10 Sci-Fi Books That Could Be The Next “Arrival”
When Ted Chiang wrote a cute little story about a linguist learning to picture-talk with some seven legged octopus aliens, I wonder if he knew that it would someday be adapted into a big budget Hollywood sci-fi movie with Amy Adams? If he learned heptapod speak, and with it their knowledge of the future, I’m sure he did. While I’ve never personally conversed with the heptapods, and my foresight’s only good for predicting what I’ll have for dinner, I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what could make another big budget Hollywood venture: these 10 sci-fi books could be the next Arrival.
The Sparrow
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel is basically reverse Arrival, where humans visit an alien planet in an attempt to spread enlightenment. Unlike the heptapods, we screw it up big time. After hearing alien music bumping from a faraway star system, a group of spacefaring Catholic missionaries step out on a lightyears long limb to make first contact – and they step in it in the process. The missionaries connect with the planet’s two intelligent species, one of whom serves as prey for the other. After a series of cultural misunderstandings, the humans make catastrophic social blunders that explode into a supernova of tragedy for all involved.
The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet
The Long Way To A Small, Angry planet by Becky Chambers might seem like it’s about the vast distance between celestial bodies, but it’s actually about the inch-deep distances between human hearts. The plot orbits around a group of astronauts who ride a wormhole-making ship through space, tunneling portals through the galaxy to facilitate human travel. It doesn’t really matter where they’re going, what matters is why they’re going, along with what brought them to this crew and who they’ll become as they get to know each other. In keeping with this theme, they also figure out the how of communicating with each other – like all dysfunctional queer found families must.
Embassytown
Have you been to Embassytown? It’s literally all the rage in the known universe – considering that it’s at the very edge of it. China Mieville’s novel is about the titular intergalactic hotspot that serves as a trading post on the furthermost planet from our sun. The place is also populated by the Ariekei, who speak an entirely unique tongue that requires altered physiology to speak. Avice Benner Cho is a human colonist who has a deep connection to the Ariekei’s language – her identity serves as a literal figure of speech (long story). That connection is tested with the arrival of human diplomats who seek to upend the tenuous balance between human and alien cultures, and Avice will have to decide which side she falls on. The side whose language she speaks, or the side that speaks so highly of her?
Hell Is The Absence of God
Ted Chiang’s Hell Is The Absence of God puts all theological questions to bed: Heaven and Hell are real, proven by the many angelic visitations that the Earth is now host to – one of which inadvertently killed the wife of the novel’s protagonist. After his faith is shattered by grief, Neil Fisk embarks on a quest to get into Heaven and reunite with his ascended wife despite his complicated relationship with God. Neil hears a rumor that anyone who sees the divine light of Heaven will be taken there instantly, and this light only appears when an angel enters into our own reality. You know what that means: we’re going on an angel hunt!!!! While the story could technically be considered more of a theological fantasy than straight sci-fi, I struggle to think of beings more alien than divine emissaries from above.
The Mountain In The Sea
Ray Nayler’s The Mountain In The Sea is basically the sci-fi version of My Octopus Teacher, except instead of being about a man’s midlife crisis relationship with a normal octopus, this novel is about a scientist’s attempt to contact a highly advanced octopus species. The cephalopods in question have more culture in one tentacle than Squidward Tentacles has in his whole body, and are capable of staggering works of genius. While Dr. Ha Nguyen’s attempt to connect with the octopuses are benevolent, the corporation that hired her to do so has ulterior motives. Make a fortune off of uncovered octopus tech? That’s a capitalistic loophole that many a company intends to exploit. Like Amy Adams in Arrival, Dr. Ha Nguyen is the only thing standing in between humanity and its own stupid, selfish decisions.
A Desolation Called Peace
A Desolation Called Peace is the sequel to A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine’s story about a human diplomat attempting to forge a connection with an interplanetary empire. Spoiler alert: she does. Bigger spoiler alert: the Empire she worked so hard to broker peace with just had its own equilibrium shattered by an alien attack. Reeling from an extraterrestrial assault on one of their colonies, the Teixcalaanli Empire attempts to find some common ground with their inscrutable foes by sending an ambassador to, well, scrutinize them. Like Arrival, it’s a story about one civilization’s attempt to communicate with another that is utterly unintelligible. But if the Teixcalaanli Empire is gonna survive, they better start intelligating, and quick.
The Employees
Alien artifacts have been discovered on the appropriately named planet “New Discovery” and a team of humans and androids have been dispatched to investigate. These are the titular corporate shills of Olga Ravn’s The Employees, and their exploits are told through a series of logs recorded and shipped back to their employers. The novel reads like a Dark Souls game plays, the information is out of order. Pieces are missing. Parts have been redacted. It’s unclear exactly what’s going at times but it’s so damn fascinating that you just don’t care! As the alien artifacts are taken aboard, the humans and androids begin to experience profound psychological changes – questioning everything from their work’s purpose to the meaning of their lives. Contact with alien life does that sort of thing, just ask Amy Adams in Arrival!
The Book of New Strange Things
The Book of Strange New Things by Micheal Faber is indeed a book about strange and new things – things experienced by English pastor turned intergalactic missionary Peter Leigh. Pete experiences the odd stuff in question on the distant plant of Oasis, where he has been tasked to make contact with the native people living there. He’s shocked to discover that the planet’s inhabitants aren’t towering seven footed squid guys, but a human-esque group that already speak English and love Jesus. After learning a little more about this peaceful people, Peter uncovers the horrifying reality that fuels their Christian devotion. It’s essentially Arrival if the heptapods’ promises of enlightenment where woefully misconstrued, and unintentionally deceived the human race with fantasies of a better form existence.
The Space Between Worlds
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson is like Arrival if the aliens were actually us visiting from a parallel reality, but only to steal our stuff. In Johnson’s novel, humanity has figured out a way to vault between parallel universes, but can only do so if their alternate self has died in the world that they wish to visit. This loophole is exploited by the upper class, who hire universe jumpers from poor and destitute worlds whose alternate selves are mostly all dead. Cara is one such “traverser” and holds a cushy corporate job because of it, but when one of her many doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, Cara uncovers a darkly oligarchical plot that threatens her peace. Unlike Amy Adams in Arrival, Cara is concerned with not one but multiple stories of her life: the cut-short existences of her parallel selves.
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