General Discussion

I am getting into a full blown hyperfixation and have decided to read every animal xenofiction story I can get my hands on. I'm looking for recs on the level of Watership Down, Plague Dogs, White Fang, etc. Bonus points for unique species at the focal point of the story.

I don't enjoy stories like Warrior Cats or Guardians of Ga'Hoole very much- no shade, they just aren't my cup of tea! Though I do really enjoy stories about fictional animal societies, I mostly lean towards novels intended for adults.

My list right now:
- Fire Bringer by David Clement-Davies
- Winter Without End by Casimir Laski (aka Cardinal West- I recommend his YT channel if u enjoy xenofiction)
- A Black Fox Running by Brian Carter

But I want to expand the list as much as possible!

Raptor Red, by Robert T. Bakker (yes, THE Bob Bakker, the famous palaeonthologist) is one of my favourites. It's about a year in the life of a Utahraptor. No dialogue, just animals being animals. The book was released 1995, but it oddly enough still holds up really well. The raptors may be depicted as featherless, but that's the only thing about them that isn't bird-like.


In Between the Stars, by A. A. Ripley, is another good one, and this one deserves more popularity. I know about it because I met the author on this very forum, even before they released that book. It's a fun space-opera adventure starring a reptile-like alien, who leaves her planet for the first time (and is often baffles by other species' biology and culture.


And lastly for this post, I think it qualifies as xenofiction despite the more fairytale approach: The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett. Among the main cat are a group of rats who recently gained sapience by eating magical trash. They're struggling to find their place in the world, while also having to grapple with change and tradition. Alongside them is the titular Maurice, who is a cat who has also recently gained sapience (but, being a cat, he's a lot more self-assured). The story begins with them finding a - in Maurice' words - 'stupid-looking boy with a flute', and Maurice convinces boy and rats to pull a pied piper scam.

unfortunately I don't think this book is available in English, but the German version is available on the Internet Archive: Wolfsaga by Käthe Recheis. it's a hero's journey type story about a pack of wolves who flee from an upset in the way the world works, only to return and fix the problem once and for all when they realize there has to be something they can do. it also doubles as a coming-of-age story for the secondary protagonist and an appreciation for the dreamers and idealists of the world.

available on Project Gutenberg: Bambi A Life In The Woods by Felix Salten is a surprisingly good book about the life of a stag in a forest hunted by Man. the Disney movie, while good in its own right, really does not do it justice. it is very mundane at times but also knows when and how to be serious, and the side plot about poor Gobo gives me chills every time.

available on the Internet Archive, I haven't read these myself yet but have seen good things about them: the Spirit of the West series (Bonita, Sierra, Esperanza, Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron) by Kathleen Duey. these four books were written to tie in with the Dreamworks movie, the first three books give the backstory for the families of the two main characters of the movie and the fourth book is the story of the movie but in book form.

Seconding Raptor Red, its very good. I'll also add The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (mammoths) and The Bees by Laline Paull (bees lol) for more modern animal xenofiction. I believe Laline Paull has another book from the perspective of dolphins, but I haven't read that one and don't know anything about it so I can't attest to its quality or content.

Ratha's Creature by Clare Bell is a series about prehistoric cheetah-like cats I have a lot of nostalgia for, but it has some problems specific to its time that I didn't notice as a little kid reading lol. Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams is about domestic cats, I liked it as a kid though not as much as Ratha or Warriors. I also remember enjoying The Wild Road by Gabriel King, its also about domestic cats but I remember NOTHING about it so can't attest to the quality of this one either lol, I only remembered it because I still own a copy. Africa by Maura "Arven" Pompili is a graphic novel (also readable online as a webcomic) from the pov of a leopard.

I know David Clement-Davies also wrote at least one wolf novel (I feel like there were two but I can't remember, its been probably 15 years since I read them lol) but I remember preferring Fire Bringer at the time. Still worth checking out.

I've also got some books saved to check out still that I haven't read, I'll share their titles anyway: Wait A Season For Their Names by Alex Kendziorski (african wild dogs), The Gryphon by Paula Grover, Tomorrow's Sphinx by Clare Bell (cheetahs- copies of this one are hard to get ahold of but I do plan on acquiring and reading it eventually), Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce (unicorns I believe?), Silverhair by Stephen Baxter (mammoths). Open Throat by Henry Hoke is from the perspective of a mountain lion in LA, though based off its description it seems to skew more literary fiction and might not hit the animal xenofiction tropes people tend to like. Either way, I've had good luck finding weird old obscure animal xenofiction novels by digging around on thriftbooks or irl used book stores. Don't know if any of these are good, but figured I'd mention them!

Disclaimer: I read a lot of fiction that can be considered middle grade/YA, so I'm not sure how many of these would be your kind of thing. Going to filter out some of my usual suggestions. I'm just another big xenofiction fan that wanted to chime in.

Redwall is a classic- 23 books in that series and most of them can be read without touching any of the others. I'd at least read the first one, which is self contained. My personal favorite (apart from the first) is #7, The Bellmaker. Wouldn't say they're directly adult but the fact that they stand alone for the most part is enough for me to recommend at least the first one, it has a fun vibe to it.

Age of Fire- dragon xenofiction if you like mythical creatures. All of the main characters are dragons and there's some interesting spec-bio stuff from what I remember. It's a coming of age story but about dragons. It's a series of 6, but I remember the first one the best.

Going to second Tailchaser's Song, its recommended a lot for Warriors-like books but it really stands best as its own thing. It's just also about cats.

For other smaller recommendations- I have a book called Kine I haven't read yet but picked up a while back, its about a weasel. Silverwing is definitely YA but I don't see much about bats. Will also mention Ratha's Creature.

Okay, if you want deeply symbolic, mythological, archetypal xenofiction on the level of Watership Down, I must recommend The Book of the Dun Cow. Although, come to think of it, it's closer to an animal fable in some ways, because there aren't really any humans in the world. I'm not sure whether it will be what you're looking for, but I had to mention it.

The webcomic Scurry might also be appealing to you, it's a post-apoc story about animals trying to survive after a nulear war.

i DON'T recommend One for Sorrow, Two for Joy or Seven for a Secret. not only does it have a horrible and nonsensical plot and the birds don't behave like birds, but it has some surprise undisclosed nasty content. it has a cool name and literally nothing else going for it. in fact, i found it on accident while looking up the nursery rhyme it was named after.

Seconding Firebringer, fantastic book. We enjoyed The Sight (sequel) but Firebringer is the better book overall. The Sight really leans into fantastical and magical themes, and you may like it significantly less than Firebringer. Age of Fire is also good, but we do need to read further into it at the same time. Heard the three first books are the ones to stick with, not the ones after, as well. We haven't read this one in ages, but we also remember enjoying Ravenquest. [b]Edit:[/b] Silverwing is also not tailored towards adults/older readers, but we definitely still think the first book is worth a read. We don't recommend the sequels, the quality kinda degrades as it goes on, even if we really liked Firewing's ending. Darkwing [i]is[/i] part of the series, though the only thing that connects it is bats, and it's specifically prehistoric. Darkwing was always our favourite out of the four, though. [b]Edit edit:[/b] Also, if you don't like stuff like Ga'hoole or Warriors, I recommend [i]avoiding[/i] the Ga'hoole sequel series, Wolves of the Beyond, and Wings of Fire. Beyond's overall ending is just. Oof. Wings of Fire [i]is[/i] a good series, at least for the first two arcs, but it's very reminiscent of Warriors, with heavy themes of destiny, prophecies, and a very much developed society for the dragons. Lots of societal/inter-clan/tribe conflict, too. We also tried to read Seekers, which was by the same authors as Warriors, except with bears, and did not enjoy it. - Alex [emoji=cat 1 size=1]

@corndog Are you talking about Set Ablaze? If so, I like it, but I don't think it counts as xenofiction either because the characters are too anthropomorphic.

[quote name="@NitroIndigo" date="2026-01-11 02:08:44" ] @/corndog Are you talking about Set Ablaze? If so, I like it, I don't think it counts as xenofiction either because the characters are too anthropomorphic. [/quote] nope! different series with a similar name. this is the one where the main continent is called "birddom" and the story ends with ghost wolves starting the rapture because the author couldn't figure out a way to write a way out of his own problem (which, by the way, was "every single bird made an alliance with every single bug to never eat them again which destroyed the ecosystem"). it's even dumber than it sounds.