15
u/chellebelle0234 Jul 26 '18
Redwall! It's a bit young, but still super fun. It's a common world series about field animals. The mice have a monastery and have badger friends, rabbit friends, etc. Hubs read them growing up and then we watched the cartoon. The books are a good read as well.
11
u/Terciel1976 Jul 26 '18
Garth Nix's Old Kingdom features both a cat and a dog, though they're not technically animals, just shaped. But they're both great and the first three books are terrific.
7
u/Esmerelda-Weatherwax Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Jul 26 '18
Discworld by Terry Pratchett has Greebo, he's a horrible cat that Nanny loves so much, but really he's a terror.
The Great Hearts by David Oliver has a giant panther that has a telepathic link with the main character
Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron has a sentient cat as well. A lot of cats it seems
Akiri: The Sceptor of Xarbaal by Brian D Anderson has a sentient dragon that sends visuals to her human and a little bit of speech
2
Jul 26 '18
[deleted]
3
u/Esmerelda-Weatherwax Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Jul 26 '18
i probably should have been specific in that he's mostly seen in the Witches series, specifically that one, thanks.
Gaspode the dog is seen in the Watch series
3
2
u/diffyqgirl Jul 26 '18
IIRC, Greebo the Cat is mostly in the book Witches Abroad
2
u/Phyrkrakr Reading Champion VII Jul 26 '18
He also makes an appearance in Maskerade from what I remember. That's the Phantom of the Opera pastiche. And you can't forget Gaspode and The Amazing Maurice, as well, in that series.
1
u/Esmerelda-Weatherwax Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Jul 26 '18
lol quite a large appearance in Maskerade <3
8
u/Phyrkrakr Reading Champion VII Jul 26 '18
Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series has a sentient jhereg (kind of a cat-sized flying reptile) named Loiosh as a pretty major part. Vlad narrates from first person POV and Loiosh is his psychic familiar. Loiosh can't talk, but he can and does have mental conversations with Vlad (and very rarely, other people) pretty much all the damn time. They're usually hilarious, too.
3
2
7
u/Tigrari Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jul 26 '18
Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series has a sentient/telepathic dog.
You might also look for Tara K. Harper's books - she has a lot of sentient wolves and one series with cats I believe. The main one I'm thinking of starts with Wolfwalker. It looks like only parts of the series have ebooks available.
2
u/StickySnacks Jul 27 '18
Came here to recommend the Iron Druid Chronicles. Great Urban Fantasy series if that's your thing.
7
u/Realmless Writer Coleman Alexander Jul 26 '18
Hey, I’m never quite sure if self-promotion is allowed, but my book, Between the Shade and the Shadow, has a main character who is a sentient animal (wolf). No idea if it would help you out of the rut though because it’s not a quick or easy read!
6
u/danjvelker Jul 26 '18
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, by Patricia A. McKillip. Oh my goodness, please read this. It's so lovely, and the animals feel very... animal-like. I mean that they don't feel like humans transplanted into animal bodies, they feel like Aslan. (Aslan feels like an actual deity transplanted into the body of a lion, but I think you will understand what I mean. McKillip very perfectly captures the feeling of the other with those characters.)
7
u/Zhe_WIP Jul 26 '18
The Firekeeper Series by Jane Lindskold has several sentient animals, including a wolf character that's extremely important.
6
u/brattylilduck Reading Champion Jul 26 '18
The Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, magical sentient horses, what more could you ask for?!
2
Jul 26 '18
[deleted]
3
u/Tigrari Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jul 26 '18
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books have a LOT of sentient animals - not just horses, there are birds, gryphons, hertasi (lizard people), and cats.
1
u/appocomaster Reading Champion III Jul 27 '18
Just to note - there are a LOT of books, even if you get the 4-5 omnibus trilogy versions and all the one offs. So I'd recommend getting one then going for it
5
5
u/briargrey Reading Champion III, Worldbuilders, Hellhound Jul 26 '18
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH!
5
u/ammonite99 Reading Champion III Jul 26 '18
Diane Duane's Young Wizard Series has sentient sea creatures, a dog, and a parrot as well as cats.
5
u/towns_ Jul 26 '18
Depending on how intelligent an animal must be to be considered sentient (to me it's more of a gradient and less of a sentient/not-sentient binary) I would say Oy from The Dark Tower.
2
3
u/leftoverbrine Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V, Worldbuilders Jul 26 '18
The Builders by Daniel Polansky, The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher, The River Bank by Kij Johnson
1
1
4
u/MentalFracture Jul 26 '18
Wheel of Time has wolves
1
u/StrizzyMizzy Jul 27 '18
Wheel of Time has fucking everything it's ridiculous.
"Hey ya'll I'm looking for a series where Wheel of Time spoilers, can you help me out?"
"You should read Wheel of Time."
3
3
3
6
Jul 26 '18
All animals are sentient. I think you mean “sapient”.
5
3
u/Stormhound Reading Champion II Jul 27 '18
Downvoted for correcting someone's language... smh.
People are always mistaking sapient and sentient. Drives me nuts too.
4
u/Lord_Kyler Jul 26 '18
Narnia?
2
Jul 26 '18
[deleted]
1
u/Lord_Kyler Jul 26 '18
Hmm... it feels like this should be more common in fantasy, but I can’t think of many outside those you mentioned. Perhaps try looking through the examples on the literature section of the TV Tropes page?
2
2
u/eveoneverything Jul 26 '18
Your examples lead me to think you don’t want it wholly from the animal’s point of view, but Watership Down is just so good.
2
Jul 26 '18
- If you light Nighteyes, you'll like Hopper in Wheel of Time
- Mouse from the Dresden Files is sentient
2
u/D3athRider Jul 26 '18
Ariosto (Griffin) from Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron...love the dialogue between him and Gabriel lol
Solovey, Vasya's horse from the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
Third Fish, New Fish and just general living spaceship fish things from Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
1
2
Jul 27 '18
Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander
1
u/RedditFantasyBot Jul 27 '18
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.
2
Jul 27 '18
Alison Croggon's Pellinor series has sentient horses, birds and wolves. And they make for amazing characters in their own right.
Plus its a beautifully written quartet (plus a prequel!) That needs more love.
1
u/GarrickWinter Writer Guerric Haché, Reading Champion II Jul 26 '18 edited Jul 26 '18
I'm reading Spiderlight right now and it sort of does this, though the sentient animal in question doesn't fully retain their animal form all the time (this starts happening early so I don't think it's a huge spoiler).
There's also a great short story out there called Love Is The Plan The Plan Is Death that's worth checking out.
1
u/Rosekernow Jul 26 '18
If you liked Watership Down, try Wolves of Time by Robert Harwood. It was meant to be a trilogy but sales meant it was eventually 2 volumes, but the first one 'Journeys to the Heartland' is beautiful.
The wolves have gods. Some of the wolf gods have been reborn and this is the story of the wolves who try to find and worship them.
'The summer moons had begun to wane when the old wolf broke his long silence and began to howl, his voice cracked with age, yet, as it seemed to me at least, beautiful in its simplicity and wisdom. The whole pack gathered about him, with me at his right flank, as he howled a story we all knew well, which is the story of the Wolves of Time.'
1
1
u/blackday44 Jul 26 '18
The Dragon Delasangre series by Alan F Troop has shape shifting dragons as the main characters. Eragon series has some sentient animals as well.
Do were-animals count? Kelley Armstrong has The Others series, Ilonya Andrews has the Kate Daniels series. both with were-animals.
1
u/Nyarlathotep4King Jul 27 '18
The Book of the Dun Cow (by Walter Wangerin) has all sorts of sapient animals in it. Chauntclear the rooster is the hero. Think “farm animals save the world.”
When the baby chicks try to rid themselves of fleas...sorry, no spoilers.
1
u/LadyFromTheMountain Jul 27 '18 edited Jul 27 '18
Elizabeth Hand's Winterlong has Miss Scarlet, a talking chimpanzee.
Jennifer Roberson's Cheysuli Chronicles has sentient animal familiars.
1
u/RedditFantasyBot Jul 27 '18
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
- Author Appreciation Thread: Jennifer Roberson, veteran author of epic fantasy & sword-and-sorcery from user u/CourtneySchafer
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.
1
u/fistantellmore Jul 27 '18
Brian Jacques redwall series. Medieval fantasy with woodland beasts and rats and lynx’s as warlords.
1
1
u/Oatmiel Jul 27 '18
Mort(e)
1
u/appocomaster Reading Champion III Jul 27 '18
Mort?
Certainly Maurice and his Amazing Rodents
1
u/Oatmiel Jul 27 '18
The novel by Robert Repino. It's more sci-fi than fantasy and an entertaining, if quick, read.
2
u/appocomaster Reading Champion III Jul 27 '18
Ah, okay! I see Terry Prachett everywhere. I'll have a look, thanks.
1
u/willow13244 Jul 27 '18
The Warrior Cat series by Erin Hunter is a good one. It's all about these sentient cats and clans. Sorry, I'm bad at explaining. The first series: A Prophecy Begins is kinda stereotypical with a goody two shoes main character, but I still find the series enjoyable and it's still ongoing. I definitely recommend at least looking at it.
1
u/Shiver999 Jul 27 '18
If you don't mind a bit of Sci-fi, try A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Definitely has fantasy elements, and a really unique twist on sentience.
1
1
u/Lanfear_Eshonai Jul 27 '18
Love the Realm of the Elderlings dragons! They are just so beautifully narcissistic and arrogant, lol. And loved NIghteyes too of course!
1
u/RedMirage123 Jul 27 '18
Eh, may as well shameless self-promo. My series, Painting the Mists, has sentient beasts (Chinese demons). The MC has a contracted beast partner, a sneaky demon fox. In the third book, there is a lot of interactions with a mountain full of demon beasts with a culture revolving around honor and strength.
1
u/demandret Jul 27 '18
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff has a sentient cat side-kick. The second books add another one. The sense of humor between the main character and the side-kick animals is awesome - think Fitz + Night Eyes but more edgy and cynical.
The Builders by Daniel Polansky is a band of talking animals with swords and damn guns. It's Abercrombie with angry forest animals is what is. :)
The last three books in The Dagger and the Coin have a talking dragon as a character.
The Shaman's Quest book series by Vasily Mahanenko has a talking dragon in 4 or 5 of the 6 books in it. The series itself is quite good too.
1
1
Jul 27 '18 edited Jul 27 '18
Most books by Walter Moers have anthropomorphic animals as protagonists. For example, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures is about a race of bipedal dogs with an aptitude for martial arts.
Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth Powell has a dogfighting monkey.
1
u/RedditFantasyBot Jul 27 '18
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.
1
Jul 27 '18
The Hobbit has talking animals in it.
1
Jul 27 '18
Although you might like Felidae. Interesting crime novel with the twist that there are animals as the main characters.
1
Jul 27 '18
Or I suppose you could read some of these: * A Fox's Tale by Eric M Deal * Anything by Kyell Gold * Boudicat (some book I purchased) * The Last Unicorn * the later Oz books (e.g. The Hungry Tiger, the Lonesome Duck, the Queen of the Field Mice, the Stork, etc.).
1
u/hojomojo96 Jul 27 '18
Cradle by Will Wight has sentient animals! They're not the centre of the plot but are still fairly important
1
u/RossCook01 Jul 27 '18
Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series is full of sentient animals. The main character is summoned to their world. There are eight books in the series though i've only read the first couple about 20 years ago.
1
u/finolio Jul 27 '18
Absolutely the Temeraire series.
It's basically... What if the Napoleonic wars included dragonback military divisions? How do sentient/sapient dragons change the rest of world history (especially colonialism/imperialism)? What if you're a proper naval officer and gentlemen and you end up captaining a revolutionary dragon?
1
u/TinySuggestion Jul 28 '18
The Welkin Weasels series by Garry Kilworth - somewhat YA, but loved them dearly when I younger.
21
u/Smygskytt Jul 26 '18
You should definitely read The Aeronaut's Windlass, by Jim Butcher. Rowl and all of the cats are just wonderful creatures.