[Fung Koo]

Hi there,

I'm mulling over a thesis topic which requires a pretty specific book list. I was hoping for recommendations based on some very limiting factors and was hoping you knowledgeable sorts could help me out. :)

I'm trying to find books in the SF vein which present a (near) galaxy-spanning culture where there are no aliens and no indication of aliens having ever existed. AI is probably fine.

The argument rests on the idea that SF, like utopia/dystopia, requires a foil in order to elucidate its social position. I want to explore SF's capabilities as a vehicle for social criticism in the absence of an imagined 'other.' Does it simply become satire? What are the imagined politics? What are the imagined future social codes with regards to advanced science? Religious implications?

Any suggestions anyone can offer that are spot on, or even just close (in the sense that maybe not much of the galaxy has yet been explored/other limiting factors/etc) in either book or tv/movie form (other that BSG), would be greatly appreciated.

[Mice9]

Here is something that comes close, but close in the sense that humans have spanned the galaxy and found only one alien species.

Reviewed by Hobbit - One of our resident Administrators:

http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/397.html

Or is it The Administrator?

That's the only one that comes to mind for me.

- 9.

[Seli]

As far as I can remember aliens are absent from the Foundation novels by Asimov and the Dune series by Frank Herbert, both containing galaxy spanning empires.
I can vaguely remember some others, but no names at the moment.

[The Master™]

There is a couple of books by L E Modesitt Jnr that have some of these criteria...

Archform: Beauty
The Ethos Effect
Adiamante

[Fung Koo]

Thanks, and keep em coming!

[manephelien]

I would second the Foundation novels, especially as they were written as a kind of social commentary.

Asimov initially wanted to include aliens, but John W. Campbell didn't, at least not any that were inferior to humans (by all accounts JWC was a white supremacist, sexist *****), so Asimov avoided that by only including robots, Solarians (humans modified to be hermaphroditic) and eventually Gaia, a planet of intelligence, where the planet itself was somewhat sentient.

[Michigan]

I could be wrong but I don't remember any aliens in the Hyperion books.

[Adrift]

I could be wrong but I don't remember any aliens in the Hyperion books.

As far as I can remember Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion don't feature any aliens (beyond describing an erg). But there are definitely aliens in Rise of Endymion.

[Dromed]

Consider the T.V. series Firefly and film Serenity set in the same universe. I think it might have everything you're looking for.

[Colonel Worf]

Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov