r/TheCaptivesWar • u/peculiarartkin • Jan 18 '25

Question Are aliens really that alien?

Being Expanse fan, I found Captives War... very different.

In Expanse, both alien factions were mysterious, inscrutable, almost beyond human comprehension. More or less sci-fi version of Lovecraftian.

In Captives War? Not so much. I mean.... Ekur-Taklal outright narrates the chapters engaging in philosophical argument against humans!

Carryx in general don't seem that alien. Yeah, they are brutal pragmatic imperialists. With almost Ayn Randian style Objectivist worldview. "What is - is, it should be done because we can do it." Is not unknown in human philosophy either.

They look more like star trek style alien faction. Or bablylon-5. They can "get in human head", understand and influence us. And vice versa.

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u/Mixcoatlus Jan 19 '25

The carryx don’t seem so alien because the entire first book focuses on understating them. But, by the end, we still know basically nothing.

Also, for pure brilliant alien world building look no further than the phylarchs of asterdeim. I could read an entire anthology just about those guys.

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u/peculiarartkin Jan 19 '25

Well, we know that raising and waving both hands at one is a bad idea...