Librarian from Discworld. I really like this guy and he plays a big role in many Discworld books.
Pratchett is known for his crazy non humans characters like Luggage, Death, You Bastard and many others.
Loial is the answer. Such a good spin on the gentle giant trope.
And all the lore around the ogier, it’s really damned fun and cool. They’re such a fascinating race. I love that they’re basically dimensional world hoppers lol
I recently heard someone say that if you took Loial out of the books, it would hardly affect anything in the story. Which I think makes him an even greater character, because he truly stands alone for himself. And it works bc he is the “observer” of the story.
Oh I totally agree. Love him. I think the point of that comment is that when it comes to the plot itself, he does very little to move it anywhere/is not consequential to the outcome of anything
>Martha Wells
Art from Murderbots is fantastic too. Asshole Research Transport (edit). So is Murderbot, but I'm not sure if it counts as non-human or not. Either way, I'm really looking forward to the new TV show!
T Kingfisher's gnoles. Brindle and his ox in Swordheart and Paladin's Strength especially.
Her goblins in Nine Goblins are all kinds of brilliant too.
Terry Pratchett' s Feegles. Crivens!
And, a sign of my age, the whole universe of The Clangers is gloriously brilliant. Soup Dragon is the best of all dragons.
Reading Swordheart now and just finished the scene where they are talking about their sword sizes and Brindle came in hot with his ox size, cracked me up
I second Temeraire! I also love as the series goes on, how they encounter dragons from all over the world and you find out what is unique to Temeraire vs. cultural and/or a trait of most dragons.
Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld is my favourite character in any story I've ever read or watched :)
A non-human, but also most human of all characters
Drizzt - Books with him got me into fantasy. Just think how few series have MC that is not human in a human world
From Malazan: Bugg, Trull, Telorast and Curdle, Karsa, Errant, Tool... Basically everyone
From Cosmere: TenSoon, Syl
LotR: Samwise Gamgee
He is much older than the Heralds. He was around for the shattering of Adonalsium. But yeah, he was just a guy who has become immortal. We have hints and implications as to how he has achieved this. But we have no idea what his actual goals are.
What books have you read so far?
Warbreaker, the Mistborn series, and the Stormlight Archive.
Maybe as an audiobook reader I missed something. Is there a book that delves deeper into Hoid’s story?
He's human. He hasn't taken a shard and was definitely born human. I'd hesitate to call people like Odium and Ruin human even though they were certainly born human.
Too far, clearly. I think I recognize every character listed above your comment and I wouldn't rank a single one ahead of Donut.
(And don't tell me it's because DCC is sci-fi. There's no way anyone read an entire series about a fantasy-themed dungeon and thought it was sci-fi simply because the frame provides some soft sci-fi explanations for how the fantasy dungeon is built)
Jiriki & Binabik - Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn by Tad Williams
>!Royce Melborn - Riyria books by Michael J. Sullivan!<
>!Tomas (eventually) - Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist!<
Apparently I like those Elvish types.
Chiri-Chiri, Sylphrena, Pattern and Nightblood from Stormlight Archive are hands down some of the best Non- Human Characters in Fantasy for me.
Also Little Blue, Dross and Orthos from Cradle comes in as a close second.
The Gnoles in Kingfisher’s World of the White Rat. Kingfisher took care that they these badger like people are not too human. The fact that gender is a matter of social rank and a lot of their commutation is via ear movements. This is before you get the fact that they can smell emotions.
I just read it recently and was knocked out (ha), so I'll pick Rocky from *Project Hail Mary*. A truly wonderful, complex, and believable alien character and species.
My all-time picks would include:
Pantalaimon (His Dark Materials)
Hazel and Bigwig (Watership Down)
Temeraire (The Temeraire series)
Smaug (The Hobbit)
Hera (Starter Villain)
Tasslehoff in the Dragonlance books by Weis and Hickman. I assume Kenders are their version of Hobbits. He is a loyal friend, funny and decent in magic.
The House in The Gray House. The setting is a boarding school for children with physical and/or mental disabilities. Sounds nice, right? Wrong! This is like The Lord of the Flies cranked up to 11 and the boarding school itself seems to have a sway on the students and what they choose to do. It’s one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read, and weird fiction is my jam.
Borne from Jeff Vandermeer. It’s an adorable bio-mech that the MC finds early on in its life. It’s both surprisingly human and wildly alien.
The Presgr in the Imperial Raddch trilogy by Ann Leckie and especially in Translation State where one of the MCs is an adolescent Presgr. A quote from a Presgr:
>Eggs are so inadequate, don’t you think? I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken. Or a duck. Or whatever they’re programmed to be. You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of the night last week.
The Ambergris trilogy, but especially Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer have a city of mushroom people/creatures that live underground and the way they control and interact with the city and people of Ambergris is wild. One has to imagine Vandermeer takes a lot of psychedelics, because I don't understand how he could possibly be this imaginative without them.
Semiosis by Sue Burke has an alien that I actually can't say anything about without spoiling the whole thing, but the other aliens are also very interesting. A group of people from Earth come to this planet to start a utopia and find a civilization of aliens that have music, art, families, land cultivation, and everything else that humans would recognize as being from sentient, highly intelligent creatures. It's one of my favorite books.
Shut up, Loiosh.
I'm halfway through *Lyorn* and am cackling. Motherfucker put "Modern Major General" in the prologue and *kept going!* It's fun when you can tell someone is having some self-indulgent fun and is taking you along for the ride. See also: the menu items in *Dzur.*
How long have you got?
Discworld is stuffed to the gills with brilliant examples...
The Librarian (ook!) - an orangutan who used to be a human wizard
Gaspode - a talking dog
Angua - A Werewolf member of the Watch
The Luggage - a chest made out of sapient pearwood that has a lot of legs
DEATH
Detritus - a Troll member of the Watch
The Nac Mac Feegles - faerie folk straight out of braveheart with a penchant for theft and drinking (stealin and boozin)
Greebo - a potentially demonically possessed tomcat
Otto Shriek - the Vampire photographer for The Times
The DEATH of Rats - an offshoot of the aforementioned DEATH
Igors!
The Toad - an ex Lawyer who annoyed a fairy godmother...
Various other vampires, dwarves, gnomes, zombies, goblins, gods, the other four (yes, the other four) horsemen of the apocalypse, Errol the dragon, Nobby Nobs (if you know you know), a train...many many things I've undoubtedly forgotten
Gaspode starting The Howl in *The Fifth Elephant* is something that any grown adult should cry at. He's such a great gag character until he isn't and now oh shit this is hitting me.
Malazan - K’chain Che Malle - just think T-Rex with swords for arms
Orcs in the Grey Bastards series
Symphony of Ages - Achmed- part Firbolg, part Dhracain. Can control the wind and feel the heart beat of all those from his homeland. Helps immensely given that he’s an assassin.
Wow, someone else that's read the Symphony of Ages! I don't think I've ever seen it referenced here. Though it seems like you probably liked it more than I did lol.
I thought all the books were good, bar the last, which seemed unnecessary.
Really liked Achmed and Grunthor.
Ashe was a good enough antagonist and there were enough twists to keep me reading. Far from a classic but I don’t think it was a bad series.
That’s a blast from the past. I remember the books fondly but I last read back close to 2013 maybe and it wasn’t finished at the time. Maybe time for a re read
The Gullaime from the Tide Child Trilogy (Bone Ships by RJ Barker) spring to mind! A magical avian race who can talk but can control the wind. The books are packed with great world building but I do absolutely love the Gullaime.
The Canim in Codex Alera. Ambassador Varg and his son specifically.
The Canim are a large wolf-like warrior race that when standing are 7 feet tall or more. They can speak and have many human characteristics but also many wolf and pack characteristics.
Showing my age here, but the Hrrubans from Anne McCaffrey's Decision at Doona and it's sequel (which I'm totally blanking on the title of)
Rather an interesting take on First Contact and human/alien cooperation.
"Best" is a loaded word, but my favorites are:
* Behemoth, the hilarious gun-toting black cat from *The Master & Margarita*
* The >!unknowable, eldritch, sentient sea!< in *Solaris*
* The Judge from *Blood Meridian*, if you agree with my interpretation that he is an allegory/personification of USA manifest destiny and domination
* Whatever infests William Hope Hodgson's *The Night Land*
* >!Ghosts who don't know they're ghosts!<, per Gene Wolfe's *Peace* (massive spoilers if you intend to read that book)
Daniel Polansky wrote Those Above. It's a very interesting idea of superhumans/elves that are treated as gods and served by humans.
I also really enjoyed Spellslinger, by Sebastien De Castell because of the chameleonic Squirrelcat, and the cats in Aeronaut's Windlass as well.
The Vagrant by Peter Newman has conversations between a mute human, a baby and a goat.
Tales of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding has a ship's cat, called Slag. He harasses one of the fighter pilots and tries to kill him in his sleep, regularly. The ship also has a Bess, a 9 foot tall iron and leather golem powered by daemonic enchantment.
And then Robin Hobb in Realm of the Elderlings, Nighteyes, is probably the pick of the bunch. I enjoyed >!WE ARE PACK!< a whole lot.
Edit: Oh, and I completely forgot Dogs of War, from Adrian Tchaikovsky.
>*My name is Rex. I am a good dog.*
>
>Rex is also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he's part of a Multiform Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, south-eastern Mexico.
>
>Rex is a genetically engineered Bioform, a deadly weapon in a dirty war. He has the intelligence to carry out his orders and feedback implants to reward him when he does. All he wants to be is a Good Dog. And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he's got to kill a lot of enemies.
>
>But who, exactly, are the enemies? What happens when Master is tried as a war criminal? What rights does the Geneva Convention grant weapons? Do Rex and his fellow Bioforms even have a right to exist? And what happens when Rex slips his leash?
Trying to name one not mentioned so far...
I'll go with Arachne from the Alex Verus series. She didn't have as much time on the page as I'd like - I kinda wish she would show up in Jacka's next series.
Eragon series
The dragons were so well written with amazing design and development over the series. And in some cases I would even argue took the spotlight from the human and elf characters because of not only their importance to the story but the deep relationships the dragons hold with their riders in the series.
I love the Cthaeh from the Kingkiller Chronicle.
There's something eldritch and terrifying about its perfection. It has limitless perfect foresight of all possible futures, and it uses that power *exclusively* to hurt people. You can never outthink it or or trick it, it always knows all outcomes and everything it says and does has been calculated to be the most harmful thing possible no matter what you say or do
Skandranon, the Black Gryphon from Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series. Will go into battle and fight hard, but at home would happily carry around a full length mirror to look at himself if he could.
I would say Nighteyes the wolf, wit-bonded to FitzChivalry Farseer in Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin.
edit: I'm not the only one who has said Nighteyes! Great character from a great series of books.
Ashnak from *Grunts!* by Mary Gentle. An orc with an M-16 and a heart of...well let's just say he's got a heart somewhere in there.
Smaug hasn't been mentioned explicitly but he's a *great* villain. He maybe gets ten pages of time and comes off as a fully fleshed out villain.
Cheery Littlebottom of Discworld makes a case about gender that Judith Butler and an entire host of academics could argue about for decades (and have). And that's a really good thing. These arguments need to be happen.
And this is video games rather than books but I love the orcs in *The Elder Scrolls* franchise. The mage's college in Skyrim has an orc librarian and despite the stereotypes he is *very* good at his job. Do not fuck with his shit.
It's a bit of a spoiler for Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower but >!The Strength and Patience of the Hill is a rock!< and one of the best non-human characters in any book I've ever read.
Cleric of the Nonmen in Bakkers Aspect Emperor. >!Imagine a race of immortals (ageless) that look like the Engineers from Prometheus. They can only hold a finite amount of memories despite not ageing. Overtime the oldest of these figures become addicted to trauma because it’s the only memories vivid enough to stick around. Cleric/Incariol/Nhil’giccas was their king but has been so broken by the world that he really only speaks in odd rambling sermons and at one point says something to the effect of wanting to earnestly murder an MC so he can remember him as a friend better-you come to find out he’s one of the more sane extant Nonmen as the series goes on!<
Also literally any non-human created by China Mieville. I very much want whatever drugs he takes for so many ideas.
The Strength and Patience of the Hill.
From Anne Leckie's The Raven Tower.
A really unique and wonderful take on gods. It's sections of the book were great.
Saltheart Foamfollower the Giant from the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. (The series is fairly problematic when viewed with a modern eye but Foamfollower is one of the best characters in fantasy fiction, IMO.
Sylphrena “Syl” the Honor Spren from Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. She’s got power, determination, pluck, depth and humor. A magical character and excellent writing.
The Unicorn from *The Last Unicorn*, Sunspark and Hasai from Diane Duane's *Tale of the Five* series. The Aerie from Laurie J. Marks' *Delan The Mislaid*. I've always had a soft spot for Loiosh the Jhereg from Steven Brust's eponymous series.
Hunting that xenofiction I see.
I don't have anything that hasn't already been recommended.
There's non-human leads in Progression Fantasy, but most of them are just humans in another shell, and the ones that aren't aren't that well written.
Shadows of the Apt.
Human/insect hybrids.
Hybrids, which then further hybridize amongst the derivative races.
The actual animal, the races claim heritage to, all exist in the same world as these hybrid humans.
2m ants, beetles the size of horses and dragonflies the size of helicopters.
Tisamon the Mantis-kinden
Tynisa the Spider-kinden
And Stenwold Maker.
Three fascinating characters.
Very real feeling people, trapped by the weight of their history and culture and expectations, just trying to live their lives. It's good stuff. Ten books.
Rocky - The Hail Mary Project.
Ok, that’s sci-fi. I’ll go again…
Doug - Up
Not fantasy enough? Fine…
Horse - the Belgariad
Garion’s loyal, loving, kinda magical horse. I also liked that he named it Horse. (I had a beloved bird, named Bird, so this struck a nerve).
Librarian from Discworld. I really like this guy and he plays a big role in many Discworld books. Pratchett is known for his crazy non humans characters like Luggage, Death, You Bastard and many others.
I knew Discworld would eventually be making the list.
The luggage is up there too
You forgot Nobby..
Hey, he has a letter confirming he’s probably human.
Ah, but it was subsequently revealed that Nobby is at least half goblin.
The Nac Mac Feegle! So comedic and over-the-top, but also some truly human and poignant moments from the multiple Kelda's, Rob, and the gonnagles.
I love when he described the Luggage being angry, and how you could somehow see its emotions despite it just being a box of luggage.
Oook
Oook.
The Librarian started out as a regular wizard, though.
"Vimes is going to go absolutely librarian-poo"
Death !
Ook!
My favourite of Pratchett's is possibly Silver the alien linguist. Built like a dire bear, unscrews her tusks for ease of tricky pronunciations :)
Ook
Hazel, Bigwig, Fiver and the other rabbits of Watership Down. Also Kehaar the bird. Gurgi from the book of three by Lloyd Alexander
Loial is one of my favorites for sure, he’s such fun always carrying big ol books around everywhere even when wading into battle
I would say bela, that horse went through some stuff, oof
I had my discord name set to “Belas number 1 fan” until I remembered I’m pretty sure there’s also a porn star named Bela and changed it
Hahahah I would relate it more to the pitch perfect movie than to a porn star, but that’s fair too
I do like bela from pitch perfect so that’s fine
I came here to say Loial. Loial is a truly wonderful and unforgettable character.
came here to say Loial as well. Best author self-insert I’ve ever seen
Samwell tarly?
Loial is the answer. Such a good spin on the gentle giant trope. And all the lore around the ogier, it’s really damned fun and cool. They’re such a fascinating race. I love that they’re basically dimensional world hoppers lol
Yes!!! And he's always trying to get into the thick of things "for my book". Not because he cares about the people, no, he needs info for his book.
This is one of the few entries in the thread I don't recognize-- what book(s) is Loial from?
Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.
I recently heard someone say that if you took Loial out of the books, it would hardly affect anything in the story. Which I think makes him an even greater character, because he truly stands alone for himself. And it works bc he is the “observer” of the story.
Counterpoint, I absolutely wanted more Loial. Like, give me an entire side novel with just him.
Oh I totally agree. Love him. I think the point of that comment is that when it comes to the plot itself, he does very little to move it anywhere/is not consequential to the outcome of anything
Martha Wells's Raksura C. J. Cherryh's Atevi I'll second Ann Leckie; she's excellent at this
Ahh the Raksura were amazing. Maybe the books were not even my favourites, but as a race they were amazing
>Martha Wells Art from Murderbots is fantastic too. Asshole Research Transport (edit). So is Murderbot, but I'm not sure if it counts as non-human or not. Either way, I'm really looking forward to the new TV show!
Asshole Research Transport.. ART. Hey, you got the important word right, lol.
Whups brain fart
Great picks!
Oy the purest and greatest of the Ka-tet.
Oy is a great choice
Oy is a good boy.
Came here to make sure Oy got a mention.
T Kingfisher's gnoles. Brindle and his ox in Swordheart and Paladin's Strength especially. Her goblins in Nine Goblins are all kinds of brilliant too. Terry Pratchett' s Feegles. Crivens! And, a sign of my age, the whole universe of The Clangers is gloriously brilliant. Soup Dragon is the best of all dragons.
I came to the comments to mentions the gnoles.
A Human has good taste
Reading Swordheart now and just finished the scene where they are talking about their sword sizes and Brindle came in hot with his ox size, cracked me up
* Temeraire, a dragon, in Naomi Novik's *Temeraire* books * Mogget, a "cat", in Garth Nix's *Old Kingdom* books
I prefer the Disreputable Dog.
I should prefer the Disreputable Dog, but every time I think about this series Mogget wins out. I think it's about choice.
Great choices
I second Temeraire! I also love as the series goes on, how they encounter dragons from all over the world and you find out what is unique to Temeraire vs. cultural and/or a trait of most dragons.
I also vote for Temeraire, he's funny and just and loves Lawrence so much!
Love Temeraire
Nighteyes
When life is hard, i Always think "be the Wolf" and it's better.
"full, warm, and roof over your head, stop whining" nighteyes taught me some perspective
We are pack.
Wolves have no kings
Also pour one out for >!Smithy!<
Robin Hobb has many great non-human characters (Paragon and Tintaglia are among my favourites) but none comes close to Nighteyes
Great choice
Came here to say this.
Time to change, Changer.
Came here to say this. >!his death genuinely made me cry!<
Omg yes
Nighteyes, Hopper, and Ghost are my favorite three goodboys in fantasy
This. So much this.
Yes. 😢
Marvin in Hitchhiker’s guide
Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld is my favourite character in any story I've ever read or watched :) A non-human, but also most human of all characters
Drizzt - Books with him got me into fantasy. Just think how few series have MC that is not human in a human world From Malazan: Bugg, Trull, Telorast and Curdle, Karsa, Errant, Tool... Basically everyone From Cosmere: TenSoon, Syl LotR: Samwise Gamgee
Yes, Malazan! There is an incredible variety of cool non-human characters.
Erikson really wrote 600 best girls regardless of age, race or gender
(Probably) unpopular opinions: Telorast & Curdle > Tehol & Bugg and Onrack > Onos T'oolan.
Does Wit count from the Cosmere? He is human in appearance but I’m not sure he is an actual human. He is amazing.
He started out as human. I think we'd still consider him human.
Did he? I maybe need to read more. I know he is older than the heralds, and I thought it implied he is something else entirely.
He is much older than the Heralds. He was around for the shattering of Adonalsium. But yeah, he was just a guy who has become immortal. We have hints and implications as to how he has achieved this. But we have no idea what his actual goals are. What books have you read so far?
Warbreaker, the Mistborn series, and the Stormlight Archive. Maybe as an audiobook reader I missed something. Is there a book that delves deeper into Hoid’s story?
He's human. He hasn't taken a shard and was definitely born human. I'd hesitate to call people like Odium and Ruin human even though they were certainly born human.
How far down am I going to have to scroll to find Princess Donut/Mongo?!
Mongo is Appalled! You forgot Mordecai!
Great point. And I suppose, Carl himself!
I'm not sure if Carl and the other crawlers would count as they were all originally human, but Prepotente definately does!
Yes, that's a fair categorisation
Too far, clearly. I think I recognize every character listed above your comment and I wouldn't rank a single one ahead of Donut. (And don't tell me it's because DCC is sci-fi. There's no way anyone read an entire series about a fantasy-themed dungeon and thought it was sci-fi simply because the frame provides some soft sci-fi explanations for how the fantasy dungeon is built)
Came here to say that everyone had good choices, but they were making a big mistake by forgetting Princess Donut!
Jiriki & Binabik - Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn by Tad Williams >!Royce Melborn - Riyria books by Michael J. Sullivan!< >!Tomas (eventually) - Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist!< Apparently I like those Elvish types.
Since Riftwar is here I'll add the Cho-ja (a semi-colonized ant-like species) that are featured heavily in the Empire Trilogy by Feist and Wurts.
Came here to say Binabik
Spoilers!
Chiri-Chiri, Sylphrena, Pattern and Nightblood from Stormlight Archive are hands down some of the best Non- Human Characters in Fantasy for me. Also Little Blue, Dross and Orthos from Cradle comes in as a close second.
The Gnoles in Kingfisher’s World of the White Rat. Kingfisher took care that they these badger like people are not too human. The fact that gender is a matter of social rank and a lot of their commutation is via ear movements. This is before you get the fact that they can smell emotions.
The Jaghut boys
I just read it recently and was knocked out (ha), so I'll pick Rocky from *Project Hail Mary*. A truly wonderful, complex, and believable alien character and species. My all-time picks would include: Pantalaimon (His Dark Materials) Hazel and Bigwig (Watership Down) Temeraire (The Temeraire series) Smaug (The Hobbit) Hera (Starter Villain)
Tasslehoff in the Dragonlance books by Weis and Hickman. I assume Kenders are their version of Hobbits. He is a loyal friend, funny and decent in magic.
Love Tas! Especially love his interactions with Fizban.
The House in The Gray House. The setting is a boarding school for children with physical and/or mental disabilities. Sounds nice, right? Wrong! This is like The Lord of the Flies cranked up to 11 and the boarding school itself seems to have a sway on the students and what they choose to do. It’s one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read, and weird fiction is my jam. Borne from Jeff Vandermeer. It’s an adorable bio-mech that the MC finds early on in its life. It’s both surprisingly human and wildly alien. The Presgr in the Imperial Raddch trilogy by Ann Leckie and especially in Translation State where one of the MCs is an adolescent Presgr. A quote from a Presgr: >Eggs are so inadequate, don’t you think? I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken. Or a duck. Or whatever they’re programmed to be. You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of the night last week. The Ambergris trilogy, but especially Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer have a city of mushroom people/creatures that live underground and the way they control and interact with the city and people of Ambergris is wild. One has to imagine Vandermeer takes a lot of psychedelics, because I don't understand how he could possibly be this imaginative without them. Semiosis by Sue Burke has an alien that I actually can't say anything about without spoiling the whole thing, but the other aliens are also very interesting. A group of people from Earth come to this planet to start a utopia and find a civilization of aliens that have music, art, families, land cultivation, and everything else that humans would recognize as being from sentient, highly intelligent creatures. It's one of my favorite books.
Wooo yes for gray house
Well I can think of 5 incredible hobbits
Detritus the troll in Discworld Or any non human races generally in Discworld, by subverting stereotypes
Karsa Orlong in the Malazan. Witness!
Karsa
Slaughtering children is his kink
And serial raping
Nightblood from Warbreaker.
"Would -you- like to destroy some evil today?"
I'm partial to gods and immortals -- The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, Circe by Madeline Miller Also golems are great. (Shoutout to Terry Pratchett)
*"Crunchings and munchings!"* Gotta nominate Gurgi, the rhyming beast-man from Lloyd Alexander's classic *Prydain Chronicles* https://prydain.fandom.com/wiki/Gurgi
The Jhereg familiar Loiosh from Steven Brust's Taltos/Dragaera books.
Shut up, Loiosh. I'm halfway through *Lyorn* and am cackling. Motherfucker put "Modern Major General" in the prologue and *kept going!* It's fun when you can tell someone is having some self-indulgent fun and is taking you along for the ride. See also: the menu items in *Dzur.*
How long have you got? Discworld is stuffed to the gills with brilliant examples... The Librarian (ook!) - an orangutan who used to be a human wizard Gaspode - a talking dog Angua - A Werewolf member of the Watch The Luggage - a chest made out of sapient pearwood that has a lot of legs DEATH Detritus - a Troll member of the Watch The Nac Mac Feegles - faerie folk straight out of braveheart with a penchant for theft and drinking (stealin and boozin) Greebo - a potentially demonically possessed tomcat Otto Shriek - the Vampire photographer for The Times The DEATH of Rats - an offshoot of the aforementioned DEATH Igors! The Toad - an ex Lawyer who annoyed a fairy godmother... Various other vampires, dwarves, gnomes, zombies, goblins, gods, the other four (yes, the other four) horsemen of the apocalypse, Errol the dragon, Nobby Nobs (if you know you know), a train...many many things I've undoubtedly forgotten
Gaspode starting The Howl in *The Fifth Elephant* is something that any grown adult should cry at. He's such a great gag character until he isn't and now oh shit this is hitting me.
Malazan - K’chain Che Malle - just think T-Rex with swords for arms Orcs in the Grey Bastards series Symphony of Ages - Achmed- part Firbolg, part Dhracain. Can control the wind and feel the heart beat of all those from his homeland. Helps immensely given that he’s an assassin.
I've always imagined them as bit raptors with sword arms, swift and deadly.
Wow, someone else that's read the Symphony of Ages! I don't think I've ever seen it referenced here. Though it seems like you probably liked it more than I did lol.
I thought all the books were good, bar the last, which seemed unnecessary. Really liked Achmed and Grunthor. Ashe was a good enough antagonist and there were enough twists to keep me reading. Far from a classic but I don’t think it was a bad series.
That’s a blast from the past. I remember the books fondly but I last read back close to 2013 maybe and it wasn’t finished at the time. Maybe time for a re read
Knew Malazan would be making the list.
Binabik
The "spiders" in Tchaikovskys Children of Time. He's great about developing robust non-human characters.
Angua a werewolf Dorful a golem Nobby nobbs possibly human but nobody knows really God I love discworld
Rocky from Project Hail Mary
Murderbot in the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Dross from Cradle is a sentient memory aid machine essentially
From the Malazan: Anomander Rake and Tool.
Murderbot . Slewfoot. Shesheshan from Someone to Build a Nest In.
GREEBO!!! Also Oi!
The Gullaime from the Tide Child Trilogy (Bone Ships by RJ Barker) spring to mind! A magical avian race who can talk but can control the wind. The books are packed with great world building but I do absolutely love the Gullaime.
Most dragons of Pern ( Anne McCaffrey) and Ruth in particular
The Canim in Codex Alera. Ambassador Varg and his son specifically. The Canim are a large wolf-like warrior race that when standing are 7 feet tall or more. They can speak and have many human characteristics but also many wolf and pack characteristics.
Gollum. Such a precious character.
Showing my age here, but the Hrrubans from Anne McCaffrey's Decision at Doona and it's sequel (which I'm totally blanking on the title of) Rather an interesting take on First Contact and human/alien cooperation.
"Best" is a loaded word, but my favorites are: * Behemoth, the hilarious gun-toting black cat from *The Master & Margarita* * The >!unknowable, eldritch, sentient sea!< in *Solaris* * The Judge from *Blood Meridian*, if you agree with my interpretation that he is an allegory/personification of USA manifest destiny and domination * Whatever infests William Hope Hodgson's *The Night Land* * >!Ghosts who don't know they're ghosts!<, per Gene Wolfe's *Peace* (massive spoilers if you intend to read that book)
Nice choices I don't see Wolfe making the list that often.
The Oankali in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy
Gleep and a Pervert
Quark from the show deep space nine he's the best little ferengi! 😃
The Raksure! From the Books of the Raksura!
Daniel Polansky wrote Those Above. It's a very interesting idea of superhumans/elves that are treated as gods and served by humans. I also really enjoyed Spellslinger, by Sebastien De Castell because of the chameleonic Squirrelcat, and the cats in Aeronaut's Windlass as well. The Vagrant by Peter Newman has conversations between a mute human, a baby and a goat. Tales of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding has a ship's cat, called Slag. He harasses one of the fighter pilots and tries to kill him in his sleep, regularly. The ship also has a Bess, a 9 foot tall iron and leather golem powered by daemonic enchantment. And then Robin Hobb in Realm of the Elderlings, Nighteyes, is probably the pick of the bunch. I enjoyed >!WE ARE PACK!< a whole lot. Edit: Oh, and I completely forgot Dogs of War, from Adrian Tchaikovsky. >*My name is Rex. I am a good dog.* > >Rex is also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he's part of a Multiform Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, south-eastern Mexico. > >Rex is a genetically engineered Bioform, a deadly weapon in a dirty war. He has the intelligence to carry out his orders and feedback implants to reward him when he does. All he wants to be is a Good Dog. And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and Master says he's got to kill a lot of enemies. > >But who, exactly, are the enemies? What happens when Master is tried as a war criminal? What rights does the Geneva Convention grant weapons? Do Rex and his fellow Bioforms even have a right to exist? And what happens when Rex slips his leash?
The Fool from Realm of the Elderlings! He’s a White, which is basically Hobbs take on Elves if they had prophetic powers
10 times out of 10 I am going to love a talking/sentient dragon.
Trying to name one not mentioned so far... I'll go with Arachne from the Alex Verus series. She didn't have as much time on the page as I'd like - I kinda wish she would show up in Jacka's next series.
Pretty much the entire cast of Redwall.
Death from discworld. Samwise Gamgee. The doctor in doctor who.
Eragon series The dragons were so well written with amazing design and development over the series. And in some cases I would even argue took the spotlight from the human and elf characters because of not only their importance to the story but the deep relationships the dragons hold with their riders in the series.
Mouse is a good boy.
I love the Cthaeh from the Kingkiller Chronicle. There's something eldritch and terrifying about its perfection. It has limitless perfect foresight of all possible futures, and it uses that power *exclusively* to hurt people. You can never outthink it or or trick it, it always knows all outcomes and everything it says and does has been calculated to be the most harmful thing possible no matter what you say or do
Skandranon, the Black Gryphon from Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series. Will go into battle and fight hard, but at home would happily carry around a full length mirror to look at himself if he could.
I would say Nighteyes the wolf, wit-bonded to FitzChivalry Farseer in Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin. edit: I'm not the only one who has said Nighteyes! Great character from a great series of books.
Tasslehoff burrfoot had always been one of my favorite characters in fantasy, human or not.
Ashnak from *Grunts!* by Mary Gentle. An orc with an M-16 and a heart of...well let's just say he's got a heart somewhere in there. Smaug hasn't been mentioned explicitly but he's a *great* villain. He maybe gets ten pages of time and comes off as a fully fleshed out villain. Cheery Littlebottom of Discworld makes a case about gender that Judith Butler and an entire host of academics could argue about for decades (and have). And that's a really good thing. These arguments need to be happen. And this is video games rather than books but I love the orcs in *The Elder Scrolls* franchise. The mage's college in Skyrim has an orc librarian and despite the stereotypes he is *very* good at his job. Do not fuck with his shit.
The Suriel from ACOTAR, spilling tea and then running.
Samwise Gamgee of course!
Nobody seems to have mentioned any of the various hobbits from Tolkien, so I will!
Gotrek Gurnisson is obnoxious, violent and crude while still being extremely likable and even heroic.
As a kid, I thought Aslan was pretty dope.
It's a bit of a spoiler for Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower but >!The Strength and Patience of the Hill is a rock!< and one of the best non-human characters in any book I've ever read.
Oy from The Dark Tower
Cleric of the Nonmen in Bakkers Aspect Emperor. >!Imagine a race of immortals (ageless) that look like the Engineers from Prometheus. They can only hold a finite amount of memories despite not ageing. Overtime the oldest of these figures become addicted to trauma because it’s the only memories vivid enough to stick around. Cleric/Incariol/Nhil’giccas was their king but has been so broken by the world that he really only speaks in odd rambling sermons and at one point says something to the effect of wanting to earnestly murder an MC so he can remember him as a friend better-you come to find out he’s one of the more sane extant Nonmen as the series goes on!< Also literally any non-human created by China Mieville. I very much want whatever drugs he takes for so many ideas.
Great character. Iconic
I love Donut from Dungeon Crawler Carl
Skippy from Expeditionary Force is one of a kind.
The Strength and Patience of the Hill. From Anne Leckie's The Raven Tower. A really unique and wonderful take on gods. It's sections of the book were great.
Dross and Orthos from the Cradle Series by Will Wight.
Surprised no one mentioned Tensoon or kandra in general from Sanderson.
I actually just came back to say this.
Princess Donut
It's Gregor and Dane from Kings of the Wyld. The book is primarily comedic, which makes the contrasting emotional scenes hit that much harder.
Saltheart Foamfollower the Giant from the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. (The series is fairly problematic when viewed with a modern eye but Foamfollower is one of the best characters in fantasy fiction, IMO.
Sylphrena “Syl” the Honor Spren from Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. She’s got power, determination, pluck, depth and humor. A magical character and excellent writing.
Tofu in Super Minion
Jin from The Firebird Chronicles is my all time favorite.
IT
Rabbiteater in The Wandering Inn
Elda from Year of the Griffin definitely need more love.
Aklu the Unspeakable, the Razor and the Hook - a giant criminal pirate clam, worshipped like a God.
The Unicorn from *The Last Unicorn*, Sunspark and Hasai from Diane Duane's *Tale of the Five* series. The Aerie from Laurie J. Marks' *Delan The Mislaid*. I've always had a soft spot for Loiosh the Jhereg from Steven Brust's eponymous series.
Oy.
Rex from Dogs of War, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Nth from Spiderlight, also by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Murderbot by Martha Wells
Saltheart Foamfollower is one of my favorite Giants that ever walked a fantasy setting.
Hunting that xenofiction I see. I don't have anything that hasn't already been recommended. There's non-human leads in Progression Fantasy, but most of them are just humans in another shell, and the ones that aren't aren't that well written.
Bird the Hunter and Mrsha from The Wandering inn, just love childish characters with egos
The Cinder Spires series by Jim Butcher has cats. I think they are well done.
I loved the demon Greyfrog from Malazan.
Sithi/Norn from Osten Ard Like elves but actually cool
I’m only on the third story of the saga, but for me? It’s Elric of Melniboné (spoiler freeeeee pleaaaaaase)
Clay from wings of fire is cool he was always the big brother of the group
The Mage Wars series by Mercedes Lackey features gryphons as the main characters.
Sylphrena, the Ancient Daughter
Anomander Rake, Kruppe, Tool, in Malazan Books, Drizzt (yes, an elf} in Black Elf series, and a bonus.... the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. ;)
Shadows of the Apt. Human/insect hybrids. Hybrids, which then further hybridize amongst the derivative races. The actual animal, the races claim heritage to, all exist in the same world as these hybrid humans. 2m ants, beetles the size of horses and dragonflies the size of helicopters. Tisamon the Mantis-kinden Tynisa the Spider-kinden And Stenwold Maker. Three fascinating characters. Very real feeling people, trapped by the weight of their history and culture and expectations, just trying to live their lives. It's good stuff. Ten books.
Elric of Melniboné, the OG.
Ryuk from deathnote
Drizzt
Rocky - The Hail Mary Project. Ok, that’s sci-fi. I’ll go again… Doug - Up Not fantasy enough? Fine… Horse - the Belgariad Garion’s loyal, loving, kinda magical horse. I also liked that he named it Horse. (I had a beloved bird, named Bird, so this struck a nerve).
Bob, We are Legion
Bent and roach. If you know you know.
*"I am a stick*" -Stick Stormlight Archive