the human characters have died), Don’t Feed the Plants. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/23 "2003-05-09T18:53:51Z")
A few more: William Tenn’s **Of Men and Monsters** (terrible title, alas). Thomas Disch’s “White Fang Goes Dingo” (great title), expanded to **The Puppies of Terra** (UK)/ **Mankind Under the Leash** (US). Frederick Pohl’s “Punch.” Fredric Brown’s “Pattern” The Triffids in John Wyndham’s **Day of the Triffids** , pretty much take over except for a small colony of humans at the end. Eventually, they should make a decent movie of it (the 1950s version was terrible). In **The Forbin Project** , a computer takes over everything. It’s pretty close to the book **Colossus** by D.F. Jones. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/24 "2003-05-09T21:05:29Z")
In **Battlefeild Earth** the Aliens had ruled earth cruely for 1000 years. In **Titan AE** Earth has been destroyed It is strongly hinted in **AI** that humans aren’t on earth anymore ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/25 "2003-05-09T21:14:27Z")
If you stretch the definition of “alien”, you could include Star Wars Brian ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/26 "2003-05-09T21:15:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Death \* > \*\*Not altogether accurate, although the scenarios aren’t dissimilar. Also, the Tripods are defeated in the final book when their city dome is shattered by an explosion, letting the lethal (to them) atmosphere of Earth in. \*\* Are we talking about the “Tripod Trilogy,” by John Christopher? If so, I just wanted to note that the aliens in that series weren’t Martians. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/27 "2003-05-09T21:30:47Z")
John Varley’s Steel Beach: aliens take over and convert the Earth to suit their needs. The “battle” to defend against this attack lasts about 20 minutes, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Fiat\_Lux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/28 "2003-05-09T21:53:30Z")
Someone mentioned the HHGTTG; at the end of that series, the aliens win once and for all, coming back and destroying the mysteriously replaced Earth and making sure all the pesky humans who escaped the last time are on it as it burns. For a humourous series, those books sure were dark. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/29 "2003-05-09T22:08:14Z")
The John Varley universe where humans are losers includes **Steel Beach** as well as the short stories collected in **The Ophiuchi Hotline** and **The Barbie Murders**. The aliens don’t so much take over as simply destroy every structure on Earth and then ignore any humans (very few, obviously) who are left. They (the aliens) only like talking with Dolphins and Whales. They consider humans rather pest-ish. In **I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream** , by Harlan Ellison, the humans have clearly lost, but we don’t know exactly to whom (except that it’s “the computer”). In Ursula Le Guin’s **The Word for World is Forest** the invading aliens are the humans, and they “win.” Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/30 "2003-05-09T22:48:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tanstaafl \* > **I almost agree with Forge of God except that some humans _do_ survive (with some help from some other aliens) and go on to kick some alien butt in Anvil of Stars. Forge was the better book of the two though.** **tanstaafl** , since I had trouble with **Forge of God** , I didn’t even try **Anvil of Stars**. **Shodan** mentioned _The Screwfly Solution_ by Raccoona Sheldon. That’s another chilling one I’d forgotten about. It’s available to read online at [URL=http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics\_archive/sheldon/sheldon1.html] ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/31 "2003-05-09T22:53:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoCoolUserName \* > \*\*The John Varley universe where humans are losers includes **Steel Beach** as well as the short stories collected in **The Ophiuchi Hotline** and **The Barbie Murders**. > \*\* Just to nitpick, (always do what you’re best at, I always say), **The Ophiuchi Hotline** is a novel, and Varley’s collection **The Persistance of Vision** has most of the best stories in his universe. Also, **Steel Beach** is in a slightly different universe. The discrepency is cause because Varley wrote it many years later and didn’t bother to go back and reread things to make sure there was consistency with the previous stories. I admire that. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/32 "2003-05-09T23:04:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > **Thomas Disch’s “White Fang Goes Dingo” (great title), expanded to The Puppies of Terra (UK)/Mankind Under the Leash (US).** In my copy of **Triplicity** , which was a Science Fiction Book Club volume combining 3 Disch titles, **Puppies of Terra** ends with a human win (though it starts with our race totally dominated by the Masters). But **The Genocides** , in the same volume, was a clear defeat and extermination of mankind. Every last one of us, gone. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/33 "2003-05-10T00:31:20Z")
In Harry Turtledove’s \*\* WorldWar \*\* series, the war ends in a stale mate with aliens holding the Southern Hemisphere, Southern Asia, and Central America, while the US, Great Britain, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, and Canada remain independant. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/34 "2003-05-10T01:59:26Z")
The Xeelee in Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee sequence are Aliens with technology far superior to anything that humans can produce, and are so far in advance of us that they hardly notice Humanity’s efforts to fight back. Eventually, the only humans left are in a kind of Xeelee zoo. * * * Sci-fi worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![SpaceGhostofArrakis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@SpaceGhostofArrakis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceGhostofArrakis)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/35 "2003-05-10T02:04:29Z")
Those Damn Mon Calamari and their rebel sympathsisers destroyed a Human-run Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/36 "2003-05-10T02:11:59Z")
Hmm…no one’s mentioned the Twilight Zone episode **To Serve Man**. Everyone’s already mentioned the rest I could think of. Well there is **Earthfall** by William Dietz, but a sequel just came out; and there’s **Orphans of Earth** but IIRC we killed ourselves off in that one. On preview; thanks **eburacum45** I forgot that one, intersting story. ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/37 "2003-05-10T02:34:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Earl Snake-Hips Tucker \* > \*\*A number of the 1990s “Outer Limits” episodes ended with the aliens getting the upper hand. \*\* Well, that’s what we get for manning our Dead Man Switch with a bunch of gullible 20-somethings. ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/38 "2003-05-10T02:37:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DreadCthulhu \* > \*\*In Harry Turtledove’s \*\* WorldWar \*\* series, the war ends in a stale mate with aliens holding the Southern Hemisphere, Southern Asia, and Central America, while the US, Great Britain, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, and Canada remain independant. \*\* Yeah, but if he ever bothered to finish the series, we’d get to the part where our interstellar space ship goes to the aliens home planet and corrupts them with drug addiction, but I’m not sure he’s gonna do an 8th book now. So alien victory will be short-lived anyways, at least as I picture the ending in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/39 "2003-05-10T20:29:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by refusal \* > \*\*In **The Day the Earth Stood Still** the aliens come to earth demanding world peace, and they win. Don’t they? > > Ray Bradbury’s **The Martian Chronicles** isn’t exactly a convincing victory for either side: most of the Martians are killed, but most of the humans end up packing it in and going home. If you view it as a collection of short stories, there are a number of tales where the Martians are clearly triumphant. (However, Bradbury possibly viewed the humans as villains.) > \*\* Well, it kind of hinted to me that the humans left on mars were perhaps some of the last humans alive, considering it sounded like the people on earth had nuked themselves(Always makes me wonder why you go back to fight in a war in which nuclear weapons were invovled. I’d be hopping the first ship off the planet). ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081/40 "2003-05-10T22:55:30Z")
_The Alien Years_, by Robert Silverberg. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-where-aliens-win/174081.md?page=1)