I attended FenCon 2019 and went to a couple of panels by science fiction and fantasy authors that I thought had useful information for writers. One of those panels was Extraordinary Creatures.

The panelists

• Julie Czerneda, with 17 science fiction and 3 fantasy novels
• Amber Royer, with 2 comic science fiction novels
• William Ledbetter, an author of hard science fiction and alien first contact
• Stephen Patrick, author of Holocaust Engine
• Adrian Simmons, editor of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly

Favorite alien or mythological beasts

• dragons, though most don’t do it right
• goblins, who are traditionally bad guys but have their own issues
• the alien from Aliens, because was visceral and can do things humans can’t

Discussion of different takes on sentience included

• intelligent plants–communicate through photosynthesis?
• Arrival –aliens trying to communicate
• AIs–“cannot be a construct, but yes”
• Turing Copper–a mystery series where AI is in love with creator
• Godzilla originally began as a response to worries about radiation poisoning
  • smites bad in world
  • protector demon summoned to take care of human issues
• Harry Harrison’s Death World 1970s
  • planet evolved things to destroy humans
  • planet trying to expel humans, like white cells attacking foreign bodies
  • entirely inter-connected eco system

Does the story drive biology or do you create the creatures first?

• function first–I needed annoying background. I took a Hoover vacuum and put flowers on it.
• for a series I tried to think of what would have a particular sense
• figure out the story first and have a character who happens to be alien… need gift/benefit and drawback
• try to personify the story with the monsters
• did Godzilla dealing with climate change
• 18th C demon and Texas Rangers
• I usually start with monster and give myself freedom to explore
• intelligent weasel “utterly malignant and wicked”
• alien first–then build story–then change alien 🙂
• alien invasion of plants taking over the ecosystem, ultimate invasive species

Advice

• Avoid discussing how the not-biology works.
• “as close as we can get” is all you can do
• People will name things similarly to what they already know.
• I had a creature called “butter bugs” because when you stepped on them, they smelled like buttered popcorn.
• Need to read a lot of bio/science for world building, if not an alternate Earth.

What about cyborgs?

• It depends how written.
• Example would be a human brain in a completely mechanical body.
• Discussion of The Ship Who Sang, Anne McCaffrey.
• Separated brain has issues, b/c memory relates to smell, touch, taste.
• Will we be able to scan human brains?
• Can a scan inherit the brain owner’s stuff?
• chemistry drives the emotional life, so they are still human
• intelligent and self-aware = person, may not be human anymore
• human v person is a sliding scale

There were two additional panels along these same lines: Fungi and Fun  and Alien Life-Not Alone.