Talking Animals in Science-Fiction
greyowlstudio
Author
Hello fellow writers and readers,
I'm currently writing a new science-fiction novel. It is largely dystopian, set in the 27th century, and involves genetically-engineered humans. The main character has a ocelot/housecat mix that has also been genetically-enhanced to be capable of speech, albeit his own cat-like speech that the main character can understand. I created the animal character to soften up the main character a bit, since he is a very masculine soldier type. And the whole tone of the story is actually rather serious, not jokey in any way, though the cat does provide some potential humor value. The book is largely intended to fit into a hard sci-fi paradigm.
There have been other science-fiction novels with talking animals--David Brin's Hugo/Nebula award-winning Uplift novels come to mind--but I'm still slightly worried about this issue making my book seem silly to some people. I find myself second-guessing my decision.
My instinct is that anything can be sold to the reader if written well enough, and that I should either go all-out and make the cat a fully-fledged character that you'll forget is a cat, or delete him all together. The cat as an 'accessory,' I think, would doom it. Nevertheless, I'm still struggling to weave him into the narrative as it has too many scenes that make a cat's involvement difficult. (That last remark is hard to explain without summarizing in depth, but imagine hostile environments, battles, etc.)
What do you folks think? Do you think a talking animal is still cheesy no matter how legitimately created and plausible within the story? Or is it okay?
Michael
I'm currently writing a new science-fiction novel. It is largely dystopian, set in the 27th century, and involves genetically-engineered humans. The main character has a ocelot/housecat mix that has also been genetically-enhanced to be capable of speech, albeit his own cat-like speech that the main character can understand. I created the animal character to soften up the main character a bit, since he is a very masculine soldier type. And the whole tone of the story is actually rather serious, not jokey in any way, though the cat does provide some potential humor value. The book is largely intended to fit into a hard sci-fi paradigm.
There have been other science-fiction novels with talking animals--David Brin's Hugo/Nebula award-winning Uplift novels come to mind--but I'm still slightly worried about this issue making my book seem silly to some people. I find myself second-guessing my decision.
My instinct is that anything can be sold to the reader if written well enough, and that I should either go all-out and make the cat a fully-fledged character that you'll forget is a cat, or delete him all together. The cat as an 'accessory,' I think, would doom it. Nevertheless, I'm still struggling to weave him into the narrative as it has too many scenes that make a cat's involvement difficult. (That last remark is hard to explain without summarizing in depth, but imagine hostile environments, battles, etc.)
What do you folks think? Do you think a talking animal is still cheesy no matter how legitimately created and plausible within the story? Or is it okay?
Michael
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Comments
It's nothing at all unusual. As an example of why it's not, read this >> https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Talking animals in fiction&item_type=topic
Here's an example of many of them, originated in 1966 >>
here's a more obvious one >>
And in one of my books there's a talking horse >> http://www.lulu.com/shop/kevin-lomas/lilium-saffron-dewbell-part-four-wish-machine/paperback/product-23784811.html
They are only amusing if written to be so. Animal Farm is not funny, and neither is Watership Down. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is very political. There's many examples of where they are not cheesy or even pointless.
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kevinlomas
There's nothing wrong with it per se. Further: Robert Heinlein worked with the idea in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Who_Walks_Through_Walls and other novels.
It can be done if done well.
I note that you write fairly well, use words and grammar properly, and construct effective and efficient sentences. I see no reason why you would not be able to pull it off.
My Books:
https://voidwheretaxed.wixsite.com/rockandfirepress/about
Regards,
Michael
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kevinlomas
It's not unusual to have a creature speak as one would expect them too. For example a snake would speak with a hissing voice? Stereotypical, I know, but surely they would? Animals would have the same habits and characteristics as they normally do, too.
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kevinlomas