Hey everyone, I'm in the mood for a "first contact" or first-to-really-get-to-know kind of story. Now I know this has been talked about many times before, here and elsewhere on the net, so let me be a bit more specific.
I'm looking for something with a more personal thread to it. Instead of just our government dealing with some alien government, for example, it would be more interesting to see the experience from the point of view of someone who really gets to know the "others".
I said in the title this isn't necessarily science fiction, though I'm fine with that. What I mean is this same experience can be had in nearly any setting.
Example themes:
* Entirely unexpected first contact - could go horribly wrong, but somehow someone manages to make it work.
* Maybe each "side" must work together to serve some greater need.
* Could be first contact after a long period of no contact - maybe it's been thousands or years or something and at best only heavily warped legends remain.
* Could be "aliens" (science fiction) or some non-human beings, e.g. sentient dragons in a more fantasy setting.
I think what prompted this was having just read "Song in the Silence" by Elizabeth Kerner. It turned out to be a lot more "romance" in its style than I had expected, but I still found it really enjoyable. Deals with what is essentially first contact between humanity and dragons after many years and first true mutual understanding and trust in thousands of years.
Hopefully that made some sort of sense.
Thank you for any suggestions you have!