Xenofiction is a piece of fiction written in the point of view of an animal. For some reason, I've always been more attracted to xenofiction than "human" fiction. I cannot pinpoint the exact moment I satrted reading more animal books than human books. Perhaps there wasn't a specific point in time. In this shrine, I want to express my love for xenofiction and talk about its creative influence on me.
I first experienced xenofiction through books. Mostly, Wings of Fire. My one an donly obsession have always been dragons, though I really like dinosaurs as well. Think of me as the dragon equivalent of a wolfgirl or horsegirl, a dragongirl if you will. I used to play being a dragon with a friend in preschool. I really enjoyed that, I don't even remember that friend's name now...
Anyway, Wings of Fire.nI went to some distant uncle and aunt's house with my mom in 2016, which is when book 4 came out in France. My distant cousin was reading this series at the time and got the fourth volume twice for his birthday, or something like that. So he gave it to me. I had never heard of WoF before, and being the bookwyrm I was (and still am !) I was in awe of the mere existence of a book series written in the point of view of a dragon ! I did not read it immediatly, because I wanted to start with the first book. I must've been 9 at the time. When I got the first book, I DEVOURED it. Then the second. And the third, and fourth, and so one... I used to re-read these books a lot, I read each one in the fist arc at least ten times, maybe even more. My favorite is the fifth book, I was especially impressed by the ending, when the queen is chosen, and I found Blister's death very cool. I was very sad that Kestrel died... I wish she had time to live after a full redemption arc.
Afterwards, I actively seeked more xenofiction books. I discovered in middle school a bookshop near where my grandparents live called La Librairie du Renard ("The Fox's Bookshop") and I found many, many books there ! Including Foxcraft, Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Warrior Cats. I already knew about these books but did't get the chance to read them. So every time I went to my grandparents' house, we went to this specific library. I read all of Foxcraft and LOVED it, I read Guardians of Ga'Hoole up until book [number] because the newer french edition stopped after this one, so the only way for me to get new books was to ask for them for my birthday or Christmas, in the previous edition. Which make it that, to this day, January 2025, I am still not done with GoG... sigh... I am going to try and get thet remaining 4 books I'm missing as quickly as possible ! I also read the first arc of Warrior Cats, I tried reading the second arc but didn't like it as much, I think I only rezd thee first two books... I really liked WWC's firts arc though ! I also tried reading Wolves of the Beyond, but then realized it took place after GoG, so I preferred waiting 'till I was done with GoG before reading Wolves of the Beyond. I also read the Silverwing trilogy along with Darkwing, which I absolutly loved too ! Except Firewing, I utterly hated. Sunwing ended in such a perfect way, I was really impressed as how Firewing managed to make a coherent continuation. However, what actually happened in the book... Why ? Just why ? I also read Call of the Wild and then Doglands, after my school library's teacher recommendations. I got Call of the Wild through a Christmas mystery book program, in which one pick a book by only reading the themes and then gets to borrow it from the scholl library, and when I told my teacher that I liked it, she suggested me Doglands. I was, if I remember correctly, in my first year of middle school. She warned me that it was a book meant for a higher level,, so maybe it would be a bit difficult for me to read. It has been, in fact, one of the best book I've ever read. I think that the fact that read it in a younger grade, it made me feel like it was grandiose.
In my early days of searching for Xenofiction books, there were several more series I found but hadn't got around to reading them yet. Obviously, I want to read Erin Hunter's other book series. I suppose they would be very similar to WC, in terms of worldbuilding and tone. But I liked it, WC was simply too... big. There are over 40 books in the main series, reading only 6 seems much better. If I happen to really like Seekers, Survivors, Bravelands and Bamboo Kingdom, I would read the second arcs. I remember, on my old phone, I useed to download the free extracts and read them again and again and again... I also want to read Mouseheart, Redwall, Mistmantle, The Erth Dragons, Age of Fire, La Tribu de Vasco, The Guardian Herd and Riders of the Realm, La Quête du Renard Blanc, The Familiars, and Kathryn Lasky's other books series, Horses of the Dawn, Bears of the Ice and The Secret of Glendunny. I wish to finish at least GoG and maybe read mouseheart.
One aspect of animal fiction I was really into was amateur original youtube series featuring wolves, as well as other animals, but wolves were the most popular ones. Fandom AMVs, PMVs and MAPs and these original series shaped me creatively (along the books too). However, I did not speak english well at the time, so I couldn't watch too many of them, much to my dismay. I remember really liking Accursed, Wings and The Chosen One. I have recently Read Wygolvillage's wolf shrine, which actually inspired me to write this shrine; I highly recommend reading Wygol's wolf shrine !! They mentionned a lot of wolf things, which made me rememeber these series I wanted to watch. There were so many I thought "oh, I'm gonna watch this one too !" but never did. For many things, I am currently trying to right the wrongs in my life. It started by getting the correct 3DS case (the Alpha Sapphire one, because I got the Omega Ruby one for Christmas while I got Alpha Sapphire), and watching those series is a thing I must do. To make my kid self happy. I also wanted to maky my own. The story of how I made it is actually quite crazy when you think about it. At the time I used to watch a lot of MAPs, AMPs, PMVs and animator tributes. I saw one that looked good, and I was about to click on it to watch it. But as I was about to open it, my mom called me to dinner. I only saw the title and thumbnail. It was the Legends Never Die animator tribute.
Xenofiction now : city of dreaming books,
litterature animations