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The Companions by Sherri S. Tepper check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
Thus many of the sentient aliens encountered by the crew of the USS Enterprise or populating the instalments of Dr Who could be identified as men in costume. The written word, however, allows for a much greater range of imagination. Many authors still go down the road of humanoid aliens. It is simpler. It means that they can be given human emotions and can react in ways we can understand. It is possible that if we actually met real aliens, we would not recognise them or they us. In the final Quatermass series, we were merely animals to be harvested. C.J. Cherryh's Hani (in her 'Chanur' series) have different social sets and find human behaviour difficult to understand, but are still essentially humanoid. One of the earliest attempts to create really strange aliens was in James White's 'Sector General' series of novels and stories where solving the medical problems of the incomprehensible became a detective-type puzzle in order to find out first what the patient was suffering from and secondly how to treat them/it. Sheri Tepper takes much the same approach as White in the creation of her aliens. Why should they look like us? Why should we be able to understand them? Many authors in the past have envisioned the human race going out and discovering the aliens - an extension of imperialism that has not been confined to British writers. Cherryh often has a starfaring network of races into which humans are a rare intrusion. We are little and insignificant. Lisanne Norman, also has humans as newcomers into an established alliance of alien planets (see her Sholan Alliance series from DAW). In Norman's work, humans are invited as partners. Tepper takes a middle ground. Humans think they are important. The rest of the universe is inclined to disagree. Tepper also looks at our mistakes and failings and these tend to come to the fore in her novels. In 'The Companions', although the human race has spread out into the galaxy, it is only a recently sentient species. The other races are very different in appearance and communication can be a problem. Jewel's brother, Paul, is an exceptional linguist but he has the arrogance that is still a predominant human characteristic. Jewel, who travels with him in the guise of his organiser, is actually the more observant and considerably more diplomatic. She acts as a spy, gathering information for a small group who believe that mutual co-operation is the best way to get along with other species and that knowing their customs and mores is a vital part of this. Earth itself, however, is in deep trouble. Most of it has been covered by huge, towering conurbations resembling termite hills. Food is manufactured from algae. Just before Jewel and Paul leave for the planet known as Moss, a decree is announced banning all animal life from Earth in order to make more food, air and space available for people. As Jewel is also involved with the arkists, a group dedicated to preserving biodiversity and settling Earth animals on other planets she takes the opportunity to take with her six genetically enhanced dogs and their handlers. On Moss, Jewel and her friends not only have the problem of deciding if some of the life there is sentient, but of unravelling the language - which is based on smell. Then there is the mystery of local disappearances and the build up of Derac forces on the planet (the Derac are a warlike reptilian race that no-one really trusts). Gradually the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. Tepper always tells a good story. She gives the reader plenty to think about. Usually, she has a message for those who care to take note of it. The future for Earth she postulates here is not far-fetched. It is not even totally original, for example, David Wingrove's epic 'Chung Kuo' series also had the continents covered with multi-layered habitations. Tepper, though, takes the trend one step further and warns us to beware our arrogance as a species. One of the functions of early Science Fiction was to warn the readers of the dangers lurking in our future if we followed certain paths. Tepper is treading in the foot-marks of her predecessors. Perhaps it is time the world started to listen. Pauline Morgan
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OTHER REVIEWS - April 2004
Other reviews: April 2004 Lucifer's Dragon by Jon Courtenay Grimwood The Companions by Sherri S. Tepper Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford Sunshine Patriots by Bill Campbell The Skies Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton The Adam Strange Archives Volume 1 Wit'ch Gate: Immortal Magic - Infinite Vengence by James Clemens Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong Deep Space Nine: Rising Son by SD Perry Absolution Gap (The Inhibitors series book 3) by Alastair Reynolds Alchymist (The Well Of Echoes book 3) by Ian Irvine Hal Spacejock: Second Course by Simon Haynes Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris The Dancers At The End Of Time by Michael Moorcock The Crow: The Story Behind The Film by Bridget Baiss British Summertime by Paul Cornell The Year Of Our War by Steph Swainson April 2004: Hardback to Paperbacks The Chesley Awards: A Retrospective by John Grant and Elizabeth Humphrey with Pamela D. Scoville
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Dr
Jack Cohen, (biologist, SF fan and co-author of The Science of Discworld
with Terry Pratchett and Ian Stewart), often laments in his lectures
that too often aliens have elbows and - even worse - pentadactyl
limbs just like us. As a zoologist, he is well aware that the path
of evolution on Earth is one littered with fortuitous accidents.
He
will ask us to note that flight has arisen on our lowly planet several
times and that the techniques of birds and butterflies are very
different. Why then should aliens be bipedal and think like us?
In the case of films and TV programmes, particularly in the past,
it makes sense. Before the advent of computer generated images that
could be easily melded with conventional footage, actors had to
be employed. 
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