Brobdingnagian

The Brobdingnagians are an alien speices from the planet Brobdingnag.

Biology
Brobdingnagians are bulky beings with impressive strength, their species never developed any ears on their airless world. Earth gravity was a mere one-third of their planet making them strong creatures. They possessed a pair of arms, thicker than a gorilla's and terminating in enormous four-fingered hands, and a pair of stout legs, ending in feet that were a meter long and half as wide; their soles enclosed the tympani with which the race listened and spoke. The torso was so rotund as to be almost globular. The head was equally round; though it naturally lacked a nose, it had a blunt snout whose lipless mouth was shaped into a permanent smile. All in all, he suggested a harp seal puppy. Baby-blue fur covered him, save on the hands and feet; there it was white, which gave him an appearance of wearing mittens and booties. Like most species on their planet, they did not live by oxidizing organic materials but by fissioning nuclei. The fission process worked at a far lower level than in a powerplant, and whatever radiation it gave off was absorbed by the dense tissues around the "stomach."

Culture
Due to their unique biology, Brobdingnagians traveling offworld needed to take certain precautions in disposal of their body wastes. Regardless, many beings feared and shunned them.

In order to communicate with the species using transponders to render their foot subsonic vibrations into frequencies a human could hear. Likewise the transponder can interpret tones as impulses to the Brobdingnagian.

Due to their fission based biology, Brobdingnagians had an innate talent for nuclear engineering;

Having no natural enemies on their own planet they are a peaceful species.

Appearances

 * Hokas! by Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson (1983)