This series focuses on stories that are both well-written and do something that I find interesting from a technical perspective. This week, let’s go ice-diving!
Writing non-human intelligences in a convincingly different manner while still making them relatable to readers is a challenge. No human in historical memory has ever even communicated with another intelligent hominid, so writing believable and comprehensible interactions with something a little further afield requires some real mental leaps on the part of the writer and reader. A good writer does everything (s)he can to guide that leap and pad it at the end, but the reader still needs to get outside of his/her own head and think about what it means to be human…or otherwise.
Of course, I’m not interested in this from the perspective of stunt writing or something incomprehensibly literary. The story has to come first, otherwise I’m going to go read something else that tells a story properly. Dreadnought Under Ice, by George S. Walker and published in Abyss & Apex, is a fascinating example of believable, complex interaction with a non-hominid intelligence deep under the oceans of Europa, and one that never takes away from the action or corporate intrigue of the plot. You should go check it out! It’s a good read, and an interesting one, too.
It also reminds me of a poem in honor of a virtual Kzinti, one line of which has a similar rhythm. But that’s another story.