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From: Don <g@crcomp.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Five SF Stories About Aliens Posing as Humans
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2025 14:45:44 -0000 (UTC)
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Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
>
>> Five SF Stories About Aliens Posing as Humans
>>
>> Aliens living among us... and vice versa.
>> https://reactormag.com/five-sf-stories-about-aliens-posing-as-humans/
>
> Iain M. Banks' _Culture_ novels have this all the time, with the
> galaxy populated by plenty of humanoids and the Culture frequently
> inserting its agents on backward planets.  Including Earth at one
> point.
>
> In _Perry Rhodan_, Atlan kept passing for a local on Terra on and
> off for 10,000 years.
>
> In the movies, _Under the Skin_ (2013) with Scarlett Johansson.
>
> IIRC, in S. Andrew Swann's _Moreau_ novels the Race agents _barely_
> pass as some sort of misshapen, presumably gene-engineered humans.

Interesting. An "agents on backward worlds" allegory arguably acts as a
tentative rationale for Banks' titular choice of "Culture" for his
series.

It appears alien "body snatchers" are excluded from this thread. The
Concern's operatives in TRANSITION by Banks are passed over. Also
intentionally omitted are Perry Rhodan's Mind Snatchers:

    <https://www.perryrhodan.us/summaries/6#>
    <https://www.perryrhodan.us/summaries/7#>

Earlier, in another thread, Ted talks about PR's temporal discontinuity,
while you note how it happens at "round numbers" (#50, 100, 150, ...).
It seems short story arcs, each two to three novellas long, comprise
PR's earliest efforts, as illustrated by the two story Mind Snatcher arc
cited above. As you more-or-less said a while ago, somewhere around
PR200, PR's propitious popularity out of the blue motivated its "garage
band" to elongate story arcs.

Danke,

--
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