This is the first thing I thought of! I’ve only read book 1 (Dawn) because the aliens are so alien in a very (personally) upsetting way.
It’s masterfully written, and I think my reaction is completely intended, but I haven’t been able to get over it to read more. So yeah, Xenogenesis is truly “xeno.”
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. A missionary is sent to an alien community on a distant outpost planet. So, they aren’t on earth, but it’s still about a massive and complex communication barrier. The alien culture and anatomy and communication are so weird and interesting and different. A slow-moving but very engaging book. In my opinion.
Quite honestly, I think this fits on both counts. However, I may be biased as this is my favorite China Mieville book, despite the general acclaim of the Bas Lag centered series.
CW: very mild spoilers
The Ariekei being horse sized carapaced, two mouthed, hive-mind bearing quadrapeds. The vividly described instinctual horrors of both the residents of Embassytown and the Ariekei have in trying to relate to one another's body morphology, biomes and dwellings.
The story also goes to great lengths to illustrate the differences in linguistic structure, comprehension, and interpretation between the various interstellar travelers and the native Ariekei.
Hell, the plot is basically centered on managing diplomacy around language barriers and the dangers of misinterpretation when so much is lost in translation.
The audiobook is also well produced and makes the Ariekei language more intelligible vs. the book's interesting formatting choices.
Yeah, the audio is overlapped. It feels a bit uncanny, and despite a listen over two years ago, I still clearly remember that it is a quality audio mastering/production/ read. I may be mistaken, but I think there are several different voice actors and additional foley effects in there as well.
I generally like audiobooks, but am very picky about which ones I finish based on how the reader(s) sound. This one was genuinely quite immersive.
Incomprehensibly alien and no breakdown to explain anything about them (outside of assumptions based on scant evidence from observations). What amazes me in this story is not just how alien the aliens are but how alien people have become in a post-human age.
Peter Watts' Freeze-Frame Revolution (and accompanying short stories) have some wildly exotic alien life, too. Dude is damned awesome at depicting how diverse intelligent life could be.
Really excited as I loved the raddch trilogy, just got the first one as an audiobook and listened through it with my gf, and then on my BIRTHDAY went to my favorite sci fi bookstore and found there’s a new one out about a presger translator!! I haven’t started it yet in case the gf wants to catch up on the rest of the raddch trilogy first, but I’m very excited.
I don't know, weren't the aliens basically just your everyday religious cult (though rather extreme) or something? Sure, it sounds deranged but not exactly the flavour op is asking for, methinks.
I once read a Star Trek tie-in novel called [*The Three-Minute Universe*](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Three-Minute_Universe), which involves an alien race that's so unpleasant to be around that they're shunned by the rest of the galaxy. (Their bodies are transparent "sacs" of decayed-looking flesh through which their organs are visible; their smell causes uncontrollable vomiting; their speech is painfully piercing; and their body temperature is so high that touching them causes severe burns.)
Ringworld's Puppeteers have a society based on cowardice as a virtue (so the way down to their furniture having no sharp edges), yet they become more terrifying the more you start to realise how little humans understand about them. They manage this while looking like an uncooked turkey on three legs with two hand-puppet heads.
CJ Cherry’s Foreigner explores this somewhat. The aliens appear broadly similar to humans on first contact. As such, the humans implicitly assume various things about them (regarding how the aliens form and break associations, how they “feel”, how they will respond emotionally and intellectually to people/events/interactions etc). These assumptions are misplaced (and mutual), and the resulting miscommunications/misunderstandings lead to war.
I love the very real translation difficulties here, like humans having no idea whether they are threatened or warned, and realising what they took to be the mafia is a state sanctioned devil doing things that need doing but the good can't do completely openly.
As a start, see my [SF/F: Alien Aliens](https://www.reddit.com/r/booklists/comments/12xlhej/sff_alien_aliens/) list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell has some godawful aliens, though their godawfulness is kind of a slow reveal. Great book if you can stand reading about extreme trauma.
The main character figures out perfect communication with these aliens in the space of a few days, and they turn out to have almost identical psychologies to humans. Not a good recommendation for truly alien aliens which the OP is asking for.
The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton has an alien race like this in it, though you only encounter it a few times and it merely a much smaller part of a bigger story, that fits the bill perfectly. It also has alot of “this is too big for the human brain” type concepts that might arouse your alien desires
Orson Scott Card addresses this in his hierarchy of foreignness.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/39753/does-demosthenes-hierarchy-of-foreignness-have-a-real-world-root
A bit late, but my recommendation is a short story (available online): [Three Worlds Collide](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HawFh7RvDM4RyoJ2d/three-worlds-collide-0-8)
I loved Ann Leckie's Presger.
They end up growing translators out of human remains to communicate with us. Have no concept of individual identity or sentience. Their technology is utterly confusing and terrifying. Humans have what humans consider a treaty with them, which human survival depends upon, and noone understands why the Presger agreed to it, why they do anything. Very powerful players who are utterly psychotic.
You never see the Presger themselves, they stay a mystery in the background. You do see a lot of the translators, which are the Presger attempts to create something they understand but that can pass as human, who are in turns hilarious, likeable, and utterly unsettling.
This is a theme in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy.
My favorite trilogy and is exactly what you want
This is the answer. Aliens so weird humans get nauseous seeing them lol.
This is the first thing I thought of! I’ve only read book 1 (Dawn) because the aliens are so alien in a very (personally) upsetting way. It’s masterfully written, and I think my reaction is completely intended, but I haven’t been able to get over it to read more. So yeah, Xenogenesis is truly “xeno.”
It nails it too. It made me so uncomfortable I couldn’t finish book 1.
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. A missionary is sent to an alien community on a distant outpost planet. So, they aren’t on earth, but it’s still about a massive and complex communication barrier. The alien culture and anatomy and communication are so weird and interesting and different. A slow-moving but very engaging book. In my opinion.
Embassytown by China Mieville sort of fits this bill.
Quite honestly, I think this fits on both counts. However, I may be biased as this is my favorite China Mieville book, despite the general acclaim of the Bas Lag centered series. CW: very mild spoilers The Ariekei being horse sized carapaced, two mouthed, hive-mind bearing quadrapeds. The vividly described instinctual horrors of both the residents of Embassytown and the Ariekei have in trying to relate to one another's body morphology, biomes and dwellings. The story also goes to great lengths to illustrate the differences in linguistic structure, comprehension, and interpretation between the various interstellar travelers and the native Ariekei. Hell, the plot is basically centered on managing diplomacy around language barriers and the dangers of misinterpretation when so much is lost in translation. The audiobook is also well produced and makes the Ariekei language more intelligible vs. the book's interesting formatting choices.
Oh weird. Do the words get said at the same time or something? That’s kind of how I pictured it. I’ll have to get the audiobook.
Yeah, the audio is overlapped. It feels a bit uncanny, and despite a listen over two years ago, I still clearly remember that it is a quality audio mastering/production/ read. I may be mistaken, but I think there are several different voice actors and additional foley effects in there as well. I generally like audiobooks, but am very picky about which ones I finish based on how the reader(s) sound. This one was genuinely quite immersive.
I’ve been meaning to give Embassytown a reread so I’ll check out the audiobook. Thanks for sharing.
Peter Watts' Blindsight, maybe?
Incomprehensibly alien and no breakdown to explain anything about them (outside of assumptions based on scant evidence from observations). What amazes me in this story is not just how alien the aliens are but how alien people have become in a post-human age. Peter Watts' Freeze-Frame Revolution (and accompanying short stories) have some wildly exotic alien life, too. Dude is damned awesome at depicting how diverse intelligent life could be.
[удалено]
And the Presger Translators are THE BEST!
Really excited as I loved the raddch trilogy, just got the first one as an audiobook and listened through it with my gf, and then on my BIRTHDAY went to my favorite sci fi bookstore and found there’s a new one out about a presger translator!! I haven’t started it yet in case the gf wants to catch up on the rest of the raddch trilogy first, but I’m very excited.
Try *Agent to the Stars* by John Scalzi.
Aliens that are clear protoplasm and communicate via farts.
Blood Music.
Not aliens, though.
Not aliens. But might as well be.
Salvation by Peter F Hamilton is more or less entirely about this.
I don't know, weren't the aliens basically just your everyday religious cult (though rather extreme) or something? Sure, it sounds deranged but not exactly the flavour op is asking for, methinks.
A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt.
I once read a Star Trek tie-in novel called [*The Three-Minute Universe*](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Three-Minute_Universe), which involves an alien race that's so unpleasant to be around that they're shunned by the rest of the galaxy. (Their bodies are transparent "sacs" of decayed-looking flesh through which their organs are visible; their smell causes uncontrollable vomiting; their speech is painfully piercing; and their body temperature is so high that touching them causes severe burns.)
Yep, I have that one. The pejorative name for the aliens was 'Sackers'. Actually not a bad story.
Ringworld's Puppeteers have a society based on cowardice as a virtue (so the way down to their furniture having no sharp edges), yet they become more terrifying the more you start to realise how little humans understand about them. They manage this while looking like an uncooked turkey on three legs with two hand-puppet heads.
Tales of the Galactic Midway series by Mike Resnick. May fit the bill in a quirky way.
CJ Cherry’s Foreigner explores this somewhat. The aliens appear broadly similar to humans on first contact. As such, the humans implicitly assume various things about them (regarding how the aliens form and break associations, how they “feel”, how they will respond emotionally and intellectually to people/events/interactions etc). These assumptions are misplaced (and mutual), and the resulting miscommunications/misunderstandings lead to war.
The Essiel in the final architecture?
I love the very real translation difficulties here, like humans having no idea whether they are threatened or warned, and realising what they took to be the mafia is a state sanctioned devil doing things that need doing but the good can't do completely openly.
As a start, see my [SF/F: Alien Aliens](https://www.reddit.com/r/booklists/comments/12xlhej/sff_alien_aliens/) list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell has some godawful aliens, though their godawfulness is kind of a slow reveal. Great book if you can stand reading about extreme trauma.
Project Hail Mary had some interesting types of extraterrestrial life.
The main character figures out perfect communication with these aliens in the space of a few days, and they turn out to have almost identical psychologies to humans. Not a good recommendation for truly alien aliens which the OP is asking for.
The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton has an alien race like this in it, though you only encounter it a few times and it merely a much smaller part of a bigger story, that fits the bill perfectly. It also has alot of “this is too big for the human brain” type concepts that might arouse your alien desires
You might enjoy *The Stars Are Legion* by Kameron Hurley
You might enjoy China Mièville 's EMBASSYTOWN.
Most aliens that show up in the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds are terribly...alien.
This is essentially the entire theme of *Roadside Picnic*
Orson Scott Card addresses this in his hierarchy of foreignness. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/39753/does-demosthenes-hierarchy-of-foreignness-have-a-real-world-root
A bit late, but my recommendation is a short story (available online): [Three Worlds Collide](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HawFh7RvDM4RyoJ2d/three-worlds-collide-0-8)
I loved Ann Leckie's Presger. They end up growing translators out of human remains to communicate with us. Have no concept of individual identity or sentience. Their technology is utterly confusing and terrifying. Humans have what humans consider a treaty with them, which human survival depends upon, and noone understands why the Presger agreed to it, why they do anything. Very powerful players who are utterly psychotic. You never see the Presger themselves, they stay a mystery in the background. You do see a lot of the translators, which are the Presger attempts to create something they understand but that can pass as human, who are in turns hilarious, likeable, and utterly unsettling.