Find me more characters like Dimity Carmody

February 28, 2014 3:24 AM

In the Man Kzin wars books there's a recurring protagonist called Dimity Carmody. Whilst technically human it's emphasised that she's somewhat inhuman psychologically to the point she's almost regarded as an alien. I liked the character and would like to read more fiction with similar characters - what's out there?
posted by curious_yellow to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Best answer: There are a couple of such characters in Peter Watts' Blindsight, and arguably in Rifters, too.
Several of R. Scott Bakker's books also feature such characters (notably the Prince of Nothing/Aspect Emperor books).
posted by Jakey at 5:26 AM on February 28, 2014

A very close candidate would be any of Asimov's novels that feature R. Daneel Olivaw, who is technically a robot but very, very close to human.
posted by jquinby at 5:49 AM on February 28, 2014

Gibson loves characters like this, with 3Jane-Marie and Armitage in Neuromancer and Hubertus Bigend in the Pattern Recognition trilogy.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:57 AM on February 28, 2014

Micheal in Stranger in a Strange Land is a human raised by alien Martians.
posted by Mitheral at 8:36 AM on February 28, 2014

I'd say that quite a few characters from the Dune universe--Paul Muad'Dib, Alia Atreides, Leto II--fit this trope.
posted by gone2croatan at 10:05 AM on February 28, 2014

Best answer: Can vouch for Blindsight and The Risen Empire.

Many of the human characters in Charlie Stross's Glasshouse are different in ways that are hard to describe but very interesting.

I didn't enjoy this one as much, but Thirteen by Richard Morgan is told from the perspective of a human genetically engineered to be kind of sociopathic.

And this is the first of two short stories about a very recognizably human protagonist which I think might still meet your demands. It's a good story, anyway, and not a long read.
posted by d. z. wang at 8:02 PM on February 28, 2014