Species diversity in SFF
May. 4th, 2014 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yomikomaI really like seeing a range of species in SFF.
The Raksura series by Martha Wells particularly stands out for fantasy. Everyone's basically humanoid but I'm not sure any humans appear. Instead there are characters with horns, spines, scales, a rainbow of skin colors, etc. I feel like this is particularly suited for fantasy since there doesn't need to be a reason that everyone's humanoid and you can avoid language questions.
For science fiction I think that a mixed-species setting should go beyond the Star Trek/Star Wars humanoids, though obviously budget issues come up for live-action media. David Brin's Uplift stories do a pretty good job here, as do Phil Foglio's Buck Godot/Gallimaufry comics.
The Raksura series by Martha Wells particularly stands out for fantasy. Everyone's basically humanoid but I'm not sure any humans appear. Instead there are characters with horns, spines, scales, a rainbow of skin colors, etc. I feel like this is particularly suited for fantasy since there doesn't need to be a reason that everyone's humanoid and you can avoid language questions.
For science fiction I think that a mixed-species setting should go beyond the Star Trek/Star Wars humanoids, though obviously budget issues come up for live-action media. David Brin's Uplift stories do a pretty good job here, as do Phil Foglio's Buck Godot/Gallimaufry comics.
