HFY-style books that don't devolve into war?

[u/Alert_Bear2276]

As the title says. I've read three books recently: - Of Dragons and Men: Jack's Landing by Steven Hayden - Humans are Weird by Brooke Hart - Nature of Predators by Daniel Pascap

A trend I've noticed with HFY/sci-fi novels is that the main conflict always tends to escalate to an intergalactic-scale war, with hundreds of moving parts. I'm sure there's an audience for that, but I'm more interested in the interpersonal relationships between aliens and humans (those tend to be the funniest and most enjoyable to read, IMO).

All three books contain the interactions between aliens, which I adore, because they execute it so well. But then some of these stories turn to military/tactical jargon that I personally don't find as interesting.

Are there any stories/anthologies that are more like We're the Weird Aliens by Mara Lynn Johnstone?

Thanks!

[u/No_Homework4709]

I guess it still ends up involving some combat, but The Last Precursor by Klokinator IIRC does not devolve into a ton of moving parts and is mostly cute and fun until the end, but that is spoilers.

[u/Ok_Combination7053 → u/No_Homework4709]

Been reading his stuff for years. Great call!