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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3567091" data-attributes="member: 4937">I'm afraid that this is going to turn into one of those 'Am too.', 'Am not.', 'Am too.' discussions.&nbsp; I disagree, but I don't claim I can develop an argument that proves I'm right.&nbsp; In my opinion, all the aliens are just humans in drag and generally the more we see of them the more obvious this becomes.There have been some attempts at truly alien aliens by the better SF writers.&nbsp; One of the more convincing ones to me have been the Ruhk in Gordon R. Dickenson's 'The Alien Way'.&nbsp; The froglike aliens in Amy Thompson's 'The Color of Distance' were pretty well done as well, but share alot of the same problems as Card's 'Piggies'.I'm much less convinced by your suggestions, and in particular the Buggers in Ender's Game, the aliens in Forever War, and the Guildmasters in Dune are not portrayed deeply enough to make any statements about them one way or the other.&nbsp; They are kept suitably vague so as we can't really say anything about them.&nbsp; The mating habits and life cycle of the Piggies in 'Speaker of the Dead' are bizarre, and we get to see alot more of them than we do the Buggers, but they are pretty darn shallow and anthromorphic for all that (as Card himself admits in the text).&nbsp; And I know that this is going to scandalize various fans, but the muties are IMO a badly told joke.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 3567091, member: 4937"] I'm afraid that this is going to turn into one of those 'Am too.', 'Am not.', 'Am too.' discussions. I disagree, but I don't claim I can develop an argument that proves I'm right. In my opinion, all the aliens are just humans in drag and generally the more we see of them the more obvious this becomes. There have been some attempts at truly alien aliens by the better SF writers. One of the more convincing ones to me have been the Ruhk in Gordon R. Dickenson's 'The Alien Way'. The froglike aliens in Amy Thompson's 'The Color of Distance' were pretty well done as well, but share alot of the same problems as Card's 'Piggies'. I'm much less convinced by your suggestions, and in particular the Buggers in Ender's Game, the aliens in Forever War, and the Guildmasters in Dune are not portrayed deeply enough to make any statements about them one way or the other. They are kept suitably vague so as we can't really say anything about them. The mating habits and life cycle of the Piggies in 'Speaker of the Dead' are bizarre, and we get to see alot more of them than we do the Buggers, but they are pretty darn shallow and anthromorphic for all that (as Card himself admits in the text). And I know that this is going to scandalize various fans, but the muties are IMO a badly told joke. [/QUOTE]

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