Sense of Wonder

Ooh that's a good question, I'll be eager to see people's answers.

Hmm, kind of hard to answer too. I can describe what a novel of that type ought to be like because I'd like to write one, but I'm having trouble thinking of examples. If Neanderthals count as aliens, and you're willing to consider a historical, I'll say Jean M. Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear. For actual science fiction Jane Yolen's Cards of Grief is also a good one. A Fire Upon the Deep, the parts about the Tines. I'm trying to list only ones where you actually get to experience the alien mindset/culture from the inside at some point in the book, because that's the test of greatness, IMHO. Do ones where the aliens are humanoids or similar count? And there are a ton of good fantasy or science fantasy ones

"The Kraken Wakes" by John Wyndham.

I too will cast a vote for A Fire Upon The Deep as well as its companion, A Deepness In The Sky. Both are great examples of discovering new worlds, beings.

A wonderful story about humans occupying a strange new world is Destiny's Road by Larry Niven.

Somewhat down on my list would be two other pairs by Niven, et. al.: A Mote In God's Eye and The Gripping Hand, The Legacy of Heorot and Beowulf's Children

The Mote in God's Eye was good.

Virgin Planet--Poul Anderson

The Forever War--Haldeman?

Tri

J. Weiland said:

Also Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama was pretty amazing.

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I was about to mention this one. Possibly the first SF I ever read, if I remember correctly.

I would read the sequels if I wasn't afraid of being terribly disappointed, with the co-authoring and all. Has anyone read the whole series?

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I have, and they are different than the first one. I wasn't disappointed in general, but I've heard quite a few say they were. The good thing is that in the sequels they discover a lot of things and uncover several mysteries in the Rama world.

I really like Diane Duane's aliens. Her Star Trek novels were very good, and her own work was also pretty entertaining.

For solid first-contact stories, Janet Kagan's stuff also rocks.

The first book about aliens that really blew my mind was probably "The Madness Season" by C.S. Friedman, though.

Madness Season was indeed cool - you might want to check out C.J. Cherryh's Hunter of Worlds and Serpent's Reach for two similar books you might also like.

Of Star Trek novels, I particularly liked The Final Reflection which was set in the Klingon culture.

The late great Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis.

2001, although it probably gets bonus points for me reading it when I was 13 and being the first real SF book I ever read. The implications of the monolith were pretty powerful to a young, impressionable, kid.

Dune.

Didn't like the rest of the series, though, but two years ago I saw a mini-series focusing on the later books. I thought it well done.

I've read all kinds of far-out stuff from Dune to The Invisibles to Ringworld to The End of Childhood, but for some reason the only time I ever had that sensation of jaw-dropping awe was when I read the description of Trantor in Isaac Asimov's Foundation's Edge. It wasn't the first time I'd encountered the concept of a planet-sprawling mega-city (it was in the other Foundation books, of course, and I'd seen one on film in the form of Coruscant) but for some reason his words really brought the sheer grandeur of it to life in a whole new way.

Go figure.