Alien POV

Sometimes the best way to take a look at humans and their foibles is from an inhuman point of view. Stories wholly or partly in the alien POV both take us deeper into the alien mindset and make us work harder to understand, because no one sits around thinking all the explanations for all the ordinary things in their lives.

The first of these is probably Flatland, where the protagonist is a two-dimensional polygonal creature who has the alarming experience of dealing with three-dimensional creatures — and even fourth dimensional.

Classics you are more likely to have read include:

Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell

The Pride of Chanur, Chanur’s Venture, The Kif Strike Back and Chanur’s Homecoming by C. J. Cherryh

The Borrowers, The Borrowers Afield, The Borrowers Afloat, The Borrowers Aloft, and The Borrowers Avenged by Mary Norton

Cuckoo’s Egg by C. J. Cherryh

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

The Faded Sun trilogy by C. J. Cherryh: Kesrith, Shon’Jir, and Kutath

Moon of Three Rings and Flight in Yiktor by Andre Norton

The Foreigner series by C . J. Cherryh:

Foreigner
Invader
Inheritor
Precursor
Defender
Explorer
Destroyer
Pretender
Deliverer
Conspirator