Although they're not technically non-human, Ian Irvine's fantasy decuplet has a world with four distinct quasi-human species: one (old human) was the "normal" human and the other three were long-lived species from the same primate evolutionary branch. His second series (Well of Echoes) had an entire species of non-humans and the main/supporting characters were evenly divided between humans and the "aliens": it turns out that this isn't quite the full story, but I wouldn't like to ruin the ending for anyone intending to read the books.
As long as the characterisation is strong, I don't think it matters to the reader whether the protagonists are human or not (aside from obvious physical abilities changing the plot). What irritates me is the style of writing that propagates the "humans good, non-humans bad" ethic, or that a character is inherently good or bad depending on their race (*cough* Tolkein *cough*), because it smacks of laziness and becomes very dull.
The subversion series sound interesting: I've never come across them before, aside from a short story from a werewolf's viewpoint.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 11:14 am (UTC)As long as the characterisation is strong, I don't think it matters to the reader whether the protagonists are human or not (aside from obvious physical abilities changing the plot). What irritates me is the style of writing that propagates the "humans good, non-humans bad" ethic, or that a character is inherently good or bad depending on their race (*cough* Tolkein *cough*), because it smacks of laziness and becomes very dull.
The subversion series sound interesting: I've never come across them before, aside from a short story from a werewolf's viewpoint.