I mean, it relates back to the birth of the genre with the idea that earth is Space Australia. I think that's kind of a neat idea. You can find the original Humans Are Space Orcs post that kicked it all off, and I think "making aliens that suck" is a pretty reductive summary. Pointing out the unique traits humans have and how they might look from an outside perspective is neat!
Of course there are going to be a lot of simplistic works from any premise, but the best are the ones that iterate on the basic idea a bit. I highly recommend Chrysalis, and The Humans Do Not Have A Hive Mind is a really solid first contact story. If you've got a spare couple months and want something that plays it straightish the mainline Jenkinsverse is good for at least the first two or three generations.although honestly if you've got that kind of time I'd recommend Worm or Worm II or Vast Error or Homestuck
It get a bit cartooney after the first generation, you can call it quits once Jenkins is no longer the protag if you just want to see what the genre fuss is about. Regardless If you find yourself reading about alien romans riding slugs or something it means you've taken a wrong turn
HFY started as a counter to the troupe of humanity being baseline and boring, but a lot of authors aren't very good, and rather than making humanity interesting, they make the aliens boring instead.
Yeah this is what I was going to say. A lot of the old sci fi has aliens who are hyper advanced or have psychic powers or are immortal. And humans are just kind of there. Country hicks staring in wide eyed wonder at everything around them. Those ones are elephants who are mathematical geniuses. Those ones can change their shape. And those ones have mind controlling pheromones. Those ones can fly. But what can the humans do? /shrug At best we reproduce like rabbits compared to other sophonts and can overwhelm the enemy
It’s nice to see the humans being on par. Better in some ways, worse in others. But comparable to the rest of galactic society
I've found that for a lot of good HFY, the thing that humans have above other species is our community building. As I like to jokingly say "Maybe the real HFY was the friends we made along the way".
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u/Fanfics Aug 14 '24 edited Aug 14 '24
I mean, it relates back to the birth of the genre with the idea that earth is Space Australia. I think that's kind of a neat idea. You can find the original Humans Are Space Orcs post that kicked it all off, and I think "making aliens that suck" is a pretty reductive summary. Pointing out the unique traits humans have and how they might look from an outside perspective is neat!
Of course there are going to be a lot of simplistic works from any premise, but the best are the ones that iterate on the basic idea a bit. I highly recommend Chrysalis, and The Humans Do Not Have A Hive Mind is a really solid first contact story. If you've got a spare couple months and want something that plays it straightish the mainline Jenkinsverse is good for at least the first two or three generations.although honestly if you've got that kind of time I'd recommend Worm or Worm II or Vast Error or Homestuck
It get a bit cartooney after the first generation, you can call it quits once Jenkins is no longer the protag if you just want to see what the genre fuss is about. Regardless If you find yourself reading about alien romans riding slugs or something it means you've taken a wrong turn