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Questions tagged [first-contact]

For questions about the term "first contact", used to refer to humans interacting with an alien race for the first time in most science-fiction films, television, and literature. For the Star Trek movie, use [star-trek-first-contact].

10 votes
1 answer
1k views

SF first contact short story, alien probe visits earth to exchange information, is asked about religion

I recall a short story where first contact occurs when an alien probe enters the solar system, takes up orbit around earth. Turns out that it's a sublight "ambassador/library" with AI on ...
reedstrm's user avatar
  • 293
21 votes
2 answers
3k views

Novel involving the destruction of Jupiter, two alien species, and a neat star drive

The novel, which I read in the 1980's or so, opens with the arrival in the Sol system of a huge starship that ignores Earth and starts to refuel using way too much of Jupiter's atmosphere. Expeditions ...
R. Darwin's user avatar
  • 509
11 votes
0 answers
205 views

Short Story about unexpected first contact

I'm trying to help my dad identify a short story he read when he was young. So it must have been written in early 70s or before. Synopsis as he remembers it: The far space scout lands his ship on ...
yulGM's user avatar
  • 211
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Looking for SF short story about first contact and humans have to destroy evidence before aliens reach Earth

I read a really great SF short story published in an anthology from the late 1990s (maybe 1996-1997?) that involved humans making first contact with a more advanced alien species whose ambassadors are ...
JimTheWhyGuy's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
156 views

Book series with alien ghosts vulnerable to radio [duplicate]

I read a sci-fi series in the 90's which I remember many details but I can not recall the author or any titles in the series. What I can remember is: There is a first-contact situation where the ...
Marcus's user avatar
  • 347
24 votes
1 answer
291 views

SF Novel: Task force tries to fake sentience in a humanoid species to protect a planet from exploitation

I'm certain it was published before 1998, fairly sure before 1994, in paperback. The background setting of the novel was the distant future, when humanity was part of an interstellar, possibly ...
pain strumpet's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
179 views

Short story of an alien society without the concept of suicide until first contact with humans

I’m looking for a very short story about a disastrous first contact between humans and aliens, involving a sort of memetic cross-infection. The aliens had never come up with the concept of ‘suicide’ ...
Matthew Jachimstahl's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
580 views

Dinosaur eggs preserved by alien hatch, alien comes back for them?

I'm looking for a novel about intelligent dinosaurs and aliens. Probably published in the early 90's. Paperback, English. Cover was a green alien resembling a small, predatory dinosaur (similar to ...
Viergacht's user avatar
  • 7,508
21 votes
2 answers
2k views

Short story about alien transmission which ends with the aliens' star exploding

Read this story online a few years back but I am quite sure it was far older, maybe from the 1970s or even earlier. It has a pair of scientists receiving a transmission from a distant star system. ...
Yammerhant's user avatar
  • 1,040
2 votes
2 answers
717 views

How can Hadrian Marlowe speak Cielcin when humans haven't had social contact with the Cielcin?

This is about Empire Of Silence (volume 1 of the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio). In Hadrian Marlowe's formative years, his Scholiast, Tor Gibson, has taught him several languages, including ...
Nimloth's user avatar
  • 243
4 votes
0 answers
129 views

Alien Nanotech Builds Space Travel Portal

There was a series of books that I read part of back in the 1980s in trade paperback form published in the US. It was newly published then I think. It featured an alien race that had perfected ...
user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
540 views

Looking for a short story about a posthuman conducting first contact with a primitive alien race on their planet [duplicate]

I probably read this story 20 years ago. I only remember random details about it. The protagonist is a heavily modified human and he is conducting first contact with an alien species on their planet....
Rob 's user avatar
  • 93
10 votes
0 answers
68 views

Alien rite, teens tied in trees [duplicate]

After a family discussion we've thought of another memorable but unidentified old short story. Some astronauts land on a shrubby planet where there are humanoid people with a simple civilization, ...
PotatoCrisp's user avatar
  • 4,635
11 votes
1 answer
503 views

Short story involving Aliens attempting to make contact with humanity at a distance

The story involves multiple sets of aliens attempting to make contact with humanity, but not by visiting. Instead, these aliens are broadcasting towards Earth. One group (possibly the first) of aliens ...
ltmauve's user avatar
  • 288
5 votes
1 answer
244 views

Short story from an anthology: school children use superior military strategy to defeat an alien invasion

As I remember, the main characters played strategy games at playtime, rather than ball games with the rest of the boys, making them outcasts. But one playtime, aliens land in the playground and ...
LegoHouses's user avatar

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