**There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. – *Hamlet* , William Shakespeare** Stanley Schmidt guides you toward a better understanding of our universe to create beings who will live in your science fiction. *Aliens and Alien Societies* explains science to help you make your fiction plausible. You’ll avoid bringing characters from solar systems unlikely to support life. Discover the galaxy’s vastness and imagine the technology needed to cross it. Put biochemistry on your side to put viable creatures on your pages. Learn how engineering shapes life and why this suggests that intelligent inhabitants of other planets might have similarities to humans. Develop well-founded cultures and logical languages. Introduce aliens to people or other aliens. Portray them as individuals, true to their species. In this book, possibilities abound and lines between knowledge and conjecture blur enthrallingly. *Aliens and Alien Societies* is thoughtful, clear and utterly fascinating. It is filled with facts to help you write believable fictions about the things in heaven and earth.