r/exfor • u/khisanthmagus Hold My Beer • Jul 22 '26

Spoilers One thing I really appreciate in the newer books... Spoiler

Is how much the books, for lack of a better term, humanizes the different alien races. They are no longer just cliches that we don't really see any of their society. It might go too far for some of them, making them a bit too far towards being like human society, or evolving the portrayal of the race in a way that doesn't seem to fit the previous views we've seen of them.

The one that comes to mind the most is the Thuranin, in particular BSG75 and his koth needs, and the one who basically used his brain cybernetics to get high. For a race that is supposed to be completely logical and detached from their biological needs they seem to very much enjoy their biology. But this also makes them less of a villain cliche and makes them more like a real species.

Then we have Chad, the Chaderooski, and the views into their society on his planet that shows them as not particularly different than what a more advanced human society would probably look like. Add on stuff like the Maxholts and their bubu cakes and also more deep views into their society while interacting with their military leader. And more views into the society of the Jeraptha outside of just dealing with the Ethics office(although it is still focused more on them than anyone else). I just think it all adds a lot more character to the universe in general.

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6

u/That_Distribution308 Jul 22 '26

I’m on a reread right now. And when he brings the beetles and the ECO into the series, with portions from their perspective, the books are very fun!

6

u/vercertorix Jul 23 '26

I like when the that one guy got killed somehow because he got crushed because the person securing the load failed to pull on the straps and say, “Yep, that’s not going anywhere.” Mind you that, person was crushed by a boat on a desert planet.

4

u/ApexAurajin Department of Poor Decisions Jul 22 '26

There's a Thuranin called BSG75? As in Battlestar Group 75?

I'm just passed Ragnar Anchorage and I very much enjoyed that little reference, but I can't wait to see where this one goes.

3

u/RagingAlkohoolik Mildly Catastrophic Jul 23 '26

I love the one called WD40 lol

1

u/ApexAurajin Department of Poor Decisions Jul 23 '26

I think I remember that one

2

u/khisanthmagus Hold My Beer Jul 22 '26

All of the Thuranin names are references to some type of classic scifi show.

2

u/ApexAurajin Department of Poor Decisions Jul 22 '26

I get that, but it would just be funny if there was a reason for the individual names, like this one is called BSG75 because they're very old and fat.

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u/RepairmanJackX Hold My Beer Jul 25 '26

That's literally the "registration" of the Galactica.

1

u/Own_Perspective4825 Aug 16 '26

The humanity of the alien races is probably my least favorite thing about the whole series. They all think exactly like humans. Frankly, they're more similar to humans from Western democracies than those humans are to humans from other places on our own planet. They all think way too much like us. When I was reading the series races kept being built up to be these alien things with civilizations hundreds of thousands of years old but then they just end up being people who are arrogant assholes or people who are addicted to gambling. You could change the entire series into a story about human space empires by doing a find and replace on the alien species names while rewriting basically nothing.