NON-erotic sci-fi stories about humans being kept as pets by aliens?
March 12, 2024 4:38 PM Subscribe
I've done some research into the genre, and the zone is absolutely flooded with light to heavy erotica. Glad the readers and writers of that are finding each other, but it's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for stories with a classic sci-fi focus, mainly on the premise and not how the premise could be horny. Any influential classics?
Hm. Too soon to know whether this one will be a classic, but if you squint, Ann Leckie's Translation State might fit.
FanFare thread (contains spoilers).
posted by humbug at 4:45 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
FanFare thread (contains spoilers).
posted by humbug at 4:45 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
Broadly, you could consider all of Iain Banks' "Culture" stories and novels to be of this genre. In his books, Minds (super-human AIs) benevolently rule the Culture and humans (and other species) are kept around because they're fun, kind of.
posted by riotnrrd at 5:13 PM on March 12 [8 favorites]
posted by riotnrrd at 5:13 PM on March 12 [8 favorites]
“Swarm” by Bruce Sterling, part of Schismatrix Plus anthology
posted by nickggully at 5:18 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
posted by nickggully at 5:18 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. There is a zoo, for humans. Fits the bill.
posted by 0bvious at 5:24 PM on March 12 [10 favorites]
posted by 0bvious at 5:24 PM on March 12 [10 favorites]
Bloodchild by Octavia Butler might fit this. Aliens using farming humans as surrogates. There is some unavoidable slavery subtext, but the humans are definitely treated in a pet like manner. I think Butler said somewhere that she was motivated almost entirely by wanting to write a story about men getting pregnant.
posted by voiceofreason at 5:24 PM on March 12 [7 favorites]
posted by voiceofreason at 5:24 PM on March 12 [7 favorites]
Best answer: I agree with the recommendation for The Tripods series -- that's a large part of the plot of the second book, The City of Gold and Lead.
posted by erst at 5:24 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
posted by erst at 5:24 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The "People Are Alike All Over" episode of Twilight Zone is based on a couple of short stories that have humans in a zoo on Mars.
posted by bluedaisy at 5:26 PM on March 12
posted by bluedaisy at 5:26 PM on March 12
Amnesty by Octavia Butler. Like other Butler stories the humans have a complex relationship with the aliens, but in this one the aliens actually like to pet them.
posted by riddley at 5:36 PM on March 12
posted by riddley at 5:36 PM on March 12
The Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler -- not exactly "pets" but more like "human wildlife rescue" after an apocalypse on earth.
posted by pantarei70 at 5:36 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
posted by pantarei70 at 5:36 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
I haven’t read the rest of Butler’s trilogy, but “dawn” (the first) is alien sex all the way down. Can’t imagine that would fit OP’s request.
posted by obfuscation at 5:58 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
posted by obfuscation at 5:58 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Oh my gosh juskevin and erst, The Tripods. I devoured that when I was a kid. I think a big corner of the subconscious foundation of my interest in this was just revealed. Totally forgot about that. Thank you!
So many others I haven't read so thank you everyone else too!
posted by PikeMatchbox at 6:07 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
So many others I haven't read so thank you everyone else too!
posted by PikeMatchbox at 6:07 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: also... some of these wikipedia summaries take an awfully... familiar left turn towards the end. Pretty amused at my naïveté about people wanting to write about doin it with aliens.
posted by PikeMatchbox at 6:16 PM on March 12
posted by PikeMatchbox at 6:16 PM on March 12
Best answer: Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure series hews very closely to your criteria:
It’s also Vance at his best, which was pretty damned good.
posted by jamjam at 6:17 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
Tschai is a planet orbiting the star Carina 4269, 212 light-years from Earth. It is populated by various sentient alien species. The native Pnume have been subjected to invasions by three species. In addition, there are humans, captured and brought to the planet long ago by one of the spacefaring species; some of them live as slaves or servants of each of the alien races, while others have managed to create their own societies. Each of the four novels relates Reith's adventures with one of the species, and is named after that species. In order, the books are:Each of the four races has made humans essentially into pets, though the character of the relationships is quite a bit more like humans are with working dogs than pampered and cosseted favorites.
City of the Chasch
Servants of the Wankh
The Dirdir
The Pnume
It’s also Vance at his best, which was pretty damned good.
posted by jamjam at 6:17 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
warning and spoilers
the sparrow specifically concerns physical and sexual abuse, it comes to light in the follow on, children of god
posted by j_curiouser at 6:37 PM on March 12 [3 favorites]
the sparrow specifically concerns physical and sexual abuse, it comes to light in the follow on, children of god
posted by j_curiouser at 6:37 PM on March 12 [3 favorites]
I recommend a strange and memorable little book called The Mount, by Carol Emshwiller. It reads in many ways as if it was written contemporaneously with John Christopher's Tripods books, but actually came out in 2002. The narrator is a human in a world where we have been made into, indeed selectively bred as, riding animals for an occupying alien species known to humans as the "Hoots". The prose is very restrained. Stuff happens. It's good!
(The trade paperback cover, of the narrator in his riding gear, makes it look like it might be a sex thing, but it's not a sex thing.)
posted by redfoxtail at 7:16 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
(The trade paperback cover, of the narrator in his riding gear, makes it look like it might be a sex thing, but it's not a sex thing.)
posted by redfoxtail at 7:16 PM on March 12 [2 favorites]
It’s probably considered a YA book, but this is one of the themes of The Star Beast by Robert Heinlein. (And unlike some other Heinlein books, this one is much more ahead of its time in its attitudes towards women and POC.)
posted by elphaba at 7:17 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
posted by elphaba at 7:17 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I recently saw an animated movie called Fantastic Planet that was based on the French book Oms en série. Both are about giant aliens called Draags that keep humans as pets. The central premise is that one such human learns to read the aliens' language.
posted by space snail at 7:41 PM on March 12 [6 favorites]
posted by space snail at 7:41 PM on March 12 [6 favorites]
Galax-Arena is one I remember reading when I was a teen and I’m pretty sure it was totally clean.
posted by thebots at 7:42 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
posted by thebots at 7:42 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]
The Sparrow is not the book you are looking for. Great book, but not in the wheelhouse of this question at all.
posted by sacrifix at 9:58 PM on March 12 [3 favorites]
posted by sacrifix at 9:58 PM on March 12 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: space snail -- I guess it's time I finally have to see Fantastic Planet! thank you
posted by PikeMatchbox at 10:36 PM on March 12
posted by PikeMatchbox at 10:36 PM on March 12
Maybe this is a spoiler…
The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper sort of fits.
posted by expialidocious at 10:58 PM on March 12
The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper sort of fits.
posted by expialidocious at 10:58 PM on March 12
Mod note: This post has found the sunbeam and is resting comfortably in the Sidebar and Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:53 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:53 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]
A bit light on narrative but this is the concept of the 90s hit song Pets by Porno For Pyros
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:38 AM on March 13 [1 favorite]
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:38 AM on March 13 [1 favorite]
The cartoon Steven Universe has some aspects of this. (some spoilers here:)
Long ago, Pink Diamond, one of the rulers of the Diamond Authority, wanted to preserve human life, and tried to beg the other rulers to not create a space colony out of Earth (which would have destroyed its environment). The others failed to see that she wanted to call off the colony, and instead abducted some humans to live on a small space station with an environment that they considered suited to them. The colony survives to the show's present day, where the humans there live a by some measures idyllic, but pretty limited and very controlled, life. (The colony passes into their hands during the epilogue series; they make it into a luxury cruise spaceship.)
posted by JHarris at 4:18 PM on March 13 [1 favorite]
Long ago, Pink Diamond, one of the rulers of the Diamond Authority, wanted to preserve human life, and tried to beg the other rulers to not create a space colony out of Earth (which would have destroyed its environment). The others failed to see that she wanted to call off the colony, and instead abducted some humans to live on a small space station with an environment that they considered suited to them. The colony survives to the show's present day, where the humans there live a by some measures idyllic, but pretty limited and very controlled, life. (The colony passes into their hands during the epilogue series; they make it into a luxury cruise spaceship.)
posted by JHarris at 4:18 PM on March 13 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: @SaltySalticid -- that has been going through my head this _whole_ time
posted by PikeMatchbox at 5:17 PM on March 13
posted by PikeMatchbox at 5:17 PM on March 13
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The Sparrow would seem to fit?
posted by Alensin at 4:43 PM on March 12 [5 favorites]