First Contact, Alien Invasions and Wars, Colonization, Alien Biologies/ Environments, Whole Planet As An Alien Entity, Alien Anthropology -- Cultures, Communication with Aliens, Allien Buddies/ Police, Sex With Or Among Aliens, Criticism on Aliens
"Creation is a process, and strangely, by looking at how everyone’s favorite plushy first-mate sprang into existence, we can learn a lot about any collaborative creative endeavor."
A simple test of whether something is only incidentally sci-fi, or not sci-fi at all despite being in a sci-fi setting, is whether the story could take place in a known society without changing its message.
by H. Beam Piper. The planet Zarathustra is going through a dry spell. Land-prawns, ecologists, and scared bureaucrats are coming out of the woodwork. But there's more trouble to come. The cutest little alien critter you've ever seen: Little Fuzzy.