Maybe this is too specific but after reading In Search of Home by Regtherag on Ao3 I am desperately in need of a speculative sci-fi that covers human alien relationships without simply being an alien x human romance. Especially when Aliens study humans/find them interesting. Basically, humans from an aliens point of view. A book that encapsulates the humans are space orcs idea and takes an outside lens to humanity.
Any length is fine but anything over 200 pages is amazing.
Please tell me there are books like this out there.
by CherryStar21
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So Below by Andi Anderson isn’t totally from the alien viewpoint but it has a storyline told from the perspective of a Reptilian alien coming to Earth to try to help/rescue humanity. I really enjoyed it
After the Fall by Edward Ashton. Main character/narrator is human so it’s not so much from an alien’s point of view, but a fun read and is definitely about humans as pets/servants.
The Becky Chambers Wayfarers series has humans as a kind of weak and annoying race among more dominant alien races. Later books get into that more fully as I recall – Record of a Spaceborn Few in particular. Despite it being a series with a little bit of continuity from one book to the next, each one pretty well stands on its own and you don’t really have to read them in order. It was neat to get a universe where humans aren’t the dominant species.
Definitely not pets, and it’s set on Earth so it’s not your typical space-y sci-fi, but the premise of Matt Haig’s Humans is exactly ‘humans from an alien’s point of view’! I personally found it a very entertaining read.
I’m not sure if it’s exactly what you’re looking for, but the xenogenesis series by Octavia butler is all human alien relationships. Super strange books but very well written
THE SPARROW by mary doria russell
*Mother of Demons* by Eric Flint
The aliens are land squid and currently going through their equivalent of the bronze age. A human ship crash lands on their world and the people need to figure out how to survive without technology in a world that’s mostly poisonous. The other half of the story is from the viewpoint of the squids trying to understand what is, from their standpoint, the sudden appearance of eldritch abominations with an ancient civilization and horrifying knowledge.
I’m not sure if he was going for “backwards Lovecraft” on purpose but it works as that.
A short story: Bloodchild by Octavia Butler.