Recs if you like Service Model...

Need a gift for your extremist family member, but they already have a red baseball cap AND a Don't Tread on Me shirt? Were you told "Don't bring up politics at family dinner" and need some safe books to discuss instead? Well we have a full menu for you to choose from! Each just for fun book comes with our guarantee: No real world political messages under the 100% fictional plot! 😉 (Taking Recommendations!)

One of several Non-Humans & Empathy -themed lists by @Myth.Ink (See also: Non-Fiction, GNs/Manga+, Youth Titles, Creature Feature, & the Official @Myth.Ink Curation) | This list is the FICTION-realistic edition, including fictional interactions and considerations of interactions between plausibly realistic non-human beings of all types (trees, robots, animals, ai, aliens, objects, science-experiment beings, etc) and humans, empathy and lack thereof. | Suggestions more than welcome!

Book covers with typography oriented in non-standard alignments, instead of the typical horizontal + left to right text alignment. Or: graphic design is my passion, and today we are learning about text paths 🙂‍↕️. This is an immensely silly List, and always open to suggestions—vertical text, circular, upside down, anything goes!

Books with prominent non-human characters who are confused, horrified, fascinated, or delighted by human behavior!

Please add suggestions in the comments because I need more books like these 💜

Animals, Aliens, Robots, and Monsters! Books to get you out of your human skin and into something with different instincts and senses

In honour of the 2026 nominations, this list compiles all the nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Novel from 2010 - 2026.

alternatively: robots and androids murderbot would begrudgingly and unintentionally befriend.

OR

robots and androids who teach us a little more about humanity, friendship, and the human condition. and also sarcasm and sardonic humour, on occasion.

Like it says on the tin. Good books with sentient robots/androids/AIs.

includes dragons, AI robots & cyborgs; any age range

Sentient constructs who didn’t ask to be born but now have to grapple with ethics, personhood, and the inconvenient need to fight monsters—both literal and systemic. A collection of books that explores the many shades of “otherness” in human lives through robotic ones.

Books with at least one excellent friendship that is core to the novel!

(I decided siblings and friends to lovers don’t count, unless the in the latter one the romance part is SO minor to the plot and the friendship is wayyy more significant.)

I love any and all sentient machines and you will too.

Books focused on human/AI relationships whether that be romantic, parental, friendly, or otherwise

Works published in 2024

Best Novel Nominees: 🏆🌕 The Tainted Cup • Alien Clay • 📔 The Ministry of Time • Service Model • 🌌 Someone You Can Build a Nest In • A Sorceress Comes to Call

Best Novella Nominees: 🏆 The Tusks of Extinction • The Brides of High Hill • The Butcher of the Forest • Navigational Enganglements • The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain • What Feasts at Night

Legend: 🏆 Winner • 🌌 Nebula Award Winner • 🌕 World Fantasy Award Winner • 📔 GR Choice Winner 2024

My unread list of GCA 2024

Books with robots and robot-adjacent characters that I can't stop thinking about. Series are represented by the book I think best fits this list. Most of these books have LGBT+ characters, but there may be exceptions!

The MC either subverts the "protagonist" tropes, follows them in a spectacular way, or is reluctant, but the tropes pull her, him or them into "protagonism" anyway

Books where the robot or android or AI (not stupid real life AI) learns how to be human or human-adjacent. That MUST be part of their arc, even if it’s multi-book. (For example, The Monk and the Robot wouldn’t count because Mosscap is so well adjusted already).

humanoid machines. mechanical men. androids, robots, augmented humans, cyborgs, constructs, etc.