So in what I'm writing a group of aliens from an Earth-like planet come across the Voyager 2 probe (look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about) that basically passes through a wormhole and pops up on the other side of the universe for these aliens to encounter. They find the probe and decipher the record on it. Seeing this wonderful civilization that, while they may not be technologically advanced, they are extremely culturally advanced, and they admire them for this. They go through the wormhole and land on Earth, which at this point (the year 2477), Earth is a sparsely populated wasteland that has been torn apart by war. These aliens, who, through the record, saw Earth as this wonderful civilization that may not be advanced technologically, but they are significantly culturally more advanced and are the only thing that can be described as planetary unity, see a vastly different world, and they realize the true downfall of human nature: Anger. Jealously. Greed. War. The Antagonist sees Earth like this and realizes its best to just conquer them and call it a day, while the MC wants to help them out with their advanced technology. The MC eventually meets a group of nomads struggling to survive in this wasteland, whom he befriends. So the writing is going pretty smoothly so far, but they'res just one problem: My aliens are definitely alien-like, their architecture, intelligence levels, strange technology, body (which is still bipedal, two arms and two eyes, but that's where the similarities end), and other ways of communicating besides their spoken language (They can do telepathy, and their bodies change in various ways to show different emotions). That's good and all, they're weird and alien-like enough to my likings, but I'm struggling to make them likeable. They're just too stoic and odd, and the MC, being an alien, can't really carry a whole novel without charisma or likeability, but that would make him seem too human-like, and I'm struggling to find a middle ground that actually seems realistic. Ideas?
Aliens will logically have a very alien way of thinking and reacting and outlook. Their cultural norms and expectations, how they sense and perceive the world and respond to it will be vastly different from a human's. There will be very little in similar experience they have with humans, their point of reference will be different in many aspects. This will make telling the story from an alien's perspective very challenging. While a watered down version of what I am getting at, there was that one Start Trek TNG episode titled Darmok. There, the aliens communicated in metaphors. While the words were translated, the metaphors had no meaning to the Enterprise crew. If, for example, the aliens normally communicate telepathically, that will be totally alien to humans, and human brain patterns and neuron-chemistry and such would make that likely impossible, or very difficult initially. So, the main mode of communication by the aliens would be unavailable. Maybe it would be like going from conversation, to having to communicate using Morse code? Unless they had previous experience with other species to fall back on, and even then. The aliens would likely be very disgusted with humanity, if they cannot fathom why such a culture would do such a thing. (If I read your post correctly). Having a MC have utter disgust and contempt for humanity, could be a problem. All of this makes it difficult to make an alien able to be related to, and thus, likable, from a human perspective. I say this as it sounds like you're not going for an alien culture that is similar to humanity's, just minus the negative points. I've read a few novels where the perspective of aliens was attempted, but never as a full novel from an alien's perspective. If you would find one or two of those and study to see how the author did it, that might offer insight.
Firstly welcome to the Forum. Second interesting inquiry, though it is posted in the wrong sub-forum. One of the Mods will move it to where it belongs. If I am understanding your dilemma correctly, you want your MC to be torn between if it is the right thing to rebel against the antag and help the humans, and begrudgingly going along with the conquering? As for making them likeable, well we know nothing really about them to offer any suggestion. Nothing wrong with keeping them alien to fit the character and narrative. The Conquerors Trilogy portrays the Conquerors in an odd way that makes them interesting and different from their human counterparts. The 2nd book Conquerors Heritage is entirely in the perspective of the Aliens, and Timothy Zahn does a decent job in portraying them and their odd way of thinking and culture. What is the motivation behind the conquering of humanity? To simply exert power with superior tech and intellect? I have 2 species (outside the human element), one is 200yrs more advanced, and the other 1000yrs more advanced than the humans. Either one could kick earths ass based on that fact alone, but they have no reason to oppress average citizens. Each can see some common ground and empathize with them, based on similarities in their own history. A large part of the whole campaign is too oust those in power and become an involved cooperation between the three species. (The opposite direction every other alien invasion sitch goes in.) The focus is more having a less volatile galaxy and finding strength in sharing their cultures, as opposed to simply having one race simply bent on subjugating the others because it can. It sounds like the explorers of old trying to get rid of the native inhabitants because they were 'uncivilized'. While not a bad theme to follow in a unique perspective, what is the purpose of going out of the way (in hundreds/thousands of light years) to acheive something that would not even have them breaking a sweat? The Harvesters from the Independence Movies are considered an alien culture to dumb to exist because they simply strip mine worlds of their natural resources to the core. Great idea if you are an aggressive nomadic species, but skipping past all the uninhabited planets that would offer no opposition to what you want, is kinda dumb. Granted an advanced species getting hacked by an underachieving nerd with a laptop, is equally absurd.
The antag finds them weak, really, and thinks that they are beyond help. Their greed and jealousy have torn their civilization apart beyond repair, but the MC still has some hope. The MC also isn't disgusted, but his expectations are crushed after perceiving them as such a wonderful civilization from the record and he feels sympathetic for him. Giving aliens personalities when a story takes itself seriously is tough. It intrigued me to think about alien daily life and what they would think of us, instead of our point of view of an invasion. The Conquerors trilogy could be worth a read. Thank you for the help
Maybe the alien protagonist is simply interested in humans, being unusual among his/her/its species for finding human traits appealing rather than vulgar, or maybe they're an oddball who finds they have more in common with humans than their own kind? Just look at the sheer variety of things that appeal to humans (and not just in a sexual sense, though that's probably the richest area of "Wait, you like what?!"), or the massive variety in how humans identify themselves, and it's easy to imagine. Also, maybe the alien protagonist is still enamoured with what they saw of old humanity, and sees humans as a species that could regain that height of civilisation (and maybe set an example to their own), perhaps inspired by how some humans are struggling to maintain culture and civilisation even in this harsh world. Sign language could be a fairly easy work-around for communication, or perhaps they have devices that are compatible with humans that let them receive telepathic signals?
Just a side note, are you aware that the Voyager spacecraft is traveling at extremely low speed (astronomically speaking?) In the 400 years the Voyager spacecraft will just be reaching the inner limits of the sun's Oort cloud.
Use omni narrator so you're not limited to your character's view of the world, then you can sneak in some judgemental comments. The reader is not going to judge if your character is likeable, but if the book is likeable. Cormac Mccarthy often has unlikable characters but very likable narration and plot. Just sayin'. Your character actually sounds quite vulcan (if you're into Star Trek). If they don't naturally have likeable qualities, you are totally allowed to give them some . But it's not necessary. Make their actions likeable, make the result likeable, make the plot food for thought. A story is more than just characters, isn't it. You could have a moral in there, metaphors and such. Even if they are sooooo alien, we, the readers will still judge them by our human standards and expect them to follow the human code of behaviour, ethics and the rest. It's how sci-fi works. Unless, of course, you invent something different and throw all the rule-books in the trash.
I think the aliens can still have charisma and likability. As long as their culture is different, and occasionally when a human says something they have no idea whats going on, it'll be fine.
One way to give the aliens likability is in their goals. Maybe the MC, while appearing cold and aloof, wants to help humanity to become better; such as rebuilding their old civilizations. You could also have infighting among your aliens. The MV may want to dominate humanity because they're disillusioned with humanity and want to gain something to justify their trip of XX amount of lightyears. The MC may have a soft spot for humanity because they're a compassionate being. Or they might have some personal animosity with the MV, help humanity just to spite the MV and over time genuinely come to care for humanity. P.S. newjerseyrunner, you make a good point. One idea is that perhaps a far-ranging alien probe with FTL or wormhole capabilities found the Voyager probe and took it back to the aliens for study?
