46. A book with a non-human as one of the main characters

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Humanity can be... a lot... sometimes. And every now and then, it's fun to dive into a book that will take you away from that humanity. This week, we are looking for books that feature a non-human main character. Sure, you can go the paranormal route with vampires, werewolves, and witches, or you can take it even further and dive into books that feature animal protagonists or artificial intelligence. Enjoy the ride!

Suggestions:
33 Best Books with a Non-Human Protagonist: https://forreadingaddicts.co.uk/polls...
5 Fantasy Books with Non-Human Main Characters: https://nsmirage.com/5-riveting-fanta...
Books Where the Main Character is Not Human: https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad....
21 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books with Non-Human Main Characters: https://austinedecker.com/books-with-...
8 Grown Up Novels with Animal Narrators: https://electricliterature.com/8-grow...
34 Best Robot Books: https://www.nerdmuch.com/best-robot-b...
11 Books Featuring Robots and AI: https://www.epicreads.com/blog/books-...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?

[Nancy]

Oh gosh, I have so many directions I could go with this!

Do I read Bloody Acquisitions, the next book about Fred the Vampire Accountant?

Do I continue my quest to read Stephen King's catalog and read Cujo?

Or do I read the next Murderbot (I have #5 down for the Powell award, so I would read #6, Fugitive Telemetry)?

So many decisions to make.

[Amy (Other Amy)]

I haven't started Murderbot yet, and everyone says I should, so probably All Systems Red.

Or maybe I continue a series with Gemina and Obsidio.

I am also considering Contact, which I think does have a close encounter of the third kind.

My recommendations:

Fuzzy Nation - Scalzi is not actually one of my favorite authors, but his reworking of Little Fuzzy is a great read. (Content warning for child death.)

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain is a great consideration of story telling featuring, well, tigers. You do not have to read the first book in the series to enjoy this one.

First Person Singular: Stories I'm kind of in awe of this collection. It is a bit icky in places, but also wonderful overall. This was my first Murakami, so I can't really say anything in relation to his other works. It fits the bill for this prompt.

Doorways In The Sand Pure fun.

A Monster Calls A meditation on grief and loss. I cried. Very good book. One of those times when it doesn't matter that it's YA.

[NancyJ]

I'm most interested in:
All Systems Red - murderbot series
The Master and Margarita
Soulless -Parasol Protectorate series
Watership Down
Scarlet - Cinder series
The Travelling Cat Chronicles
something else by Becky Chambers

I recommend:
Human-like:
Klara and the Sun
A Closed and Common Orbit
The Golem and the Jinni
Circe
Cinder

Animals
Fifteen Dogs
The Art of Racing in the Rain
A Dog's Purpose
The Constant Rabbit

Supernatural/Horror:
Hollow Kingdom

[Angie]

This is a job for Murderbot! Fugitive Telemetry

[Pearl]

It looks like everyone is reading Murderbot, We should read it together!

[Kathy]

My choices
The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker - I've heard good things about this one.
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) - Martha Wells - Maybe I'll join in the group reading!
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - I've never read this. Maybe in 2022?

[Martha]

Choices:
The Hidden Palace
The Bees
Mink River (I recommend The Plover and Martin Marten by the same author)
Hollow Kingdom or its sequel Feral Creatures
The City We Became

[Marie]

I'm also in the Murderbot club for this one. They're a bit on the short side, and I ❤ Murderbot, so I'll be reading Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy.

Obviously I'm going to recommend All Systems Red for anyone who hasn't started the series yet, I'd also suggest The Call of the Wild, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Good Omens, Marley and Me and I could recommend about half the Discworld series, but I'll go for Moving Pictures, because Gaspode is one of my all-time favourite characters from the series. I'll also second Amy's suggestion of A Monster Calls, it's an amazing book.

[CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph]

It's not original to say Murderbot, but I've been stretching the series out slowly for maximum enjoyment, so I'll probably read Rogue Protocol for this.

[Jenna ✨DNF Queen✨Here, Sometimes...]

Kathy wrote: "My choices
The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker - I've heard good things about this one.
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) - Martha Wells - Maybe I'll jo..."

Ohh I never thought of The Golem and the Jinni for this prompt! Yay!

[Joy D]

I read this classic SciFi:
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov - 4* - My Review

[Adam]

Reading Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages.

A group of living toys facing off against their dark counterparts after the death of their creator.

A kids book from Koontz. Should be interesting.

[Joy D]

I did not use this book for this particular tag but it contains a character that fits the prompt. I just loved it!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - 5* - My Review

[Dubhease]

I read City of Fallen Angels. All the major characters were non-human: Nephilim, vampires, werewolves, and demons.

[GailW]

I read A Cat Was Involved - the prequel to the Chet and Bernie series. Short story but reminded me why I started the series in the first place.

[Kahlia]

I read The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells (switching it up from Murderbot a little). All the characters are non-human shapeshifters and the characters and world-building did feel very alien compared to reading about humans, for anyone who really wants to lean into the prompt.

[Jennifer AM]

I just finished The Island of Missing Trees, and half the chapters are narrated by a fig tree, so if someone is looking for something that is not sci-fi/fantasy that one might be a good fit.

[Misty]

I plan on reading The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna. It is the sequel to The Gilded Ones. The main character is most definitely not human.

[Tracy]

The Last House on Needless Street- 5*
this was so good! It's listed as horror but I would say thriller/mystery. Bonus points to you if you read it and figure out whats happening before the end. I got it half right ;-)

[Dana]

I have read Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe in which the protagonists are Gods, so no humans.

[Wendy]

I happened to pick up The One and Only Ivan to read to my son before bed, then realized it would be a good fit for this category. Usually I don't count bedtime books but this was too good a match

[Kelly Sj]

Wendy wrote: "I happened to pick up The One and Only Ivan to read to my son before bed, then realized it would be a good fit for this category. Usually I don't count bedtime books but this was to..."

Such a great book! One of my favorites.

[LeahS]

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Klara is an android. Beautifully and simply written, a book that is moving and sad. Slight niggle over Klara's understanding, but I would recommend it.

[Severina]

I read The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

[Anastasia]

Network Effect was an obvious choice. I love Murder Bot's dry humour. It was perfect.

[Samantha]

It seems there are a lot of fans for the Murderbot in this group and I am happy to join the club.
I read All Systems Red for this. I don't read a lot of Sci-Fi and think this is a great option for anyone who enjoys a bit of snarky humor.

[Hannah]

I love sci fi, so I was really looking forward to this prompt - such a great fit for books about aliens, robots, and AIs! I went with A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, which is told largely from the perspective of an AI who only recently (and illegally) has begun to occupy a human-appearing body, as opposed to the ship that she was designed to be.

Other science fiction books I love that would fit this prompt:
Klara and the Sun, for another human-like AI POV character.
Hellspark has a charming AI (this one not in a human-shaped body) who is the main character's close companion.
The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are both about aliens on alien planets and feature no humans at all.
I don't know what exactly the characters in This Is How You Lose the Time War are, but they are definitely not human.
Children of Time follows a whole civilization of spiders.

[Barbara]

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Great reading!

[NancyJ]

I read two of the murderbot books, but I really want to use Project Hail Mary for this one. I loved the alien character.

[Anne]

I am reading The Newcomer by Fern Britton. I can recommend The Yearling by M R Rawlings, a book I read at school and again since. One that has always stuck in my mind.

I am now reading Echoes in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope. ( I mistakenly put the other book on no. 13 as well). I can recommend the Newcomer by Fern Britton.

[Madelynn]

I read Lives of the Monster Dogs for this prompt, the Monster Dogs including Ludwig, Lydia and Klaue I would consider main characters. The monster dogs are intelligent dogs that can walk on two legs, have robotic hands and artificial voice boxes. It's a really weird read.

I recommend The Bees which is from the perspective of Flora, a bee.

[Tiffany]

I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, for the first time, finally.

I'd recommend: The Art of Racing in the Rain, Delicious Foods, and Binti.

[KP]

I readProject Hail Mary - I highly recommend it.

[Ana]

I read by David Wiesner ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

[Tracy]

I read A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers. It was part 2 of the Monk & Robot duology. If you haven't guess yet, the non-human main character was a robot, a sentient one. It was a lovely book (5 stars from me), but both part of this duology are quite short, ~160 pages each. Not really sure why it was split up. I read part 1 (A Psalm for the Wild-Built over a year ago, so maybe there's something I don't remember that would make it obvious why it was split into 2 books.

If the "faith" prompt makes it, you could use this book, even though the "monk" is not highly religious, and the religion involved is not an earthly religion. This sci-fi book is under the subgenre called "solarpunk", so an optimistic view of the future.

The book I'd PLANNED on reading for this (but was thwarted by my IRL book club that chose a book that filled my original prompt for "A Prayer for the Crown-Shy") was The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. In this book the narrator is a fig tree!

[Tracy]

Ana wrote: "I read by David Wiesner ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️"

I LOVE David Wiesner! (Tuesday) was the first book I bought for my now 30-year-old son. Still love that book.

I bought (Flotsam) for myself...

I don't know if all his books have no text, but he is an amazing storyteller without using words in at least these two treasures.

[Jill]

What are you reading for this prompt?
I read The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton

A children's book about small people who live under the floorboards, or in the walls of people's houses and are responsible for the fact that we all loose items in our houses and put it down to us mislaying them

[Lindsey]

I used House of Sky and Breath for this. Not my favorite SJM, but it's got angels, Fae, mer... lots of non-humans!

[Sherri]

I read Exit Strategy

[Barbara]

I read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

[Rachel]

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by South Korean Sun-mi Hwang is a delightful little story translated from Korean, that features a hen called Sprout and all the farmyard animals. This could be a children’s book but also works as an adult story. Sprout has lived her life as a battery hen and has one dream: to hatch a chicken. The story is about Sprout’s adventures after she flys the coop. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Here is my review

[Stacey]

I read Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. My favorite stories in this collection of eight: the title story, the award-winning "Tower of Babylon" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary".

[Jess]

Tracy wrote: "I read A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers. It was part 2 of the Monk & Robot duology. If you haven't guess yet, the non-human main character was a robot,..."

I am reading Crown Shy now and re-read Prayer last month. I think it is two books because the first one is in the wild where Sibling Dex is out of their element and the second is in civilization where Mosscap is.

[Tracy]

@Jessica - that’s an interesting observation about the two Becky Chambers books! I didn’t pick up on that — maybe because there was a good bit of time between when I read them both?

[Siobhan]

I read Lirael by Garth Nix, where one of the major characters is a talking dog (sort of, but she's definitely not human). It was a reread, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Really interesting fantasy, that has a hugely exciting element of adventure! 5/5

[Laurel]

I hoped Nettle & Bone would work for this, but the bone dog and the demon chicken are definitely supporting, not main, characters. Back to the drawing board for this prompt.

[Carolyn Rutigliano]

Would American Gods by Neil Gaiman work for this category?

[Udari]

Carolyn Rutigliano wrote: "Would American Gods by Neil Gaiman work for this category?"

Yes, it would.

[Kylie]

A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens