Animals...

"Will somebody get this walking carpet out of my way?" -Leia

For some reason, there are lots of Fantasy books, and even some Sci-Fi ones, that focus on animals or have them as signifigant characters. That may be a by-product of the open-mindedness produced by the genres, or maybe it's just a fluke. Either way, for you horse-lovers, dog-lovers, cat-lovers, bird-lovers, and dolphin-lovers, there should be plenty to choose from.

• Anne McCaffrey
  • The Rowan (Adorable space-trained cats make friends with a lonely but powerful girl)
• C. S. Lewis
  • "Narnia" (Animal-humans, a lion, horses, rats, etc. are main characters in several books)
• Charles De Lint
  • Someplace to Be Flying (Modern setting- a battle between the corbae people (crows, etc.) and the canidae people (foxes, coyote, etc.))
• David Brin
  • Startide Rising (The first dolphin-manned space-ship discovers a secret many would kill for)
  • Uplift War (Is there another race of sentients on the planet the Chimps have settled?)
• E. B. White
  • The Trumpet of the Swan (A swan born without a voice learns to sing using a real trumpet)
  • Stuart Little (The adventures of a boy two inches tall who looks like a mouse)
  • Charlotte's Web (A runt pig and a literate spider become the best of friends)
• Jodell Abrams
  • The Enchanted Castle (Various animals help a princess who is trying to break the curse on her kingdom.)
• Madeleine L'Engle
  • A Ring of Endless Light (Vicky spends a summer discovering dolphins and their unique perspectives on life and death)
  • Troubling a Star (Vicky travels to Antarctica to serenade penguins, seals, and whales)
• Mercedes Lackey
  • Most of the "Valdemar" series deals with horses (or Companions), and some of it deals with wolves, birds, and other animals)
• Morgan Llewelyn
  • Finn Mac Cool (Hounds and horses are among the best secondary characters in this Irish legend)
  • Red Branch (Two horses act as secondary characters while a raven speaks from first person in this Irish tale)
  • The Horse Goddess (As the name implies, horses are some of the strongest characters in the book)
• Robert Heinlein
  • Assignment in Eternity (If you genetically engineer a monkey to be intelligent, is he necessarily sentient? Find out....)
• Robin McKinley
  • Deerskin (The main character's best friend is a dog)
  • The Hero and the Crown (The main character's best friend is a horse, and she also has large dogs and cats)
  • The Blue Sword (Two of the main character's best friends are a horse and a large cat)
• Sheri S. Tepper
  • Grass (An olympic medalist brings her horses to a new planet)
• Ursula K. LeGuin
  • Buffalo Gals (A collection of short stories about animals, from Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Native American points of view)

This page owned by: Raven
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Last Updated: October 16, 1999

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