Aliens & Hybrids

[Neelay Beliero]

My novel is about an Alien girl who's race is being oppressed by their rulers. She whitenesses humans arrive to colonise her planet which leads to her fighting in a war. Her species are humanoid with cat-like and reptilian features.

I know it may sound similar to Avatar on the surface but there is a lot more going on. The story will follow her from an infant right up to her life as a warrior as well as delving into the history of her planet and its troubled relationship with humans.Some humans and aliens have had relationships resulting in hybrid births. I'm wondering if this is too much?

I know human/alien relationships are old news but most of the things I read the aliens looks human anyway or only have minor differences. So when there's an obvious difference i'm not too sure.

I want to go with it but i'm not sure if it will throw readers off.

 

[Mirannan]

This would put off hard-SF fans a great deal. One of the many objections by purists to Star Trek is the prevalence of hybrids between the various humanoid races in the setting. As someone said once, the typical one and the first (Spock, a human/Vulcan hybrid) is rather less reasonable than a mating between a human and a petunia.

The only reasonably valid get-out would be that the aliens are of human stock, or to put it another way that some Master Race way back when picked up some proto-humans and scattered them around the Galaxy, after which they adapted and ended up looking quite different from one another.

 

[Bowler1]

For hard SciFi mixing of the gene pool is a silly idea. Can humans breed with anyother animal on earth, no - why, because our genes are different.

An alien may have a triple DNA strand, have more than four nucleotides and other major differences making interbreeding impossible.

However, when has scientific fact ever gotten in the way of a good SciFi yarn, hardly ever I'd say. So as long as the story is fun, go for it.

 

[jastius]

actually, since vulcans were supposed to be the science fiction equivalent of elves and in the star trek writers guide for the original series had been keeping an eye upon human development and possibly giving them a nudge now and then, its entirely probable that vulcans are a lot closer to being able to breed with humans, but the offspring would be like the get of a donkey and a horse, a mule. sterile and not capable of reproducing.

as for the aliens, neelay? don't make them blue.
orange is a nice colour.. fuchsia. a nice butter-cream yellow, magenta .. just not blue..
reptiles don't have to have scales. birds are related to reptiles. yours could have feathers.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Nothing wrong with having hybrids - hybridisation is far more common in nature than most people realise. However, you are going to need to justify this in some way - common ancestor, genetic experimentation, quirk of DNA, etc.

 

[Neelay Beliero]

Thanks Jastius,

The hybrids they produce will definitely be either sterile or in need of some form on mental control.

For the aliens I have decided on a golden/Tawny colour. I like the feather idea and will work on some designs!

 

[Bowler1]

Nothing wrong with having hybrids - hybridisation is far more common in nature than most people realise.

It it's a plant, then yeah.

Donkies etc. are all on the same branch of evolution which is why they can interbreed. Lions and tigers too and a few other animal examples do exsist, but I don't think animal interbreeding is all too common. I may be proved wrong, wait and see.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It it's a plant, then yeah.

I remember an article in New Scientist about the subject a few years ago. Maybe not so common in the higher mammals, but I remember in lower orders it could be quite common, and butterflies were used as an example. Even still, I believe it was closely related species.

 

[Sunseal]

I think the main thing is just to justify yourself. If you were asked in an interview how aliens and humans can interbreed, and you said "Because it's my book and they can", then as a reader I would definitely be put off reading it as it would never really be able to overcome the feeling of "this could never happen."
However, if you are able to justify it.. even if it's not something that could actually ever happen in real life... as long as it's justified in your book and you give a reason as to why it can happen.. then I think you'd gain the readers' acceptance.

 

[Mirannan]

actually, since vulcans were supposed to be the science fiction equivalent of elves and in the star trek writers guide for the original series had been keeping an eye upon human development and possibly giving them a nudge now and then, its entirely probable that vulcans are a lot closer to being able to breed with humans, but the offspring would be like the get of a donkey and a horse, a mule. sterile and not capable of reproducing.

as for the aliens, neelay? don't make them blue.
orange is a nice colour.. fuchsia. a nice butter-cream yellow, magenta .. just not blue..
reptiles don't have to have scales. birds are related to reptiles. yours could have feathers.

I really don't see it. The fact that Vulcans have green blood means their metabolism is extremely different from that of humans. Incidentally, there are terrestrial animals with blue blood, with the oxygen-carrying molecule being something called haemocyanin IIRC. There are none with green blood, as far as I know.

Objections to hybridisation between humans and humanoid aliens include:

Different chromosome numbers. While crossbreeds between closely related species are possible (examples: horses/donkeys and lions/tigers) are possible, the different chromosome numbers in the two species lead to sterile offspring. Admittedly, sterile hybrids are still alive - might be an interesting plot element.

Gross incompatibility in metabolism, caused by being very different in habitat and diet.

Different metabolic base; Vulcans and humans (above) serve as an example.

Possibly, people from mutually alien worlds might have DNA with different bases, or different genetic coding schemes, or using different amino acids for structural purposes, or conceivably one or other of them might not use DNA and/or amino acids at all. Naturally, in any of these cases hybridisation is right out.

Even more extremely, one or other of them might not use carbon as a basis material for structure and function, or one might use chlorine as an oxidant, or might not work on oxidation at all (using hydrogen as a reductant perhaps) or might use something other than water as a solvent, or any combination of these.

And finally, going back to less fundamental matters, they might not be mutually compatible because there is no sexual interest. Chimpanzees are very close to humans, genetically; something like 98% similarity I believe. Despite this; don't know about you, but I don't find female chimps a turn-on. I much doubt that I would even if they were sapient.

 

[Bowler1]

I’m not going to even think about Monkeys, horrible smelly things – gross.

Now while I accept cross breeding would be useful for genetic mixing (lower orders of course), I can’t see the benefit of a human chimp mix, for humans anyway. For the chimp, it could be Planet of the Apes and of great advantage, leading to the end of the world as we know it for humans – so put that hairy thing down. For nice butterflies that are eaten by all sundry then variation and crossbreeding would produce genetic winners quickly, always a plus.

Anyway, my point being - the higher up the food chain you are the more specialised the animal is, so the less likely it is to enable crossbreeding. Humans have evolved a very large brain and we even have adaptations when born (a skull that does not fuse properly for years) to allow this. No other animal does this, and this is just one example I can think of, of why we’re human and not monkeys.

But it’s fiction, Star Trex does it all the time and Captain Kirk (My Hero) was a right old tart, so it can be done. For me, seeing crossbreeding of alien races in a book might put me off, but that would just be me. Which always made me wonder why Aliens with UFO’s landed in wheat fields and stuck us with probes, why bother?

 

[nubins]

When ive considered this for a sci-fi universe, i always settled that it was possible, but only when assisted - like some form of futuristic IVF.

You could also devise a different method by which one of the species mates.

In Mass Effect, the Asari race reproduce by absorbing genetic material from other higher species (including other Asari) and combining it with their own to produce an offspring. In their multi-species envrionment, many of them actively seek other species in order to produce genetic variation and strengthen the race. Im not sure at what level this would work, they seem to have control of when they intentionally mated and when they were just doing it for fun.

Also, the offspring always seem to look like Asari, with only very subtle variations in skin tone, eyes etc. So to the casual observer, you wouldnt know if you were looking at a hybrid or not.

 

[Bob Whitely]

The other comments had their merit, but there are some very important things you did not tell us. I think Sunseal gets the closest to what applies to you, Neelay, at least based on the information you gave. You need to justify the way things work in your universe. Not necessarily with hard science, but that leads into...

Who is your audience? If you are trying to reach hard science fiction readers, then yes, you should be looking deeply into using very good science. But even hard science fiction authors often take a serious detour, from the books I've read. They don't go into all the details, but the good ones do hit most of the right questions.

First of all, unless you just want to, there's no reason to assume an evolutionary underpinning to your story or a hard science fiction structure at all. Maybe it would be better if you did. I dunno. You didn't list the target audience.

But there are other good answers, depending on the type of story you are doing. Again, you need to decide or at least tell us, who you are trying to reach! If you are going for a Star Trek or Star Wars type crowd, it is completely unnecessary to delve into how the species came about, unless it's important to your story. The Star Wars universe was actually hurt when they changed the way the Force worked by trying to make it seem more scientific.

How important is the fact that there is a hybrid in your story? If you have hundreds of hybrid types, then focusing on that hybrid will feel out of place unless the story hinges on it. You don't need to answer everything, but if you create a situation that causes readers to ask, "Why the heck didn't the writer address this obvious issue?" then you've fallen short. But not every question needs an answer, and some that do can be hinted at, and then answered in a second book in which the topic plays a larger role. Make sense?

In my blended-genre Cosmothea universe, the gods are very active and there are also powerful AI, and between them, most of the creatures that exist have come about. It's all part of my backstory. I detail reasons why humans were independently spawned on multiple worlds. Had I not done that, it would have been unreasonable. Some things need to be spelled out and others don't. But you do need to justify.

You have a lot of room for creativity, unless you go the near future hard science fiction route. As long as you create a sense of internal logic and consistency and be careful with how you describe things for your particular audience, and how much you describe, you should be fine. Be true to your own story and follow a battleplan that targets your audience.

 

[Neelay Beliero]

Thanks for the response!

To be honest I have not thought of the target audience yet as I just wanted to wright it first for my own enjoyment and deal with that in a later date. But as i'm nearing the end I think it falls into a young adult category. So I guess YA sci-fi saga.

 

[Bowler1]

I just wanted to wright it first for my own enjoyment.

That for me is the best answer you could give. Write away and I hope you have many hours of fun.

 

[Kenziebattlewriter1]

It's amazing! I have a similar idea, but it's gonna be an anime, if it makes it through the critics here and my personal advisers. Feel free to look at my idea, it may help you too.

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/foru...r1/2055-i-need-advice-on-my-sci-fi-story.html.