Favourite alien species?

[blacknorth]

Black Clouds.

 

[elvet]

I really liked the idea of the serpent/dragon/liveships from Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders.

 

[clovis-man]

Going back a few years: Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson's creation, the Hokas.

 

[ghost8772]

wow, THATS a loaded question. unfortunately I can't really narrow anything down. Wookies are fun, and cuddly, as long as you don't worry about missing arms or anything like that. Fire Lizards are just plain cool, and their "cousins" are awesome.
The problem is that at least half sci-fi is made interesting by the alien species involved. Vulcans, Klingons, Kzinti, Pierson's puppeteers, pip, or is it Flinx, the Thranx, Achuultani, aliens (xenomorphs), predators, the Golden Hordes (Fortschen's lost regiment tales), and of course the fuzzy, scaly, blue, green, grey, full range of Star wars aliens, from the wookies all the way down to ewoks. They helped make the stories more out there than the science of the future. Asimov and Heinlein, they tackled the humans in the future, little to no aliens most I've heard from ewither of them was Heinlein's martians, and venutians.
Basically the main characters of extra terrestrial origin become human in my eyes, maybe a bit peculiar, but human all the same. my mind just puts them into terran terms. Favorite species though.... I can't narrow anything down.

 

[Thufir]

I've always liked Niven's The Pak . In 'Protector' when one travels 10'000 light years or so to our solar system at sub-light speeds, he doesn't use stasis or anything. He just sits there and waits. Maybe doing a small exercise of his fingers after 5000 yrs. That's one formidable alien. (although technically The Pak are human, so arn't alien)

I also quite liked Niven's Moties in The Mote In God's Eye. Just an interesting, multi-caste, race.

I've got to admit I'm nowhere nearly as well read as most of you guys. I've only heard of a couple of the ones you've mentioned. I'll have to check out CJ Cherryh.

A more recent alien species that impressed me was the Primes in Judas Unchained and Pandora's Star by PF Hamilton. The description of this race in the first book was amazing.

 

[The Procrastinator]

I just loved Eleanor Arnason's Iron People, and people of assorted other materials, from A Woman of the Iron People. They were so funny and down to earth. I didn't want the book to end because I would have to leave them - a wonderful mix of the truly alien and the comfortingly familiar. You could really imagine meeting them.