First Contact Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Mote In God's Eye

Published in 1974, "The Mote In God's Eye" has been described as the best first contact novel written. The alien species, The Moties, have a complex, technologically advanced civilisation, and seem more than willing to share this technology with humans. However, they hide a dark secret which eventually leads to humans blockading them in to their own system.

Answer: The destruction of Earth

Written by Greg Bear and published in 1987, "The Forge of God" sees Earth destroyed by an alien species. A small number of people are evacuated to Mars from where they launch a search for the attackers, a quest that is followed in the sequel "Anvil of The Stars".

Answer: Decision at Doona

Written by Anne McCaffrey and published in 1967 this book explores what happens when colonists are sent to Doona believing it to be unoccupied. Instead they find a race of cat like aliens, the Hrubbans. The decision to be made is whether to kill them or, for the first time in human existence, learn to co-exist with an alien species.

Answer: Theodore Sturgeon

First published in 1949, this short story has been reproduced in several anthologies. The Hurkle has six legs, is blue, loves everyone but is loyal to no-one and is always happy. The story describes what happens when a young Hurkle accidentally transports itself to Earth from Lirht.

Answer: Murray Leinster

Published in 1945, Murrary Leinster's book "First Contact" is generally accepted as the first to use that phrase although the theme had been used before, notably in "War of The Worlds". "First Contact" is the story of two technologically advanced species, human and alien, who meet in outer space. Both are keen to acquire knowledge of the other, but are unwilling to commit to the necessary level of trust.

Answer: Jack McDevitt

When a group of scientists receive messages from space that have taken thousands of years to reach us they keep it a secret. While they work to decipher the messages they also ponder on the effect knowledge of the messages would have on religion, the economy, the military and society as a whole.

Answer: Contact

A group of scientists receive messages which contain instructions on how to build a space vessel. They build it and visit the aliens, but when they return to Earth they find only 20 minutes earth time has passed and no-one believes their story.

Answer: Mission of Gravity

Written by Hal Clement, the book chronicles the journey made by the captain of a trading vessel as he helps human explorers on his planet retrieve a probe. In constant radio contact with them he encounters problems on the way, some of which they are able to help him with.

Answer: Calculating God

Spider like aliens arrive on Earth to study our museums and accumulated knowledge in an effort to decide whether or not God exists. The first human they contact, a paleontologist, is an atheist and provides the counter-balancing arguments. "Calculating God" was written by Robert J Sawyer and was published in 2000.

Answer: The Rowan

Written by Anne McCaffrey, the series follows the fortunes of a group of kinetic telepaths as they help all humanity fight an ant like alien species with a hive mentality who is spreading throughout the universe, killing humans on every planet they conquer.

The "Pegasus" series could be considered a prequel to this series, as the descendants of some of the characters in those books appear in this series.