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Hi, I'm new here :).
When reading fantasy you suddenly crave a new experience. My mind now commands me to search for fantasy books where the main character is not a human.
He has to be the focus, i usually like one POV, since multiple ones sometime make me feel like I am reading multiple books at the same time.
It would be nice if the main character has a way of thinking that appears alien to human characters in that world.

-the cloud roads, the serpent sea (books of Raksura) don't even have humans in them. The main character is a shifter, that changes into a winged predator. And He thinks like a predator. His race has a cast system.

- The faded sun trilogy, even though it is sci fi, the way of thinking of the aliens and their culture fascinated me.

- Dragon champion, POV of a dragon from his first days. And It feels like a dragon too, not just a human stuck in a dragon's body


Thanks For helping if you can ! :D

Might try Ben Bova's "Becoming Human"...however, there's a lot of human-style thinking in it.

I think it depends on which type of fantasy you're talking about--The Dragonlance Chronicles--the main character is an elf. In the Riyria Revelations, one of the main characters is an elf. In some of Robin Hobb's series (can't remember the name, but the first book is Dragon Keeper), some of the characters are dragons and some are Elderlings--a human/dragon combination.

If you're into paranormal type stuff, there's plenty where the main character is a vampire or a werewolf or some type of hybrid.

I am currently reading the Dark Elf Trilogy by RA Salvatore. Really enjoying them too.

Julie E. Czerneda's trilogy

is told first-person by a non-human

Starts with Griffin POV but does switch back and forth in later parts -- trilogy starting with

Try Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series, featuring Elric the Melnibonean (an albino sorcerer-king who isn't quite human). Some might even argue the true main character is the black sword in his "possession," Stormbringer.



Edit #1: I just found this link from Del Rey where you can read the first 50 pages, if interested:



Edit #2: Wow, in case you do follow the above link, know that this edition has a long introduction and a lengthy foreword by Alan Moore. The story itself doesn't begin until beyond page 30.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series is set in a world of Insect Kinden, 'humans' with various insect attributes - flight, climb walls, burrow etc. It isn't first-person POV though.

Deborah (Debbie Rice) wrote: "Starts with Griffin POV but does switch back and forth in later parts -- trilogy starting with "

I believe Mercedes Lackey did a trilogy about Griffons also in which they are the main characters. Storm Constantine's Wraeththu books are about humanoid non-humans. I would definitely second the Drizzt series by Salvatore. I considered Moorcock's Elric to be human, but sociopathic.

Mos that's pops into my head is Sci-Fi, not Fantasy.

Kernos, though Melniboneans resemble humans physiologically in some ways, they aren't considered human; rather, they are referred to by Moorcock in a vague sense as "an Eldritch race." They live apart from humans and are more long-lived and prone to sorcery. Recently, since there has been a resurgence in interest in this series, Moorcock himself has connected Melniboneans to a race called the Vadhagh, descended and evolved from aquatic sea mammals.

Chris wrote: "I am currently reading the Dark Elf Trilogy by RA Salvatore. Really enjoying them too.
"

Dark elves, however, just seem to be evil humans - except the main character, who is angsty instead of evil.

I think it's very easy to write characters that have 'not human' written on their labels, but it's rarer to find characters that aren't ultimately humans-wearing-funny-hats.

[Eg there's no point listing The Hobbit, because hobbits are humans wearing hats, and to a lesser degree so are orcs and elves and dwarves (dragons might qualify, but don't get much screentime)]

I'd be very interested in fiction that features GENUINELY non-human characters, but off-hand I can't really think of any.

The best I can manage in terms of quality might be Robin Hobb - I haven't read the more alieny Rain Wild Chronicles yet, but one of the main (but non-POV) character in many of her books is very odd, and I think they're non-human (though they might be some sort of freak or mutant instead); there are also a couple of chapters in some of her other books from the POV of a definite non-human, quite convincingly, but these are short and sparse.

I keep thinking of a book (long story?) I read years & years ago, but I can't remember the title or the author (maybe someone here will?). If I remember correctly, it was about half from the viewpoint of some (guinea-pig like?) creatures that lived in a wilderness of glass outcroppings and who could only determine reality through discussion among themselves - so they could never be alone, because then they wouldn't know what reality was. It came fairly close to exhibiting a different way of thinking. Ring a bell, anybody?

I suppose any non-human in fiction could look like some alien human culture since humans are examining them and creating them. Watership Down certainly has non-human protags, but is all about humans anyway.

On the thread topic I would maybe recommend Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny. It's epic fantasy, one POV, a lot of it has to do with the main character discovering how he thinks.

Wastrel wrote: "I'd be very interested in fiction that features GENUINELY non-human characters, but off-hand I can't really think of any."

Are you limiting this to high fantasy? High fantasy does seem to suffer from a lot of Star Trek syndrome - non-humans who are essentially humans with some make-up and one exaggerated attribute. But I wouldn't extend that to all fiction. There's a fair amount of science fiction with interesting and well-developed alien characters. Vinge's tine characters, Niven's Moties (and Puppeteers and kzinti and others), Le Guin's Gethenians, and a bunch of characters from the Culture series come to mind.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have already heard of many of them, but will try and read them.

I find it odd that seeing as fantasy is already filled with many known creatures, so few of them are explored. And fantasy as it names suggests is limitless.
It appears that more authors in sci-fi are ready to take risks than fantasy.

A couple of books featuring dragons which are very much NOT human:

The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas

Daughter of Dragons by Kathleen Nelson (the main character is human, but raised by dragons and she genuinely thinks she's a dragon; a nice insight into the race differences)

Then there's this book, in which the main characters are a telepathic Gryffin and a half-human, half-Orryn who struggles with the big differences between his two inheritances:

Prophecy by S J Faerlind

larbi wrote: "Thanks for the suggestions. I have already heard of many of them, but will try and read them.

I find it odd that seeing as fantasy is already filled with many known creatures, so few of them are e..."

Not just with characters, unfortunately. Although fantasy should be the most unconstrained genre, in practice its authors (and presumably readers) seem far more hidebound and convention-subservient than those in SF.

Dylan: I guess I only had fantasy specifically in mind, but I'd be interested in SF too. I actually thought of mentioning the Gethenians, although to be honest I was a bit disappointed by them - the book was more about how ultimately human they are despite superficial differences than about them being fundamentally alien. Particularly since gender roles have changed since the book was written, and the whole "I didn't know what to make of him because he acted effeminately but didn't look like a woman" business seems more quaint than shocking now. [Don't get me wrong, it's still a great book!]

Kernos: good example. It's true that the rabbits are obviously stand-ins for humans, and as a result are just humans in hats, but I think it's one of the most successful examples of really interesting and peculiar hats. That is: yes, they're ultimately human, but he does a very good job of making us think that they're non-humans who just happen to have ended up like humans but are underlyingly different. If that makes any sense.

Wastrel wrote: "Dylan: I guess I only had fantasy specifically in mind, but I'd be interested in SF too. I actually thought of mentioning the Gethenians..."

I agree about the essential message of The Left Hand of Darkness, though I didn't find the differences between Gethenian and human psychology and society superficial, nor any of the attitudes especially dated. Still, I take your point. Of the examples I listed, the Gethenians are by far the closest to humans. The tines are dog-like aliens with pack-minds, who think via the constant emission of sound between pack members.

Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams has no human characters in it at all. It's a fantasy adventure with only cats.

For SF, run, don't walk, to your nearest copy of C.J. Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur and its sequels.

Fantasy-wise, I haven't read them myself, but there's Markus Heitz's The Dwarves and Stan Nicholls' Orcs.

I have a memory of reading a SF from last century which had space ships crewed completely by dolphins. Humans were also in the books - a trilogy I think.

Anyone know the name of this?

Another in which a guy is trapped on a world made of thousands of hexagonal environments, each containing aliens of various sorts. He could move from one environment to another as he tried to escape the planet.

Sorry my memory is lacking. I just have vague images of these in my head.

That's David Brin's Uplift Saga - the first book is Sundiver.

The hexes sounds vaguely like Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls series, although I haven't read those.

You could try King's Property. The main character is human but she has a very close relationship with an orc, who would be the second main character.

Yes that;s it, the Uplift Saga. I remember enjoying it a lot. I'm not sure about the Well of Souls. I'll need to research it more.

Another possibility is John Varley's Gaea Trilogy which includes a number of non-human sentients. I especially liked the Centaurs with all of their romantic possibilities.

Gordon R. Dickson's The Alien Way is about an alien attempting an invasion of Earth and the culture of his people. While the real main character is a human, he is in a quasi-telepathic link with the alien and tasked with the job of understanding him, so the story tries to represent his world as he sees it.