Modifying humanity

[nancylebov]

Three popular series with what seem to be human characters, but I'd say not exactly.....

One is George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. The people are somewhat less cooperative than real world people, and less interested in wisdom. It's set at a more or less Renaissance tech level (they have plate armor, but I don't know how well the rest of the tech matches up), but in the real Renaissance, people had religion and philosophy. I'm not saying they were extremely wise or kind, but they weren't as horrendous. Or am I too optimistic about the real world?

The next is Tolkien's hobbits. They're read as humans, and explicitly described as a branch of humanity, but they're clearly much less violent.

Rowling's wizards are psychologically much tougher than humans. As far as I know, a human (or muggle, if you prefer) would not have come out of Harry's childhood in as good shape as he did, though I'll be interested in comments about what's known about resilience. I don't think a human could have come out of Azkaban sane.

Any other notable examples of modified people? Or is it just likely that if a piece of fiction is going to have a unified tone, then some part of the human range has to be left out?

Comments

[henrytroup.livejournal.com]

Well, there are Cherryh's azi, who are definitely biologically human and psychologically manufactured.

There's the race in Left Hand of Darkness, and a few others in Le Guin.

Aguably Vernor Vinge's characters are the inverse of Martin's - they're a touch too rational to real be human. I'm thinking particularly of The Peace War here.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

And Bujold's quaddies, who I think are modified for cooperativeness.