Non-Human Protagonists
Sep. 16th, 2009 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lea_hazel posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fantasyWhat 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.
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.
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Date: 2009-09-16 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 02:24 am (UTC)I AM SO GLAD YOU SAID THIS!
I had the exact same issue with that book -- kept waiting for the idiotic bastard to be brought down in the end, and it just didn't happen. I nearly threw the book across the wall when I realised I was supposed to be empathising with him/he really was the protagonist! Argh. And apparently there's a sequel? So we can have EVEN MORE of the main character being a nasty bastard without a single redeeming feature? Whyyyyy?
Then I went on Amazon to review it (it was that bad!) and found that 3/4ths of the reviewers just looooved it and thought it was great. (I lost a lot of my faith in humanity that day.)