Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I started reading The Goblin Emperor for March, and I realized something that's been lacking in the books I've read recently: characters that aren't human. Don't get me wrong, humanity has its moments, but I hadn't realized how much I missed having a non-human character in my books. Different races or species co-existing in the same world is one of my favorite tropes, so if any of you have suggestions that might sate my cravings, that would be greatly appreciated. It can be fantasy or science fiction, as I am open to either right now. I love elves and aliens equally.

Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide are my favorite alien books. The Buggers / Hive Queen, Piggies, and the A.I. Jane are some of my favorite non-humans.

Watership Down is another great one. I was hesitant but I loved it and I do like being able to say one of my favorite books is about bunnies.


The dragons in Dragon Keeper were probably the most interesting dragons I've read, but I see you read that.

Age of Fire starting with Dragon Champion is another dragon one. It's kind of like The Hobbit or Dungeons and Dragons but with the dragons as the protagonists. It is also full of dwarves and elves.

And I might as well throw His Majesty's Dragon out there while I'm at it. All it is is Dragon and Human interactions. Each book they travel to a new culture that interacts with dragons differently.


And there is John Scalzi for Science Fiction. He always has aliens.

Edit: I agree with the Cloud Roads as well.

The Quintaglio series by Robert Sawyer is great. The characters are sentient dinosaurs. the first book is Far-Seer. See also his Neanderthal series.
Any of the books from the Dungeons and Dragons settings would fit the bill. Of course they're of varying quality but the Dragonlance books are popular and the Drizzt books are well written.
Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack Chalker is interesting as is his Four Lords of the Diamond series.
A lot of people also like the Xanth series by Piers Anthony.

The Cloud Roads and Through Wolf's Eyes are both very good.

Tad Williams has Tailchaser's Song, which I think is about magical cats. Andre Norton also had some cat books including Breed to Come and The Mark of the Cat.

Maybe Ringworld? The much-older race of Puppeteers manipulates humans and eight feet tall feline aliens (Kzinti), bringing a group of four to a huge object they have discovered in space - the Ringworld. The Puppeteers are afraid of hyperspace and have only a few members who will travel through it. Ringworld is a tale of species manipulation, and even the discovery of manipulation may be manipulation.

This was a book club pick for Sword & Laser but I'm going to add it anyways. The Daughter of Smoke & Bone series starting with the first book, Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, is filled with non-human characters and a unique storyline.

A Kiss of Shadows, the first book in the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton is another great book if you like your romance hot and steamy. It's an urban fantasy that deals with elven societies in an alternate present world.

Hounded, the first book in the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne is filled with all kinds of ancient gods, warriors and lore of the Celtic persuasion.

Moon Called, the first book in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs is an urban fantasy filled with werewolves, vampires and even native american supernatural beings. It might sound cliche but it is one of the best Urban Fantasies I've ever read. So well-written.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. A solo book in which the main characters are... A golem and a jinni. ^_^;

Seconding Watership Down, book is insanely good. A must-read for everyone who has not yet read it in my opinion.

Would add The Gods Themselves and Adulthood Rites. The protagonist of Adulthood Rites is half human, half very inhuman alien and the book is just really something special.

As for books with humans and other races, try Heaven's Reach. I know it says that it's at the end of a series, but it's really pretty stand alone. Six different species live on a planet, including humans. Humans are known for our skill at climbing trees.

There's also the Dagger and Coin series starting with The Dragon's Path. There are some 9 different humanoid species including "pureblood" which appear to be like humans in all ways, as best I can tell. It's a little bit like Game of Thrones without some what I considered the overdone sex and violence. Although it is dark in places because it discusses a time of war. The 5th and final book is not yet out.

The Malazan series has a bunch of non-human characters. I can think of 6 offhand.

I second The Golem and the Jinni. That book was delightful.

Brendan wrote: "Seconding Watership Down, book is insanely good. A must-read for everyone who has not yet read it in my opinion."

It wasn't my thing, but for those of you trying to read all the S&L picks, that was a REALLY EARLY one.

I dunno if you'd be willing to read middle-grade books, but my daughter loved the Warriors series. It's about cats living in a forest - four clans that compete and cooperate. I read the first six and they were pretty well done.

Here's the first. Into the Wild Probably available from your local library.

Echoing John T, for SF I really like Niven's Known Space novels. Ringworld, Ringworld II, Protector and World of Ptavs are the biggies, but also his short stories.

Jack L. Chalker's Well World series has hundreds of non-human races, about a dozen of which get their turn on stage. Midnight at the Well of Souls is the first one.

Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Skyboth have awesome and interesting non-human characters

Fresno Bob wrote: "Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Skyboth have awesome and interesting non-human characters"

Oh, I definitely adored both of those.

I would add Ancillary Justice to the list. The main character isn't quite alien, but definitely isn't human.

Taylor wrote: "I would add Ancillary Justice to the list. The main character isn't quite alien, but definitely isn't human."

Good point.

Taylor wrote: "I would add Ancillary Justice to the list. The main character isn't quite alien, but definitely isn't human."

I've read Ancillary Justice, but this reminded me that I need to read the second book

John (Taloni) wrote: "I dunno if you'd be willing to read middle-grade books, but my daughter loved the Warriors series. It's about cats living in a forest - four clans that compete and cooperate. I read the first six a..."

Ha, I read this series when I was younger and loved it!

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, I've added a lot of these to my evergrowing to read list

"The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" (juvenile fantasy fiction) and many other Discworld novels of varying age/reading levels. They are written by Terry Pratchett, and all of his novels are so much fun.

The Chanur Saga by C.J. Cherryh -- the entire series is told from the POV of an alien; there's one human in the series, but he's never a viewpoint character.

And the book I just finished reading: The Man of Gold by M.A.R. Barker -- the viewpoint character is human, but the world (Tekumel) is inhabited by numerous alien races; and the humans themselves can be pretty darned alien in outlook.

Another vote for The Golem and the Jinni. Also, Timothy Zahn's Conqueror's Saga (starts with Conquerors' Pride) was quite good - at least teenage me thought so many moons ago. If I remember, there are three books, the first is from a human POV, the second from an alien POV and the third is a mix.

Depends on how non-human you want to get. Most of Iain M. Banks Culture books have some serious non human characters. Probably the oddest are the Affronters from Excession. Strange tentacled gas bags that live in/on gas giants.

One could make the argument that citizens of the Culture who are of human decent are not actually much like modern humans either, in some ways. They can manufacture designer drugs in their bodies, initiate a physical change of sex on a whim that takes only three days to complete, and hold a pregnancy in stasis indefinitely. I at least find it difficult to identify with a person who will never age beyond 25 or so physically but will statistically likely commit suicide at the age of about 300 from ennui.

Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg features the cheela, who are about as non-human as they come. They mass the same as a human but are the size of a sesame seed, since they live on the surface of a neutron star.

Joanna wrote: "One could make the argument that citizens of the Culture who are of human descent are not actually much like modern humans either, in some ways. "

Hm, interesting point. I found the Conjoiners of the Revelation Space series to be fairly unusual in outlook. Maybe start with the Great Wall short and move on to Winter, see if you like it. Absolution Gap is the book that has the biggest Conjoiner presence, but that does assume knowledge of the "main" Revelation Space books, Revelation Space and Redemption Ark.

Fresno Bob wrote: "Vernor Vinge A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Skyboth have awesome and interesting non-human characters"

Second that. The pack-conscious Tines and the Skroderiders of A Fire Upon the Deep and the spider people of A Deepness in the Sky are just some of the fantastic non-humans Vinge thought up.

I liked Fire Upon the Deep okay, I just felt that Vinge went a long way to make an analogy for traffic.

Trike wrote: "Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg features the cheela, who are about as non-human as they come. They mass the same as a human but are the size of a sesame seed, since they live on the ..."

Oh good one, Trike. The Cheela are amazing.

The alien point of view in Pandora's Star is quite good. It takes a long time to get to it though.