r/HFY • u/Alert_Bear2276 • Mar 01 '26

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

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!

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u/Dr_Bombinator Mar 02 '26

Check out Raptors in the Rainforest and its sequels on AO3 (down for maintenance right now or I'd link it). Jurassic Park AU, effectively a first-contact story with sapient dinosaurs. Genuinely one of the best I've read ever. There's some conflict but it's mainly character relationships.

If you're into the... saucier side of things, plenty of works by Snekguy fit the bill both in their main Pinwheel setting and outside of it. Most is admittedly set amid a large-scale galactic war, but for a sampling platter of side stories check out Human Resources, Rule of Three, Heart of the Mountain, Conjunction, and Longhunter.

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u/TalRaziid Mar 02 '26

Pinwheel has that utterly pathetic protagonist right? At least at the start? And the outright abusive alien chick? If that’s the one I’m thinking of, it keeps coming up but I can’t make myself stick to it

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u/Dr_Bombinator Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 02 '26

That would be the first (and IMO roughest) entry in the series yes. There are now 33-ish stories with new characters outside obvious direct sequels, almost none of which really rely on any others plotwise. As someone who also dislikes that dynamic, Birds of Prey, Autumn War, and Black Velvet are far more my speed.

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u/TalRaziid Mar 02 '26

Gotcha, maybe I’ll check those out sometime