What are some fictions book that talk about communicating (or miscommunication) with other intelligent species (real or fantastic). Some books I've read and that come to mind:
-Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
-Devolution by Max brooks
-Stories of your life and others by Ted Chiang (specifically Story of your life, which led to the movie Arrival)
Thanks!
by Titepatatee
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Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Semiosis by Sue Burke
All of the books in the Ender’s Game series (with that one containing the least amount of communication with another species)
Fairy tale – Stephen King
Embassytown by China Mieville follows a human colony communicating with an alien species
In *Embassytown,* the alien speech is so interestingly odd that special human ambassadors are needed to talk with them. The entire plot is driven by the alien form of communication and then miscommunication – more than that though… the theme of the story and literally the setting itself also involve (mis)communication. Similes IIRC.
Great novel by one of my favorite authors.
Dragon’s Egg by Rober L. Forward. This is similar in some ways to Project Hail Mary, but with a lot more focus on the pretend science.
The Chanur series by C. J. Cherryh. From the perspective of aliens meeting a human for the first time.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Seconding *The Sparrow* by Mary Doria Russell.
There’s also *Lilith’s Brood* by Octavia E Butler and *Binti* by Nnedi Okorafor.
For the very slowest of burns, you would need to read nine books of the Honor Harrington series (through Ashes of Victory) to get to a big payoff but the series starts with her and her telempathic treecat, and follows their changing communications. (It’s definitely not even a side plot in the series until book 7 or so, but from then on it’s more of a feature of the stories.)
A true classic would be Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke. The aliens speak English and other human languages, they just also look like Satan. And *they* have come to earth for peace with *humans*. They intentionally miscommunicate with the people, and allow the people to misinterpret what they say, but it’s one big thing they’re mis communicating on.
The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers.