Stories that Lack Humanity.

Take the topic title quite literally.

My major WIP involves a world I created where the gods decided to use reptiles, instead of mammals, as their models for life. This being, they created new races of creatures - 3 of them are sentient.

There are no humans. None. There are mammals, such as rabbits and other prey items, but no mammalian predators of any kind. Birds were allowed, as were fish, since they are both could become prey items for the races.

Now, I'm curious for opinions on this. I imagine there may be a problem with a disconnect from the reader because it will be more difficult to relate to something not human. Yes, the races are sentient and so will be able to feel emotions as a human would - they love, they hate, they cry, etc. - but their habits and mannerisms will vary from something familiar to things barbaric. One of the races, by nature, has an aggression problem, as an example, and their interactions are painted by this.

Do you think the disconnect will be a problem? Or will the fact that this is unlike many other worlds out there be enough to hook the reader with curiosity over how I've handled the world? Would you expect it to be entirely different from humanity because the races are not human or would you be alright with reptiles being imbued with emotions like humanity? Would you drill for holes in the world-building more because of it?

I feel like my questions are a bit vague, but would be glad to answer any questions to try to firm up what I'm asking.

I suppose the question boils down to: Fantasy novels without humans - Yay, Nay, or Other?

There is also Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, but I was more asking about novels where the only races were fantasy races (not that I'm being a downer on animals, just that I think it's fairly common for an author to show animals having some sort of sentience).


C.J. Cherryh, eh? I've never heard of her, but will have to look into it, now.


It's good to hear that there's interest in this sort of thing. When I realized that most fantasy has humans as the primary race and that I couldn't think of any that used entirely fictional races, I started to worry there was an unsurmountable reason for it.

The gods created their world as a kind of "look, we can make a better, and more successful world than the rest of the gods" kind of thing. They are young (in comparison to the other gods of the pantheon) and weren't allocated any creation materials, so they used what the other gods left behind when they created their own worlds.

The world the younger gods created became a huge hilly plain(the entire world, mind you) with a few scraggly trees here and there. The whole world is of a single, mild to hot climate. Keep in mind the gods wanted their reptile races to be successful, so they created a world in which not only would the environment be suitable for them, but gave them a blank slate to work with. The gods' goal is to show up the other worlds with mammals and exhibit their success to the rest of the pantheon.

There won't be wildy varying climates until later in the story arc, and then the races will have 'adapted'.

West of Eden sounds right up my alley. I'll admit to having been a dinosaur nut when I was younger and that my races would make you think 'dinosaur' before anything else.

This is great, everyone, thank you. Keep the commentary coming, if you like, all of it is good.