SFF books for animal lovers

[Anna]

We've talked about a "Cute animals in space" theme, I don't know if we'll ever actually do it, but if we do, it'd be handy to have a list ready :) So tell me all the SFF books (in space or not, fantasy included) that feature animals as POV characters or otherwise in a significant role. YA/MG, short fiction and graphic works also welcome! Let's try to focus on feel-good books where animals don't die, at least not the POV/significant animals. You can add a CW in spoiler tags if needed.

In short:

- all SFF welcome
- all formats welcome
- all ages welcome

- try to focus on feel-good books where animals are not harmed
- when necessary, add a CW

[Anna]

I'll add later, these are the first that come to mind.


Cats:
The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles (short fiction, free online)
For He Can Creep (short fiction, free online)
Catwings series (MG fantasy)
Cat Out of Hell (adult fantasy/mystery/humor)
Catalyst (scifi, YA?)
Barbary (scifi, MG/YA)
Pet Noir (scifi detective, adult)
Bunnicula (MG fantasy/contemporary)
Ray and the Cat Thing (fantasy)

Dogs:
The Babylon Eye (adult scifi)
The Spare Man (adult scifi/mystery)
Voyage of the Dogs (MG scifi)
Dogsbody (MG fantasy)
Bunnicula (MG fantasy/contemporary)
A Night in the Lonesome October (adult fantasy/horror, lots of animals, CW: (view spoiler)[ cruelty to animals (hide spoiler)])

General:
pretty much everything by T. Kingfisher (some are more fluffy than others)
The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper (capybaras! a marmot, chincilla and a cuddly kraken)

[Monica]

Not a feel good book but City by Clifford D. Simak features dogs and it's clear the author liked them much more than people!

[Becky]

One that I really enjoyed recently was A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World - The dog is a non-POV character, but crucial to the plot.

[CBRetriever]

Terry the macaw in Emergence
Eet (alien animal) in The Zero Stone

[DivaDiane]

Carmen Dog by Carol Ermschwiller https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

This is a great gender study as well!

[Monica]

The Book of Dog by lark benobi has all kinds of cute cuddly animals that save the world against an orange menace.

[Cheryl]

All the Pip and Flinx books.

[Jacqueline]

Not sci fi or fantasy but The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is written from the POV of a dog and is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.

[Nichelle]

Jacqueline wrote: "Not sci fi or fantasy but The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is written from the POV of a dog and is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read."

Agreed! I loved this book.

[Nichelle]

How about Watership Down (rabbits) and The Plague Dogs (dogs and fox)? Both by Richard Adams. Some rabbits die in WS but I think it's still uplifting and good.

Also Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. It's been awhile since I read this one, so I don't remember if anyone dies.

Editing my original post: CWs
Watership Down has animal-on-animal violence and some human cruelty to animals in the beginning. Also illustrates the dangers of totalitarian government. But is still an amazing heroic story. Yay rabbits!

The Plague Dogs has a portrayal of a laboratory that experiments on animals, from which the dogs escape. Disturbing, but it is only in the opening couple of chapters. However, the dogs have been traumatized by these experiments, which affects their capacity to survive.

[Jemppu]

Have to mention Dead Endless for 'Ripper' the space tardigrade. SF, though a tie-in.

[Margaret]

Nichelle wrote: "How about Watership Down (rabbits) and The Plague Dogs (dogs and fox)? Both by Richard Adams."

Watership Down is a fantastic book, but "cute" is the last thing I'd call it. Just a warning.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Scifi and in space are sort of critical to us considering books about cute animals in space as a theme ;-)

[Nichelle]

Margaret wrote: "Nichelle wrote: "How about Watership Down (rabbits) and The Plague Dogs (dogs and fox)? Both by Richard Adams."

Watership Down is a fantastic book, but "cut..."

Agreed! Plot is far from 'cute,' but I thought rabbits qualified...

[Anna]

Allison wrote: "Scifi and in space are sort of critical to us considering books about cute animals in space as a theme ;-)"

Yeah but all SFF is welcome here, I just want a list of specfic books for animal lovers :)

It's OK if the book isn't feel-good or "cute", but if it isn't, please add a note or a content warning!

[Chris]

The first animated adaptation of Watership Down is one of the top movies that give children nightmares. 🐇😈

[Jemppu]

Chris wrote: "The first animated adaptation of Watership Down is one of the top movies that give children nightmares. 🐇😈"

...in English, anyway? ;) (looking at you, Japan, USSR...)

[Anna]

Jemppu, I assume you mean that some of the stuff Finnish kids have to watch on kids' TV is terrifying? Very true.

Now let's try to list animal books that aren't terrifying or sad! ^_^

[Nichelle]

Chris wrote: "The first animated adaptation of Watership Down is one of the top movies that give children nightmares. 🐇😈"

IMHO, this movie was a poor adaptation.

[Eva]

In Japan, novels told from the perspective of a cat seem to be almost a genre by itself (I'd categorize them more under literary fiction than SFF though, even though the cats are sapient):



Then there is
(Japanese fantasy in which a man is granted one more day of life for each thing he lets the devil remove from the world - including cats?)
(communicating with cats is a big part of the story)

And a Chinese SF classic deals with a whole planet of intelligent cats (not very cute though, I think):


has the adorable doomslug, who can only communicate by fluting and parroting words, but is probably intelligent

and its sequels feature Dog, whose personality and wits make up for his lack of a proper name - and he can't help that his master couldn't be bothered with one!

features making friends with a hell-hound, cuteness debatable (careful: quite a few animals die in this novel, it's the examination of those deaths that leads to the villain)

(cute empathic alien tree-cat, YA SF)

and (not animals, but cute, very animal-like aliens)

- lots and lots of cute speaking animals

[Anna]

Eva wrote: "In Japan, novels told from the perspective of a cat seem to be almost a genre by itself (I'd categorize them more under literary fiction than SFF though, even though the cats are sapient)"

Yes and yes! I've read so many Japanese cat books, and loved them all, but they're not SFF, which is why I didn't list them. I don't mind them being listed here, but some of them need CWs. The Guest Cat for example is terribly sad, not at all feel-good material. Travelling Cat is less sad, but still about death, so not exactly cute. And Kafka on the Shore, oof, not at all fluffy. But I really liked all of these books, so I'm not saying don't read them, just that you can't expect them to lift your spirits, which is kind of what I wanted from this list :)

[John]

not classified as SciFi/Fantasy but one of the best dog books ever is Watchers by Dean Koontz. Hell Divers series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith has a dog companion in around book 2 or 3. A Boy and His Dog has been cited but don't see Iron Druid series Hounded by Kevin Hearne which has a dog companion for most of the series and has his own spin-off.

Just thought of another with great humour and puns: The Callahan Chronicals another series with cats and dogs and others by Spider Robinson. chuckle out loud stuff.

[Bruce]

I’m reading the book, Bloodhype, by Alan Dean Foster. There’s a cute raccoon-like character named Porsupah. Maybe a little similar to Rocket Raccoon.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Saga, Vol. 1 has Lying Cat. One of my favorite space animals. Not helpful to book discussion though.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

The book blurb for Chilling Effect talks about psychic cats but I haven't read it yet so I'm not sure how much the cat is involved.

The Bear also has talking animals. Although I don't know if I'd recommend it for reading.

[Anna]

I love Lying Cat! It's not a very feel-good series, but definitely worth trying if someone has somehow managed to miss Saga!

[Anna]

I edited the thread title and the first post to hopefully make it clearer. Here's what I added:

- all SFF welcome
- all formats welcome
- all ages welcome
- try to focus on feel-good books where animals are not harmed
- when necessary, add a CW

[Anna]

Sarah wrote: "The book blurb for Chilling Effect talks about psychic cats but I haven't read it yet so I'm not sure how much the cat is involved."

Aahhh! I have that on Storytel, I was planning on trying it at some point. Moving it up the list now.

[John]

Just finished Catseye which is on the bookshelf so animals and get a Read All The Books.

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Anna let me know how you like it. I’ve been on the fence about it because I haven’t seen much about it, but it sounds like fun.

[HeyT]

Sarah wrote: "The book blurb for Chilling Effect talks about psychic cats but I haven't read it yet so I'm not sure how much the cat is involved.."

The psychic cats aren't a very big part of the story. Kind of just side notes. I enjoyed it I just was expecting more from the cats.

[Cheryl]

I'd like to see more 'happy' reads, too, and esp. those with the cute critter having at least a featured if not starring role. I just spent too much time chasing down linked recommendations and finding nothing at all suited to my hopes for the thread.

[Eva]

Yes, it's sometimes hard to find a book that combines a starring role for the cute critter, but *also* makes sure no cute critters are harmed during the story. Usually when they get a starring role, bad things happen to them or their friends because "bad things happening to protagonists" always provides a lot of drama, tension, motivation and more satisfaction in the end.

For example, I've just read Spellslinger which features two named, speaking, wonderful wild ferocious "squirrel cats". I enjoyed them a lot and they have agency, are very funny, and really memorable. But due to the "high stakes action" nature of the story, that also means that bad things (brief torture, injury, death of loved ones) happen to them which drive their motivations, opinions and loyalty, give them a stake in the outcome of the overall conflict, etc.

So, would I recommend this series to animal lovers? Absolutely! But it also comes with a content warning: despite the light, playful tone and optimistic outlook, there are some heart-wrenching scenes that you may not want to read about if you're very sensitive to animal suffering in novels.

But I've thought of something: if you include dragons in your definition of "cute animal" (at least when they're babies) then maybe Eragon and His Majesty's Dragon would be good books to read! Both feature baby dragons bonding with humans, they're not unhappy books, and the dragons are main characters.

A Beautiful Friendship, a book I mentioned above, also focuses very strongly on the (tree cat) animal companion and is very much about their friendship. But I read it too long ago to be able to give reliable content warnings - no idea if bad things happen to animals or not! Does anyone remember it better?

Question: does Green Rider qualify? I remember loving it as a teenager because it focused so much on the horses, but again: my memory is like a sieve and I'd have to reread it to know for sure.

[Cheryl]

Fwiw, I'm following this topic for leads, and based on the blurb Green Rider doesn't tempt me at all.

[CBRetriever]

Cheryl wrote: "Fwiw, I'm following this topic for leads, and based on the blurb Green Rider doesn't tempt me at all."

It's not bad, it's just not phenomenal.

[rebecca | velvet opus]

This is a great thread! :-) I've friended many of you because of our mutual interests in SFF :-)

[Charlton]

Assassin's Quest has a wolf "Nighteyes".
And The Survivalist Series (post-apocalyptic) has a hound dog named "Bowie".Yeah, this dog is my hero.

[Christi]

Here are a few I've read:


Short Fiction:
- Gerald's Mistake by T.M. Edwards. Gerald, the cat, accidentally starts the end of the world when he pushes the wrong button.
- Gerald's Regret by T.M. Edwards (2nd in series)
- Mr. Fizzle Pop Ruins Everything - This is within the Perilous Alliance series by Chris Pike and M.D. Cooper. They created a side story about the cat in the series.

Book:
- Terrible Lizard: A Memoir of My Time in the Police Dinosaur Unit by Doug Goodman. (not necessarily the furry kind of cute, but cute in his own way)

[Anna]

Gerald the cat sounds delightful! ^_^

[Lost Planet Airman]

Pretty sure there are some Rocket and Rocket Raccoon & Groot stories out there.

Have we specifically avoided Redwall for some reason?

[Silvana]

Sigh. Was about to nominate a book but I forgot some of them did die in it. 😅

[Silvana]

Wait I have one. Gaspode from Discworld novels. He appeared in some Guards novels. And of course Binky the horse in the Death novels.

[Cheryl]

Redwall is generally considered juvenile, and this group doesn't do juvenile (or even all ages, which tbh & off-topic bothers me).

[Anna]

This thread welcomes books for all ages, as stated in the first post! ^_^

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Several of the books that made the polls are "all ages," Cheryl! Please feel free to campaign for them whenever they crop up :)

[Margaret]

There's a lot of battles and violence in the Redwall books, though, and the OP was asking for books where the animals don't die.

[Anna]

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper

Capybaras. A marmot. A chinchilla. A kraken who loves to cuddle, and her whale lover. A passing wombat. Delightful.

[DivaDiane]

Sorry, in advance, for no links:

The Uplift trilogy by David Brin SF
The PERN series, by Anne McCaffrey SF/F
Felidae, Akif Pirinçci (German Fantasy)
A cricket in Times Square (and the whole series) Middle Grade Fantasy

[Margaret]

The Cricket in Times Square was one of my favorites growing up!

If that book qualifies, then I would say another favorite, Charlotte's Web, does too.