Books with non-human as main character. Scifi or Fantasy.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

I want to find some new books where the maincharacter isnt human or has been changed/genetically altered to look like another species.

No animals please,more like a humanoid species.

What I am thinking of is something along the lines of the movie Avatar and/or the bookThe Cloud Roads byMartha Wells

It would be good if there was some adventure also,but I guess what I am looking for is something thats sci-fi or fantasy.

Dont mind if there is romance or other relationships playing a big part in the story.

But I absolutely dont want erotica.:/

So please suggest some exciting reads :)

[Jim]

I can't think of any books with just an alien as the main character, but Enemy Mine has an alien & a human as the main characters.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

I think I have heard of it,its a movie too isnt it?

Well I have had no luck in finding some books like that so I hoped anyone else had a suggestion.

Thank you :)

[Michelle]

Lovelock by Orson Scott Card

[Michelle]

Oh sorry. Lovelock is an animal. But a genetically engineered one.

[Michelle]

Wraeththu by Storm Constantine

[Jim]

Yes, it is a movie. In fact, it may well have been a movie & the book I read was a novelization of it. It's a good book, though.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Michelle wrote: "Oh sorry. Lovelock is an animal. But a genetically engineered one."

Well its pretty near. and the first thing people think of when you say "non-human" is animals lol.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Jim wrote: "Yes, it is a movie. In fact, it may well have been a movie & the book I read was a novelization of it. It's a good book, though."

I will check it out. :)

[Jim]

I haven't read them, but my son told me about the 'Of Man & Manta' trilogy by Piers Anthony. I think the main characters are aliens.
http://www.goodreads.com/series/40491...

[stormhawk]

Midnight at the Well of Souls - Jack Chalker
There are humans, but plenty of other races to go around.

The Chanur books by C J Cherryh are good too. The first is The Pride of Chanur.

[Bryan457]

The protagonist is an "evil" alien. Don't worry about it being part of a series; it has NOTHING to do with the other books in the "series."

[Kate]

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler has important characters who are not human, although the main character is human. It's the first in a series of three, and as you get further into the series, the more the question of what is human arises.

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore has a main character who passes as human.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin has a human main character, but most (if not all) of the other main characters are not entirely human.

The "Company" books by Kage Baker have a non-human as the main character, although she looks human. The first book is In the Garden of Iden.

Nothing Human by Nancy Kress follows several generations of teenagers who are genetically modified by aliens -- another book that explores what it means to be human.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Bryan457 wrote: "
The protagonist is an "evil" alien. Don't worry about it being part of a series; it has NOTHING to do with the other books in the "series.""

Thanks for the suggestion...though I am not sure I like the idea of a cannibal protagonist. 00

Though might work if its wellwritten..but still.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Kate wrote: "Dawn by Octavia E. Butler has important characters who are not human, although the main character is human. It's the first in a series of three, and as you get further into the series, the more th..."

Thanks for the interesting suggestions Kate :) I have I Am Number Four on my TBR list already.

[Cheryl]

Huge theme in SF, but, yes, the 'humods' are generally side characters, as in Trading in Danger and the rest of the Vatta's War series. I know I've read some good ones; I'll keep thinking.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

The Man-Kzin Wars is a series that has humans and aliens.

John Ringo has several series with a LOT of aliens and humans.

Andre Norton has a lot of books/series with aliens and humans. Some are dated (she started getting published in 1929 and her last new book was published 2 months before her death Mar 17, 2007) but she does tell a rip-roaring tale. Forerunner, Judgment on Janus is another good series with aliens (or rather, humans that are genetically altered and turned INTO aliens--2 book in this series.

Robert Heinlein's early books (which are dated too, but again, good yarns) also has any number of aliens. Starship Troopers (of which the movies are a dim reflection) Citizen of the GalaxyHave Space Suit, Will Traveland more. He is usually classified as YA now, but he still did a GREAT story.

I have more, but I figure by the time you manage to wade through these, you will be well on your way. :o)

[Fresno Bob]

Vernor Vinge's A Fire upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky have excellent aliens

[Peter]

Diane Duane's The Romulan Way is a Star Trek book that explores the history of how the Romulans left their home planet Vulcan. The main story though is about a Federation agent who's very deep undercover after having been modified to pass for Romulan. It was a good book, if you like Star Trek.

Robert Aspirin's The Bug Wars has no human characters at all. The main characters are members of a reptilian race who are at war with a race of insects. It's a pretty decent military/adventure SF story, but probably hard to find.

Allies and Aliens by Roger McBride Allen is a collection of two novels. The first is a darn good yarn where what amount to space Nazis invade New Finland. It's better than that makes it sound, honest. The second book has Our Heroes taking the fight to the space Nazis home system, which has an indigenous population made up of interesting aliens. At least a few of the aliens serve as viewpoint characters at various points.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "The Man-Kzin Wars is a series that has humans and aliens.

John Ringo has several series with a LOT of aliens and humans.

Andre Norton has a lot of books/series with aliens and humans. Some are d..."

Well I appreciate people taking the time to recommend and you know..books always runs out for me lol.

[Gene]

I would give a cautious recommendation to the books of Dr Robert Forward.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/f/r...

The aliens in his books are complex and usually multifaceted. Unfortunately, many of the humans are two dimensional, aspiring to be wooden. (Chuck Jones of Warner Brothers cartoon fame said: "You can humanize animals, but you can't humanize humans.) The Roche World books have marvelous aliens, and the books written with his wife and daughter have better handling of the humans.

The Becoming Alien series by Rebecca Ore might be of interest as well.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/r...

[scherzo♫]

David Brin's Uplift series has a spectrum of aliens, first book is Sundiver

Wonderful aliens in some of C.J. Cherryh's books, especially
Forty Thousand in Gehenna
Cuckoo's Egg

The last survivors of an alien race with the ability to assume the form of any creature are the main characters in Julie E. Czerneda's Web Shifters series. First book is Beholder's Eye

[Tim]

Man Plus by Frederick Pohl features the protagonist's body being extensively (genetically?) modified.

[Brian]

Some great suggestions earlier - to throw in some oldies, what about Blish's Seedling Stars short stories?

[Krystal]

The Acorna series by Anne McCaffrey - the main character is a unicorn-humanoid alien. The books get a little similar as the series goes on, but the first few are fantastic. And honestly, I love them all, really, because she's such a great main character.


There's the first book in the series.

[Rosalba]

Cinder,I have been told is very good, and the main character is a cyborg.

[Sara]

I loved The Cloud Roads!

I think the closest I can get to that (in terms of non-human humanoids) is Empire in Black and Gold. It's been a while since I read it, but I think the characters all had some insect-like qualities.

Perdido Street Station has a lot of different characters, ranging from human to humanoid to animal-like. For some reason I really don't like China Mieville's writing style, but some people love him and he is very inventive.

It has been YEARS since I read Camouflage, but from what I remember it involves an alien taking a human form and trying to blend in.

There's Goblin Quest. The main character is a goblin. It's a send-up of basic fantasy and roleplaying tropes--the quest, the noble band of heroes, the idea that goblins just exist to get mowed down by said heroes....

In The Year of the Griffin the main character is a griffin. I think most of the other characters are human, though. (I just reread your post and you specified no animals so feel free to ignore this one!)

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Sara wrote: "I loved The Cloud Roads!

I think the closest I can get to that (in terms of non-human humanoids) is Empire in Black and Gold. It's been a while since I read it, but I think the characters all had..."

Yes its great isnt it? So unique and interesting I would really love to find another book like it. Someone suggested that Delan the Mislaidwas a lot like it.And it did have several similarities but it wasnt very good. I mostly hated it.

I have read Goblin Quest and it was ok. Not really a fan of Mieville either,his books on paper sounds like something I would like but so far I havent seen the appeal.

Well Diana Wynne Jones has written some of my favorire books so I will definetely put it on my to-read list ;)
Yes I said no animals because I wanted more humanoid suggestions.But if a book is good it doesnt matter.

One of my favorite books Birth of the Firebringer has a main character who is an unicorn (not the rainbow cutesy kind)and because the writing was so good I didnt care he wasnt a human.

I will have a look at the others thank you :)

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Rosalba wrote: "Cinder,I have been told is very good, and the main character is a cyborg."

I am reading this atm (is on hold though) but thank you for your suggestion :)

[Ann aka Iftcan]

A few more suggestions--

Their Majesties' Bucketeers (No humans at all, and the aliens are kind of vaguely crab-like beings. But they act like humans.) This is a Sci/fi mystery.

Susan Grant has a series that mixes humans and aliens. Your Planet or Mine? is the first one. Definitely a romance, btw.

Did I mention Andre Norton's Witch World series? That has humans and non-humans of different types. Witch World is the first book. But there are somewhere around 30 books in the series, altho they are broken down into smaller sub-sets.

[Sara]

Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: "I have read Goblin Quest and it was ok. Not really a fan of Mieville either,his books on paper sounds like something I would like but so far I havent seen the appeal."

I agree on all counts.

Year of the Griffin is sort of a sequel to The Dark Lord of Derkholm. I don't think you need to read The Dark Lord first, but it does have some of the same characters and I really like both books :D

I think I see what you mean. If they're animals but they're acting "human" they're more interesting than animals acting like animals. DWJ has another book, Dogsbody, where the Dog Star gets banished to live on Earth as a dog, so people treat him like a dog and he has doggy thoughts. It was ok, but I like it better when the characters act more like people.

Tooth and Claw has dragons acting like characters from a Jane Austin novel (though I must admit that I didn't get very far into the book at all, because the situation the characters found themselves in made me feel insanely frustrated on their behalves and I simply couldn't continue).

Ann (aka Iftcan)--Have you read any of the Witch World series? Would you recommend it? I've wanted to read something by Andre Norton but haven't a clue what to start with.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Sara wrote: "Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: "I have read Goblin Quest and it was ok. Not really a fan of Mieville either,his books on paper sounds like something I would like but so far I havent seen the app..."

Ive read and liked Dogsbody,even if it wasnt as strong as some of her other books. I have heard about Tooth and Claw but not much more.

I do love Jane Austen though....

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Sara--asking if I've "read Norton" is like asking someone in Phoenix if the sun will be hot. . .

I started reading her when I was 13. And I've corrupted my daughter AND both grandsons with her works.

I have an entire wall filled with nothing BUT Nortons. I have multiple copies of books, because I LOVE the "older" covers.

If you like fantasy, start with any of the Witch World books. While they mostly are stand alones--or rather "series alone"--she tends to group them in small series featuring the same characters in them. I WOULD read the first group--Witch World is #1, Web of the Witch World is #2 These 2 really "set" the feel of the series. Then, the next few books (Three Against the Witch World then Warlock of the Witch World and finally Sorceress of the Witch World deal with the children of the 2 main characters from the first 2 books. After that--she just writes about the Witch World itself. A very varied and fascinating world indeed. There are like 30 or so books set on the World itself. Some set in Estcarp (the land ruled by the Witches of the title of the series), others in High Hallack, the Dales, the Eeyrie etc. And, frankly, I really DO recommend reading at least the first 2, if not the entire 5, in order to have a working knowledge of who the players are and what is going on.

[Sara]

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Sara--asking if I've "read Norton" is like asking someone in Phoenix if the sun will be hot. . .

I started reading her when I was 13. And I've corrupted my daughter AND both grandsons with her wo..."

Haha, thanks! When trying to start a big series like that, it's always great to get recommendations from someone who knows what they're talking about!

[Rhea]

Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: "I want to find some new books where the maincharacter isnt human or has been changed/genetically altered to look like another species.

No animals please,more like a humanoid species.

What I am t..."

Acorna by Anne McCaffrey. The main character is half unicorn, half human. It's been a really long time since I read the series, but it really served as an excellent introduction to Anne McCaffrey, whose other major series are the Pern novels.

[Em]

Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: "I want to find some new books where the maincharacter isnt human or has been changed/genetically altered to look like another species.

No animals please,more like a humanoid species.

What I am t..."

Ok i lovedd this series called Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. The main character starts off human but , as the series progresses... I don't want to give anything away to as the "non human beings" b/c thats like the whole first book trying to figure it all out. But really suspenseful and intriguing plus adorable relationship shapes out of it too :)

[Hannah]

Emily wrote: "Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: "I want to find some new books where the maincharacter isnt human or has been changed/genetically altered to look like another species.

No animals please,more li..."

OMG! I really want to read hush hush, but I can't seem to find it at my library -_-
Anyway! A book with sort of the same storyline is 'Shadows' by paula weston. Amazing. Love it. And... Shes an aussie writer! It's on bookshelf in my room and I have already read it about 7 times even though I only bought it 2-4 months ago. I seriously recommend it to anyone and everyone.

[Magda]

Also you can try some of Mercedes Lackey's books, like Mage wars - with gryphons as main characters. and in Companions series (Valdemar stories) you have humans and horses as main, but mostly humans.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Emily wrote: "Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: "I want to find some new books where the maincharacter isnt human or has been changed/genetically altered to look like another species.

No animals please,more li..."

Ive read Hush, Hush...thats all I will say about it.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen]

Rhea wrote: "Kagama-the Literaturevixen wrote: "I want to find some new books where the maincharacter isnt human or has been changed/genetically altered to look like another species.

No animals please,more li..."

I know about the series but since some of Anne McCaffreys books disappointed me I am a bit reluctant to read more of her work.But if its nothing like Nerilka's Storythen I could see myself reading it.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Ok, I'm going to give 2 suggestions here that are almost impossible to get hold of--mainly because they are the only two books that the author ever published. But he handles non-humans, humans and even human-alien hybrids well. Max Daniels is the author's name, and I always wished he'd written more books. The more enjoyable of the 2 books is The Space Guardian

Offworld actually deals almost exclusively with non-humans. There is one human in this book, and it's told from his POV. He's exiled to the planet where the aliens are, and the entire book revolves around what his life is like there--how he interacts with the natives, what their cultures are like (there are 3 different alien species on this world.)

But, if you DO succeed in tracking down one of the elusive copies, they are well worth reading.

[Snail in Danger (Sid)]

Psion is a book about a human-alien hybrid; it has a couple sequels.

The Alchemy of Stone has a humanoid clockwork robot as the narrator.

Old Man's War is the start of a series about human characters in radically altered bodies. There are also some aliens.

If you like Star Trek, Spock's World is another tie-in by Diane Duane.

I see that you have Elsewhere and Human For A Day on your to-read list, but am not sure if they would qualify as what you're looking for.

[Lou]

I'm very fond of Nor Crystal Tears. The alien isn't humanoid, but it's very well done.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

If you like Nor Crystal Tears you might also like the Flynx books. They are set in the same world, but the main character--Flynx--isn't entirely human--he's the product of some major gene tampering. The Tar-Aiym Krang is the first (by release date) but there was a prequel that he came out with For Love of Mother-NotFor Love of Mother-Not

[Katherine]

Maybe try Anne McCaffrey's The Crystal Singer? (one of her good ones!) Heroine is changed by symbiotic crystal spore. It's SF but also beautiful.
Crystal Singer

[Kate]

I remember reading a short story about a being who is distinctly not human in appearance, development, etc. He rules with terror over the village where he was born, demanding all follow his every wish.

(view spoiler)[At the end you discover the creature was born of a human woman, and immediately killed the doctor and threw the entire village into an isolated dimension. (hide spoiler)]

I can't recall the title of this short story. It may be by Asimov. I also think it was a Twilight Zone episode.

[Virginia]

I would suggest Wit'ch Fire by James Clemens. The main character is more or less human, but the series is also told from the POV of an elf, a nymph, a couple of shapeshifters, an ogre, and a dwarf.

Another would be Growing Wings by Laurel Winter. It's about humans who grow wings, but it was very interesting and a good, light read.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Oh, did anyone suggest Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword has a dwarf as the main character. Funny story. (And yes, he DOES stand up to Scarface (aka Al Capone) himself.)

[Andy]

Kate wrote: "I remember reading a short story about a being who is distinctly not human in appearance, development, etc. He rules with terror over the village where he was born, demanding all follow his every ..."

This is "It's a Good Life" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's... I think.

[Fayley]

If you read and enjoy any of these recommended books as much as you liked the Martha Cloud books, please post that here because I've been looking for more stories like those too!