Non-Human Protagonists

[lea_hazel]

What books or book series do you know that have non-human protagonists? I know POV characters are almost always human (or very like human), for maximum reader identification, but what about major supporting characters? I remember reading Moorcock's Swords trilogy, where the hero was a member of the long-lived elf-like species. I know there are quite a few books with elf protagonists but they're often not that different from humans.

Urban fantasy of course has a lot of werewolves, vampires and the like, but seems to have less of the people who were born not human, as opposed to humans who were turned into something else. I have a few books on my reading list that have non-human protagonists, but the majority still seem to cast non-humans in minor or antagonist roles. There are a few series I've heard of that flip the perspective and use traditional antagonist species like goblins or orks as protagonists, although I haven't read any of them (yet).

What books have you read with major inhuman characters? Which did you like best, and least? Which species of inhuman would you most want people to write more of? I gotta vote for dwarves.

Comments

[nightbird]

Right now I'm looking at The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson, which has some significant nonhuman (and pointedly nonhuman) characters -- dragons, wolves, the like -- and Mouse Guard, which is a comic like a less kid-friendly Redwall. There are also the books of Richard Adams -- Traveller, Watership Down, The Plague Dogs, though I'm not sure whether you'd count those as fantasy, even though Watership Down has all that gorgeous mythology and dream-walking. I guess gods and Endless would count as "hyper-human" in a way.

Props for the dwarves -- I'm totally with you on that.

[lea_hazel]

I've been hearing good things about Mouse Guard for a while, I should really check it out. On the other hand with Redwall even the fans seem ambivalent.

[cesy]

The first few Redwall books you read are great. I'd suggest reading in publishing order. After you've read about five or maybe ten of them, later plots and characters all seem the same. The only exception is Outcast of Redwall, in which it is made very clear that evil is inherent in certain species, and upbringing makes no difference. If you can ignore those flaws and avoid that book, they're great adventure stories.

[nightbird]

Agreed! I grew up love love loving the series (and wrote many a spinoff myself), and was reading them long after I realized that it's the same book over and over again. I'd personally recommend starting with Mossflower, since Redwall itself is still sort of finding its footing in the universe and Mossflower is more consistent, but that's purely a personal preference thing. (Mattimeo and The Bellmaker are, I think, both still my favorites. I really need to get my hands on them again.)

[undomielregina]

See, I like Redwall the best of the series, although it's obvious that he seriously rethought his mythology after it, so that there are a lot of mentions in there that don't make sense with later books. It has a sense of menace that most of the later novels lack -- after Mattimeo (maybe Mariel), at least, the villains get a lot less effective and scary, and I still think Redwall has the best climax of the lot.

I'd say that with the exception of The Bellmaker, it's not worth reading past Salamandastron at the very most, which is where they really start feeling formulaic, iirc. The first 3 published are really different from each other and are probably the best he wrote, but while I'll admit that Mariel isn't as good, I have a soft spot in my heart for it.

[holyschist]

Oh, man, I haven't read Outcast--gave up before then--but that inherent-evil thing drove me BONKERS as a kid. Why, Brian Jacques, whyyyy? (Has anyone ever asked him what's up with that?)

I consoled myself that in real life, the badgers would eat all those tasty little mice instead of tucking them into bed.