Books That Remind You Of Avatar.

[redpaintednavi]

Dean R Koontz novel Dark of the Woods (1970) also reminds of Avatar.

The humans in the novel have a similar attitude as the RDA, and the hero in the book also parts with a native people against the exploiters.

Some words from the cover of the book:

Our holy empire of the Alliance of mankind has fulfilled our destiny. Remember the many heroic humans who have died in conquering the stars for you. Therefore, do not let misguided sympathy toward inferior and conquered animals deter you from your inherent title of divine rulers of the universe. Do not lose this birthright by succumbing to the "attractions" of any alien creature. Remember the penalties imposed by the Supremacy of Man party for this transgression.

Our blessings be with you as you follow in the paths of your brothers and sisters. We have faith in mankind and we have faith in you. But, however, should you falter from the paths of righteousness, we have many willing hands eager to show you the error of your ways . . .

The end of the book is really amazing.

[redpaintednavi]

Originally Posted by redpaintednavi

Then we have Jungfrulig planet (Virgin Planet) from 1977, written by Swedish science fiction writer Bertil Martensson. In this book an ecologist from Earth falls in love with a blue catwoman and tries to help her against exploiters who are conducting a mining operation on the virgin planet of Batak. The exploiters are mining the planet for the very rare metal Theor+.

(wonder if Cameron reads Swedish)

Maartensson has also written a prequal to Jungfrulig Planet called Det gyllene språnget (The Golden Leap) which is in many aspects even more like Avatar. In this book we meet mans first wave of colonizing other planets and his first meeting with a sentient alien species, the cat people of Catworld. In the book a conflict takes place between those who want to colonize and exploit catworld, and the cats together with some people who want to preserve it and let the cats continue to be the owners and rulers of their own world.

[rapunzel77]

I have seen some echoes of Avatar in Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis. The villains of the book travel to Mars where there are three distinct races of people living in harmony together and they have plans to exploit it for gold (or some other metal like it). They think that in order to placate one of the races that they must get a sacrifice so they kidnap a linguistics professor who ends up being the hero of the book. The attitude of the villains is similar since they think they are much more superior to the martian races and they also believe that the martian races are nothing more than beasts to be exploited and even killed at will.