History HumansAreTheRealMonsters / Literature

* Lampshaded in Creator/SMStirling's [[Literature/TheDraka Draka]] series. The Draka ''admit'' that they're bastards, and frequently upbraid the Alliance for its hypocrisy in not owning up to the bastard deeds of their own history: "We couldn't exterminate our aborigines, the way the Yankees did."

* Creator/DavidGemmell makes this point at least once per novel. In ''Literature/{{Stormrider}}'' he has one character, explain that a human witch has the ability to cultivate and grow and spread the magic in the world, but that the sum total of her LIFETIME of work and toil can be consumed by a single day of war.

* Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's novella ''Literature/TheWordForWorldIsForest'' features humans descending upon the forested planet of Athshe, harvesting the valuable lumber and terrorizing and enslaving the native inhabitants.

* An aphorism occasionally seen on the Internet goes that "Knowledge is knowing that Literature/{{Frankenstein}} [[IAmNotShazam isn't the monster]]. Wisdom is understanding that he is."

* Many of S.L. Viehl's s-f novels fall into this category. The vast majority of "Terrans" are rabid xenophobes: Extraterrestrial sentients are only allowed on Earth under very limited circumstances, certainly aren't allowed to ''live'' there, and will generally find it [[FantasticRacism an unpleasant place]]. And if you're discovered to be a HalfHumanHybrid [[spoiler:(or a clone)]]...''heaven help you''. They will also send a fleet to sterilize your world if they find out you're harboring a [[spoiler:human clone]]. Somehow, the humans seem even more monstrous than the [[LizardFolk Hskt-skt]].

* {{Subverted|Trope}} (the Qu), played straight (the Gravital) and everything in between in Nemo Ramjet's ''All Tomorrows''.

* In ''Run to the Stars'', by Michael Scott Rohan, we get the following exchange, after Kirsty and Ryly discover that the world government has sent a missile to wipe out a just-discovered alien species:

* Creator/DavidGemmell makes this point at least once per novel. In ''Stormrider'' he has one character, explain that a human witch has the ability to cultivate and grow and spread the magic in the world, but that the sum total of her LIFETIME of work and toil can be consumed by a single day of war.

* In Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's ''Venus on the Half-Shell'' every alien race points out that humans smell awful. So humans create a huge industry of special deodorants. Wondering why humans smell so bad to other races, some of whom smell like a sewer, it is pointed out that human morals stink, so that makes our smell stink. Yes, it's a strange book.
* Many of S.L. Viehl's s-f novels fall into this category. The vast majority of "Terrans" are rabid xenophobes: Extraterrestrial sentients are only allowed on Earth under very limited circumstances, certainly aren't allowed to ''live'' there, and will generally find it [[FantasticRacism an unpleasant place]]. And if you're discovered to be a HalfHumanHybrid [[spoiler:(or a clone)]]...''heaven help you''.
** They will also send a fleet to sterilize your world if they find out you're harboring a [[spoiler:human clone]]. Somehow, the humans seem even more monstrous than the [[LizardFolk Hskt-skt]].

* Invoked several times in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', especially when Ax learns about things like the Holocaust - though very few of the aliens consider humans ''complete'' bastards, and most alien species are acknowledged to have a bit of bastard in them too (the Pemalites and the Hork-Bajir are the only races that are truly morally superior, and that's because [[spoiler: they were genetically engineered to be kind and peaceful and to be stupid and docile, respectively]]). The Yeerks do have an attitude of "it's not like humans are so perfect anyway", along with the "you're our meat" thing, though.
** In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', Elfangor is surprised to learn that humans fight wars with one another. However the Andalites are not much better given that they [[spoiler:attempt to wipe out the human race in order to get the Yeerks]] twice.
* In Sergey Volnov's ''Army Of The Sun'', humanity has conquered and enslaved any alien race they happened to come by, imposing their culture and customs on them (apparently, some aliens didn't look too kindly on the introduction on the concept of [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove love]] to their emotionless mating practices). The novels describe the galaxy after the empire-wide [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters rebellion]], which resulted in an alien-dominated galaxy, where humans are treated as second-class citizens. Interestingly, the novels make the reader feel more for the humans, even though it is clearly stated that humans were anything but kind to their alien slaves. In fact, the only races that they treated more or less fairly were HumanAliens, as they happened to look almost exactly like blacks, whites, and Asians. Then again, the aliens don't exactly treat humans kindly either, still remembering the days of TheEmpire. On the other hand, hardly anyone ever mentions the positive aspects of the [[TheEmpire Earthstella Empire]], such as technological uplifting, introduction of [=FTL=] travel (only one other race managed to develop it on their own), unified language, interstellar economy, and turning a bunch of isolated species into a galactic community.

* A rather nasty science fiction novel by Charles Pellegrino, ''Flying to Valhalla'' is built around the theory that a species looks out for itself only, destroying all competitors. This includes humans, which they go on to prove, whether they want to or not.

* Robert Zubrin's ''The Holy Land''. Earthlings and non-Earthlings disagree on who are the 'humans', but this trope applies to either and both of them regardless.

* In ''Literature/TheKillingStar'', by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski, an alien species annihilates humanity with relativistic kinetic weapons before we even encounter them. They had been observing humans, and had discovered that our technology was nearing the point where we could build relativistic kinetic weapons ourselves, so they wiped us out on the off chance that we ''might'' decide to wipe them out. Why does this story qualify under the Humans Are The Real Monsters trope? Because the authors made it quite clear that we would have done ''exactly the same thing to them'' if our roles had been reversed.
** This does qualify [[AliensAreBastards the aliens as bastards]], though (if we're the same as them, they're obviously the same as us).
* In ''The King of Beasts'' by Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer, an alien scientist shows a visitor how he's cloning several now-extinct animals. At the end, he shows one he had to "get special permission to raise." The visitor is shocked, and begins to ask-and is confirmed-that it's a man. Then again, the scientist seems to pity the growing human, since it'll be "all alone."

* Subverted in Creator/BrandonSanderson's short story ''Deefending Elysium''. The 'civilized' alien races have a peaceful society. The main character keeps knowledge of faster than light travel from humans with the belief that they would ruin the paradise society if they discovered it. [[spoiler: Then he finds out that the aliens define 'civilized' as being willing to imprison anyone who disagrees with their ideals in order to keep the peace, and that they aren't just inheirently good beings.]]

* In ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'', humans are bastards. Well, to be exact, the metaphorical psychomorphic deity-incarnation of humanity is a bastard. But the [[AntiHero human hero]] who achieves [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu its humiliating defeat]] is also a [[SociopathicHero bastard]], so in this series humanity doesn't look good at the individual or species level.

** In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', Elfangor is surprised to learn that humans fight wars with one another. However the Andalites are not much better given that they [[spoiler: attempt to wipe out the human race in order to get the Yeerks]] twice.

* An aphorism occasionally seen on the Internet goes that "Knowledge is knowing that Literature/{{Frankenstein}} [[{{I Am Not Shazam}} isn't the monster]]. Wisdom is understanding that he is."

* One of the themes in Creator/StephenieMeyer's ScienceFiction novel ''Literature/TheHost2008'', where the invading aliens are kind, pure creatures who regard humans as animalistic and vicious. [[BrokenAesop Kind of ironic,]] [[DesignatedHero since the aliens are]] [[AndIMustScream imprisoning the humans in their own bodies forever]]...

** Meyer likes this theme a lot. Despite Edward and Aro saying that HumansAreSpecial, much of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' has humanity portrayed as boring, stupid, petty, and useless. In particular, [[TheLoad Bella]] blames all of her shortcomings on her humanity (it could somewhat be justified as a case of OvershadowedByAwesome, except she even complains about the human need to ''sleep''). Much of ''Midnight Sun'' is also devoted to Edward complaining about how shallow and stupid most of the people around him are (which could be justified by his constantly reading their minds, except he can block them out when he wants).

'''Death:''' [[AC:I think they know quite well what he was]].

* The evil Fallen living amusement park rides of ''Literature/{{Twisted}}'' are created when the original non-living rides they come from are damaged or destroyed by humans.

** ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'': The one hundred percent human Mr. Teatime enters a realm made up by the dreams of children, where Death is powerless, under the assumption that this will give him the advantage. Except the children find Death far less terrifying than Mr. Teatime. In the end, someone stabs at Teatime with a fire poker that Susan has convinced children only kills monsters. Teatime hides behind Death; it goes through Death harmlessly, but kills Teatime. This confuses Susan.

** In the Andalite Chronicles Elfangor is surprised to learn that humans fight wars with one another. However the Andalites are not much better given that they [[spoiler: attempt to wipe out the human race in order to get the Yeerks]] twice.

* In the Literature/LittleGreyMen, the cruel giant is actually a human who shoots and traps animals for no reason.

* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in Creator/{{Greg Egan}}'s works. It is made abundantly clear that modern humans are petty, short-sighted, irrational, and cruel, and that his {{Mary Sue Topia}}s only work because humans do not populate them, only [[{{Transhumanism}} transhumans]] do, which have none of baseline humanity's flaws, and [[CantArgueWithElves won't let you forget it]]. In the few cases when posthuman characters express a liking for the way that unmodified human beings did things, it is a sign that their worldview is entirely wrong. The reason that the trope is downplayed is because Egan believes that the transition to transhumanism is inevitable, and will happen in an egalitarian manner so that no one is left out, and, more importantly, that he blames human failures on the fact that we evolved naturally, rather than because of our species, and any aliens who are at the level of contemporary Earth or lower are portrayed as just as bad; one story even has ''humanity's descendants'' portrayed as morally superior to an alien species stuck at the technology level of the 21st century. So at least we're not the ''worst'' species out there.

* Creator/AlanDeanFoster moderates this in his trilogy ''Literature/TheDamned''. Humans appeared in a world where all life would be impossible by the standards of most aliens, and we went through some unpleasant evolutionary contortions to survive, but if we last much longer without outside interference, we'll achieve peace. Unfortunately, outside interference is coming -- and by Book 3, after a thousand years as CannonFodder in an interstellar war, the humans are less "human" psychologically than the aliens are.

----

** [[AuthorAvatar His most popular hero]] Lazarus Long is described as a mild bastard. But one that should be respected and admired. Quite a bit of MoralDissonance is seen when he commits crimes that we are told to admire him for, but Long would kill anyone else who did them.

* One of the themes in Creator/StephenieMeyer's ScienceFiction novel ''Literature/TheHost'', where the invading aliens are kind, pure creatures who regard humans as animalistic and vicious. [[BrokenAesop Kind of ironic,]] [[DesignatedHero since the aliens are]] [[AndIMustScream imprisoning the humans in their own bodies forever]]...

** One of the clearest illustrations of this trope occurs in ''Literature/GuardsGuards'' when the dragon, having just conquered the city, learns a good deal of human history by probing someone's mind. It's shocked and more than a little disgusted to find that there is nothing it can do to people that they have not, at some point in history, ''not already tried on each other''.

* ''Literature/TheMasterKey'': It's subtle, but compared to the Demon of Electricity, the human race has a lot of soul-searching to do. Except for the king of England, everybody Rob meets on his journey tries to kill him or cheat him out of his stuff, [[NotSoDifferent he himself]] sees nothing wrong with [[GodGuise deceiving "savages"]] and double-crossing armies, and, most tellingly, once he receives goggles that show if a person is good or evil, so many people are judged to be "evil" that he is afraid to use it on any of his loved ones, [[BrokenPedestal lest he learn that they are no better than the rest of the world]].

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', the entire supernatural world lives in pretty much constant low-level terror of a large-scale breach of TheMasquerade because of the fear of incoming lynch-mob justice. Though it's not so much that humans are bastards in general as it is that with a population of six billion, the ones who ''would'' react immediately with violence and are well-armed enough to make it stick would outnumber the relatively low-population supernatural community a hundred to one or worse (especially because the wizards, who are one of the most powerful non-human factions, would probably consider themselves close enough to side with humanity and not the other signers of the accords).
** A more straightforward example of this trope in the form of [[BadassNormal Johnny Marcone]], who figures out the masquerade and immediately responds in a way that, while not exactly a pogrom, pretty much confirms these fears for everyone in Chicago. It unnerves everyone enough that the accord members, which include a lot of beings that normally consider mundane humans food or worse, resort to a strategy of appeasement and eventually try to stop him from taking over everything by letting him sign on himself.

* Creator/BruceCoville's ''Literature/MyTeacherIsAnAlien'' series as well as the ''Literature/RodAlbrightAlienAdventures'' series both use this trope: aliens are aware of Earth but refuse to interact with humans because they consider them to be barbarians. It is revealed that one of the aliens in the "My Teacher" series invented television to keep people stupid so they couldn't advance technologically any more. We're so bad Bruce had to introduce [[spoiler:the pain and minor brain damage implied in cut-off telepathy]] to explain why we are as we are. We're also apparently the only species to do things like have homeless people, while most of the other aliens can't even understand the concept of a race at our technological and social level still having such problems (apparently other races fix things like poverty and wars long before they get as far as we have). It basically stops just short of actually having the aliens scratching their heads at this whole "capitalism" thing.

* Charlie Jane Anders' ''Literature/TheCityInTheMiddleOfTheNight'' explores this in depth. Humans have colonized a planet with non-human intelligent life, the Gelet, although they think of the Gelet as monsters and don't realize that they are capable of thought, invention, feeling, and engineering. After the human protagonist Sophie mind-shares with a Gelet and becomes its friend, she is horrified at the humans who hunt and even eat the Gelet.

* According to Creator/LFrankBaum's . . . odd elaboration of the SantaClaus legend, ''The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus'', this was drilled into young Claus' head by his [[TheMentor mentor]], the Great Ak.
* A ''lot'' of early American sci-fi has this theme. Any number of Creator/RayBradbury stories qualify (including ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'').
* Creator/OrsonScottCard:
** The ''Literature/HomecomingSaga'' is built on this trope: Humanity were such bastards that [[CrystalDragonJesus the Keeper of Earth]] more or less chased us off to the stars, and genetically altered the populations to receive signals from The Oversoul (super-computers designed to steer mankind's development away from weapons of mass destruction and other planet raping tech). Harmony's Oversoul outright states that he meant to last for a millennia or so before preparing for a trip back to Earth. Humans had been on Harmony for around 50,000,000 years and were no better than when they first arrived. Of course, this was only half of the [[AnAesop Aesop]]. The full Aesop was "since humans can't be any better by their own devices, they just have to trust in God."
** This theme also appears in his ''[[Literature/EndersGame Ender]]'' novels. The moment humanity thinks an alien species ''might'' be a threat, the first instinct is to kill it. This was why Ender [[spoiler:stopped all transmission from the Ansible on the Piggys' home planet, when they discovered that the virus infecting them could wipe out whole ecosystems]]. To be fair, humanity never initiates the bloodbath in either case. [[spoiler: The buggers killed hundreds of thousands of people in an orbital bombardment and the piggies brutally murdered two of the humans that were assigned to interact with them, while their homeworld contains a virus capable of destroying planets with no known cure]]. We do, however, attempt to end each conflict via xenocide.
* Mentioned in Creator/EoinColfer's ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' books -- [[TheFairFolk The Fae]] blame having to move into underground cities on humans expanding, and constantly call humans "mud people", which just happens to be a real-life ethnic slur. Overall, the trope doesn't really apply, although this case isn't made explicitly. With the major exception of the first book (where Artemis serves as VillainProtagonist) most of the actual villains are other fairies, and the main concern with human villains is not related to them being intentionally malicous, but rather the concern that that will intentionally or unintentionally expose the existence of the Fae.
* Creator/BruceCoville's ''Literature/MyTeacherIsAnAlien'' series as well as the ''Literature/RodAlbrightAlienAdventures'' series both use this trope: aliens are aware of Earth but refuse to interact with humans because they consider them to be barbarians. It is revealed that one of the aliens in the "My Teacher" series invented television to keep people stupid so they couldn't advance technologically any more. We're so bad Bruce had to introduce [[spoiler:the pain and minor brain damage implied in cut-off telepathy]] to explain why we are as we are. We're also apparently the only species to do things like have homeless people, while most of the other aliens can't even understand the concept of a race at our technological and social level still having such problems (apparently other races fix things like poverty and wars long before they get as far as we have). It basically stops just short of actually having the aliens scratching their heads at this whole "capitalism" thing.

* In Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's ''Venus on the Half-Shell'' every alien race points out that humans smell awful. So humans create a huge industry of special deodorants. Wondering why humans smell so bad to other races, some of whom smell like a sewer, it is pointed out that human morals stink, so that makes our smell stink. Yes, it's a strange book.
* Inverted in the Bill Peet children's book, ''Literature/TheWumpWorld''. If you read the part in the opener for this trope about mankind's chance to be such bastards on other planets via interstellar travel, the blue-skinned aliens in the book have us beat.
* Dr. Seuss described how Once-ler's factories messed things up in ''Literature/TheLorax''.
* Creator/DavidGemmell makes this point at least once per novel. In ''Stormrider'' he has one character, explain that a human witch has the ability to cultivate and grow and spread the magic in the world, but that the sum total of her LIFETIME of work and toil can be consumed by a single day of war.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein sometimes used this in his stories, although he tends to view it as a virtue:
** ''Literature/HaveSpaceSuitWillTravel''. The Three Galaxies federation puts HumanityOnTrial for their lives. Humans are considered potentially dangerous because of their innate savagery and extremely high rate of evolution and scientific/technological development.
** ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'': Human beings are described as highly aggressive and expansionistic, with a strong will to survive. Heinlein makes the case that this is moral behavior. Though he also states that humanity has to be taught morality.
** [[AuthorAvatar His most popular hero]] Lazarus Long is described as a mild bastard. But one that should be respected and admired. Quite a bit of MoralDissonance is seen when he commits crimes that we are told to admire him for, but Long would kill anyone else who did them.
* Not really avoided in Creator/RudyardKipling's ''Literature/TheJungleBook''; but in the main Mowgli stories, it's clear that the animals would rather just ignore humans. (Mowgli himself, however, comes to feel this way about the villagers who take him in and then drive him out again, except for Messua, the woman who adopted him and the only one to oppose his expulsion.) "The White Seal", on the other hand, gets downright {{anvilicious}} about it.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': It says a lot when a series that features zombies, ice demons, and dragons, showcases human beings as being the real threat. Namely, it is the selfish machinations of the people in charge, and the human frailties of everyone else, that has been making the world more and more in danger of being taken over by the aforementioned creatures. In addition to them, you have straight up psychopathic monsters like [[BastardBastard Ramsay Bolton]], [[RapePillageAndBurn Gregor Clegane]], and [[TheCaligula Joffrey Baratheon]].
** [[BreakTheCutie Sansa Stark]] thinks "There are no heroes ... In life, the monsters win" [[spoiler:when she sees her father killed.]]
* A recurring theme in the works of Creator/StanislawLem.
* Creator/CSLewis' ''Out of the Silent Planet'' and the rest of ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy''. The idea is that there are several inhabited planets in our solar system, but Earth is the only one where [[spoiler:Original Sin took place. This caused our world to fall out of communication with the others -- we are the titular Silent Planet]].
** Moderated somewhat by the fact that [[spoiler: redemption happened too]]. ''Perelandra'' implies this had [[HumanAliens other effects]] as well.
** Bonus feature: Both pro and con of this are extrapolated fairly strictly (i.e., [[RecycledInSpace Once More, With Aliens]]) from Literature/TheBible.
* In ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', humans are portrayed as the corrupt nobles of Tsarist Russia, more or less. The pigs, who represent the leaders of the Communist revolution, eventually start emulating the humans as they become more and more corrupt. The AnimatedAdaptation made this even less subtle, ending the film with a BolivianArmyEnding.
-->'''Creator/GeorgeOrwell:''' ...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

* In one version of ''The Lion and the Mouse'', the Lion is a noble beast who finds many other animals who have been injured, enslaved, or captured by a cruel enemy; oxen used as pack-animals and beaten, an antelope caught in a hunting trap and bleeding to death, and another lion who lost its teeth after trusting the fiend; all identify this enemy as "Man". The Lion assumes "Man" is one being, becomes angrier with each encounter, and makes it his duty to hunt the villain down and slay him; unfortunately, he nearly falls victim to Man himself, only escaping because of the Mouse.
* The ''Literature/OldMansWar'' series explores the concept. In ''The Ghost Brigades'', a scientist who defected to an alien race angrily pronounces humans as arrogant, elitist bastards who are deliberately refusing to sign a universal peace accord for no reason but superiority issues. However, the end of the book makes it clear that the scientist was only giving half the issue - the aliens are asking for some truly jawdropping accommodations for their "peace", and several other species are against it. ''The Lost Colony'' further reveals that the aliens behind the accords are real pricks, and that humanity (while pretty arrogant) isn't all that bad in the end. The overall balance of the series shows humanity as flawed, but not monstrous.
* In ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', the final voyage has Gulliver land in a place where he encounters the Yahoos - mindless, crude beasts that are ''visually indistinguishable from humans''. To the point that the enlightened (and horse-like) Houyhnhnms eventually forbid him from staying because he's too much like them. They try to use moral threat as a FreudianExcuse, but they're obviously not really afraid of Gulliver's baser moral tendencies.
* Another fine candidate for the title of magnum opus of fictional Human Bastardry is an illustrated science fiction novel entitled ''Literature/ManAfterManAnAnthropologyOfTheFuture''. TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, the well-to-do people of the world set off to leave Earth and colonize other worlds. Before they do, they use [[LegoGenetics genetic modification]] technology to physically alter the people who weren't able to afford the trip, changing them to survive in different biomes. Time passes and we get to see how the mutated humans gradually evolve over the eons after being left to their own devices - and then, suddenly, a race of PlanetLooters invades Earth, enslaves the mutants, and strips the planet of its resources. For their next trick, they wipe out all life more complicated than bacteria. [[spoiler:Those invading "aliens" were actually the unrecognizable descendants of the '''humans''' who'd left Earth millions of years ago. Dude...]]
** This is all the more jarring considering that the author, natural historian Dougal Dixon, never before addressed this issue so {{anvilicious}}ly. His previous illustrated novels mostly avoided it by taking place in alternate timelines where there were no humans at all (there are hints of GaiasVengeance as the setup for ''After Man'' -look at the title- but that's as far as it goes).
** Just to be clear, the genetic engineering wasn't ''forced'' on those left behind, and it was actually done in a belated guilt-trip attempt to replace the many, many species humans had already wiped out. And the ones who eliminated virtually all life at the end [[spoiler: had long since forgotten their origins on Earth, let alone that they were distant relatives of the creatures they were destroying]].
* Often comes through in ''Literature/TalesOfMU'', which focuses on the lives of non-human students at a university with FantasticRacism. Not that the merfolk, ogres, (surface) elves, or kitsuyokai are any better.
* Many of S.L. Viehl's s-f novels fall into this category. The vast majority of "Terrans" are rabid xenophobes: Extraterrestrial sentients are only allowed on Earth under very limited circumstances, certainly aren't allowed to ''live'' there, and will generally find it [[FantasticRacism an unpleasant place]]. And if you're discovered to be a HalfHumanHybrid [[spoiler:(or a clone)]]...''heaven help you''.
** They will also send a fleet to sterilize your world if they find out you're harboring a [[spoiler:human clone]]. Somehow, the humans seem even more monstrous than the [[LizardFolk Hskt-skt]].
* A constant theme running throughout Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau''. Reaches an early peak with the ship's crew that forces Prendick off the boat and leaves him to die in the middle of the ocean. Moreau's creations of demihumans he and Montgomery dominate isn't so sweet either.
* Author Creator/TadWilliams seems to be fond of this trope with the ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'' series and the ''Shadowmarch'' series. [[TheFairFolk Faerie]] races exist in both: in the former it is the Sithi (immortal elves), while in the latter it is the Qar. In both instances, humans attempted to carry out a campaign of genocide against the kingdom of Faerie for no other reason except they wanted the land or they thought the Faeries were evil. In the ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' series, the BigBad is a dead Sithi prince who gave his life defending his people against human invaders and now wants his revenge. Unfortunately, it seems he's willing to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the world]] to do it, so even the remnants of his people rally to fight him. [[spoiler:His final undoing? The one human who actually bothers to ''apologize''.]]

* In the Creator/DavidWeber authored ''Literature/{{Bolo}}'' books there is direct neural interfacing between Bolo commanders and the later model Bolos [[TankGoodness (Battleship size self-aware tank)]]. A Bolo has a warrior personality but nobody had realised how much the safeguards had inhibited its ferocity until they saw the first Bolo-Human mental fusion go into battle. Humans have no inhibitory safeguards.
** It's worth expanding, the [[TheFederation Terran Confederation]] ends up going on a generations long genocidal war against a larger alien empire. Thousands of worlds, Trillions of humans and aliens, and only a few million survive on a few very backward planets.
*** Although in this instance, humans aren't ''uniquely'' monstrous, since the Melconians (who didn't believe the Terran tech was as good as it was) wanted the war just as much as the humans (who didn't believe the Melconian Empire was as large as it was.)

* In the ''Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'' series, humans are bastards because of the Krundai. They are pacifistic carnivores, and hit upon the idea of breeding food that kills itself, so they shaped humanity into being the most savage, self-destructive species they could.
* In ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'', humans are bastards. Well, to be exact, the metaphorical psychomorphic deity-incarnation of humanity is a bastard. But the [[AntiHero human hero]] who achieves [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu its humiliating defeat]] is also a [[SociopathicHero bastard]], so in this series humanity doesn't look good at the individual or species level.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} (the Qu), played straight (the Gravital) and everything in between in Nemo Ramjet's ''All Tomorrows''.
* In ''Literature/TheKillingStar'', by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski, an alien species annihilates humanity with relativistic kinetic weapons before we even encounter them. They had been observing humans, and had discovered that our technology was nearing the point where we could build relativistic kinetic weapons ourselves, so they wiped us out on the off chance that we ''might'' decide to wipe them out. Why does this story qualify under the Humans Are The Real Monsters trope? Because the authors made it quite clear that we would have done ''exactly the same thing to them'' if our roles had been reversed.
** This does qualify [[AliensAreBastards the aliens as bastards]], though (if we're the same as them, they're obviously the same as us).

* Creator/AlanDeanFoster moderates this in his trilogy ''Literature/TheDamned''. Humans appeared in a world where all life would be impossible by the standards of most aliens, and we went through some unpleasant evolutionary contortions to survive, but if we last much longer without outside interference, we'll achieve peace. Unfortunately, outside interference is coming -- and by book 3, after a thousand years as CannonFodder in an interstellar war, the humans are less "human" psychologically than the aliens are.

* Done in a harshly {{anvilicious}} fashion in a Creator/NeilGaiman short story, "Baby Cakes", where humanity suddenly realizes that it has made most of the various animal species extinct, and bemoans the fact that now we have nothing to perform medical tests on, no meat to eat, no source for products like leather and such. But, the text says, humanity is clever, and we figured a way out of that, by using the least productive members of society to replace all that: babies. The end of the story notes that now the babies seem to be gone, but humanity is clever. We'll figure a way out of this...
* One of the themes in Creator/StephenieMeyer's ScienceFiction novel ''Literature/TheHost'', where the invading aliens are kind, pure creatures who regard humans as animalistic and vicious. [[BrokenAesop Kind of ironic,]] [[DesignatedHero since the aliens are]] [[AndIMustScream imprisoning the humans in their own bodies forever]]...
** Meyer likes this theme a lot. Despite Edward and Aro saying that HumansAreSpecial, much of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' has humanity portrayed as boring, stupid, petty, and useless. In particular, [[TheLoad Bella]] blames all of her shortcomings on her humanity (it could somewhat be justified as a case of OvershadowedByAwesome, except she even complains about the human need to ''sleep''). Much of ''Midnight Sun'' is also devoted to Edward complaining about how shallow and stupid most of the people around him are (which could be justified by his constantly reading their minds, except he can block them out when he wants).
* The Dark Ones in ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' take this as a basic tenet, though the Light Ones disagree. Case in point: the Light created Communism to try and improve humanity. They claim it was subverted by the Dark, but the Dark maintains they didn't do anything, and humans simply went on a destructive path as a result of their own natures.
** Update: the experiment with Communism was indeed sabotaged, by none other than [[BigGood Gessar the Brightest]], head of the Moscow Night Watch. He revealed later that he had foreseen that the experiment would've been successful and indeed propelled the technological level of humanity but eventually would've lead to a [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]-esque world division into three constantly warring blocks and, most importantly, exposure of the Others and their subsequent extermination. So yes, basically it's implied that even given a perfect world, we'd screw it up.
* Subverted in ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' series: Despite managing to turn the most horrific war in galactic history into the boring and hard-to-understand game of Cricket, using the incredibly profane word [[PardonMyKlingon "Belgium"]] as the name of a country, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking housing the worst poet in the galaxy,]] humanity is just implied to be primitive, although the rest of the Galaxy ''has'' shunned Earth for Cricket.
* In Sergey Volnov's ''Army Of The Sun'', humanity has conquered and enslaved any alien race they happened to come by, imposing their culture and customs on them (apparently, some aliens didn't look too kindly on the introduction on the concept of [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove love]] to their emotionless mating practices). The novels describe the galaxy after the empire-wide [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters rebellion]], which resulted in an alien-dominated galaxy, where humans are treated as second-class citizens. Interestingly, the novels make the reader feel more for the humans, even though it is clearly stated that humans were anything but kind to their alien slaves. In fact, the only races that they treated more or less fairly were HumanAliens, as they happened to look almost exactly like blacks, whites, and Asians. Then again, the aliens don't exactly treat humans kindly either, still remembering the days of TheEmpire. On the other hand, hardly anyone ever mentions the positive aspects of the [[TheEmpire Earthstella Empire]], such as technological uplifting, introduction of [=FTL=] travel (only one other race managed to develop it on their own), unified language, interstellar economy, and turning a bunch of isolated species into a galactic community.
** Only one alien dockworker nostalgically remembers the days of TheEmpire, when the spacedock was bustling with ships and work was always available.
* A rather nasty science fiction novel by Charles Pellegrino, ''Flying to Valhalla'' is built around the theory that a species looks out for itself only, destroying all competitors. This includes humans, which they go on to prove, whether they want to or not.
* Lampshaded in Creator/SMStirling's [[Literature/TheDraka Draka]] series. The Draka ''admit'' that they're bastards, and frequently upbraid the Alliance for its hypocrisy in not owning up to the bastard deeds of their own history: "We couldn't exterminate our aborigines, the way the Yankees did."

* Tarrou, of ''Literature/ThePlague'', holds the worldview that evil is inherent and natural in humans:
-->''I know positively–-yes, Rieux, I can say I know the world inside out, as you may see-–that each of us has the plague within him; no one, no one on earth is free from it. And I know, too, that we must keep endless watch on ourselves lest in a careless moment we breathe in somebody’s face and fasten the infection on him. What’s natural is the microbe. All the rest-–health, integrity, purity (if you like)-–is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never falter. The good man, the man who infects hardly anyone, is the man who has the fewest lapses of attention.''
* In ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' the Planet of Sphinx is a subversion where humans come to a planet inhabited by NobleSavage creatures called treecats and instead of tearing the planet up, they go to lengths to keep it clear of development, and form friendships with them. One of them bonds with the title character who of course is an exponent of [[HumansAreWarriors another trope about humans]].
** Also played straight in Treecat Wars, the third book of the series detailing the first interactions between treecats and humans. Some humans will go to any lengths to protect their potential holdings on Sphinx, including attacking a teenaged girl (Honor's great-great-etc.-grandmother) and kidnapping her best friend (the treecat Lionheart/Climbs Quickly), in the full expectation that Lionheart will attack and kill the "muggers", thus tarnishing treecats' reputation and preventing their designation as a fully sentient species. It doesn't really work out that way, and the teenage girl goes on to author the Ninth Amendment to Manticore's Constitution, which fully recognizes treecats' intelligence and grants them protection as Sphinx's native sentient species.
* A rare occasion when this trope is played in positive (kind of) light occurs in a short sci-fi story "Cage" by B. Chandler. A group of astronauts are marooned on a distant planet and then captured by aliens. Humans are treated well but are not recognised as sentient beings. The obvious solutions, like making right triangles out of twigs, fail to impress the aliens. However, later humans discover some small vermin scurrying around their cage and decide to capture it and keep it as a pet. The succeed, and right afterwards the aliens let them go with apologies. What can better serve as an evidence of intelligence than an ability and readiness to put other beings in cages?
* The galactic empire of ''Literature/BillTheGalacticHero'' has a war-based economy that has to be sustained by seeking out new alien races with which to do battle. The aliens are treated well at first until the humans trump up some faux pas for the ambassadors to make which is made into an excuse for all-out interplanetary war.
** They are currently engaged in a war with a race of LizardFolk called Chingers, who are portrayed in the media as man-sized scary reptiles who will "marry your sister". In fact, Chingers are about 1-foot tall but incredibly strong thanks to them being born on a 10g homeworld. However, they were a race of pacifists until humans attacked them. Since then, they've learned to fight and spy pretty well, to the point where TheEmpire is ''losing'' the war.
* Creator/HPLovecraft played with this a bit. While not directly adressing the trope, he noted that among his [[EldritchAbomination gods]] there is one who is the most human of them all - Nyarlathotep. You know, the most malicious, manipulative and outright sadistic one.
** He's also the only one who seems to actually notice humans and treat them as something even worth playing with. To the rest, if they notice humans at all, they aren't even worth the equivalent of burning with a magnifying glass.
* Invoked several times in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', especially when Ax learns about things like the Holocaust - though very few of the aliens consider humans ''complete'' bastards, and most alien species are acknowledged to have a bit of bastard in them too (the Pemalites and the Hork-Bajir are the only races that are truly morally superior, and that's because [[spoiler: they were genetically engineered to be kind and peaceful and to be stupid and docile, respectively]]). The Yeerks do have an attitude of "it's not like humans are so perfect anyway", along with the "you're our meat" thing, though.
** In the Andalite Chronicles Elfangor is surprised to learn that humans fight wars with one another. However the Andalites are not much better given that they [[spoiler: attempt to wipe out the human race in order to get the Yeerks]] twice.
* AM, BigBad and [[AIIsACrapshoot sadistic AI]] of the short story ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'' definitely believes this. The story's protagonist ends up proving him wrong by [[FelonyMisdemeanor murdering all of his companions.]] It's better than it sounds-- they were [[MercyKill Mercy Kills.]]
** However, in [[spoiler:becoming self aware]], AM can actually be considered an almost-tragic figure. He hates humans for not only his creation, but because of the fact that [[spoiler:he is forever limited to the Earth.]] This could at least explain his hatred intensifying to uncontrollable levels after [[spoiler:all but one of his playthings are killed off]].
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', the entire supernatural world lives in pretty much constant low-level terror of a large-scale breach of TheMasquerade because of the fear of incoming lynch-mob justice. Though it's not so much that humans are bastards in general as it is that with a population of six billion, the ones who _would_ react immediately with violence and are well-armed enough to make it stick would outnumber the relatively low-population supernatural community a hundred to one or worse (especially because the wizards, who are one of the most powerful non-human factions, would probably consider themselves close enough to side with humanity and not the other signers of the accords).
** A more straightforward example of this trope in the form of [[BadassNormal Johnny Marcone]], who figures out the masquerade and immediately responds in a way that, while not exactly a pogrom, pretty much confirms these fears for everyone in Chicago. It unnerves everyone enough that the accord members, which include a lot of beings that normally consider mundane humans food or worse, resort to a strategy of appeasement and eventually try to stop him from taking over everything by letting him sign on himself.
* British statesman Lord Chesterfield in ''Literature/LettersToHisSon'': "In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and, knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable. And a man who will show every knave or fool that he thinks him such, will engage in a most ruinous war, against numbers much superior to those that he and his allies can bring into the field. Abhor a knave, and pity a fool in your heart; but let neither of them, unnecessarily, see that you do so." (letter 60)
* Averted in ''Literature/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' and its movie adaptation, because [[spoiler: according to Thomas, his people would likely have treated a human visitor as badly as Earth's people treated him]].
* In the original version of ''Literature/IAmLegend'', [[spoiler:this is the ending twist, though it's more HumansAreCthulhu. At the ending, Robert Neville finds the living vampires actually imprison him and sentence him to death, learning they are terrified of him; since Neville is the last human, and his idea of survival was murdering vampires indiscriminately, it's revealed Neville is being put to death because ''he's'' the true monster.]]
* The dolls of ''Literature/TheDollmaker'' are weird and alien (and, okay, occasionally murderous), but they pale in comparison to a normal (if sociopathic) man.
* The evil Fallen living amusement park rides of ''Literature/{{Twisted}}'' are created when the original non-living rides they come from are damaged or destroyed by humans.
* In ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'' series, all vampyres seem to have a rather dim view of humanity in general. In the first two books, Neferet tells Zoey that humans are violent and hateful and should be shunned by vampyres on principle. While [[spoiler:Neferet does turn out to be evil and have her own reasons to be bitter towards humans]], her backstory novella has her own mentor telling her that vampyres are all far superior to humans in terms of art, culture, and intelligence. Zoey gets on board with this pretty quickly, berating humans for hating vampyre celebrities simply for being jealous of them. Tellingly, the only humans portrayed as good are [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality the ones who agree that vampyres are the best things ever and inexplicably believe in Nyx as well]].
* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in Creator/{{Greg Egan}}'s works. It is made abundantly clear that modern humans are petty, short-sighted, irrational, and cruel, and that his {{Mary Sue Topia}}s only work because humans do not populate them, only [[{{Transhumanism}} transhumans]] do, which have none of baseline humanity's flaws, and [[CantArgueWithElves won't let you forget it]]. In the few cases when posthuman characters express a liking for the way that unmodified human beings did things, it is a sign that their worldview is entirely wrong. The reason that the trope is downplayed is because Egan believes that the transition to transhumanism is inevitable, and will happen in an egalitarian manner so that no one is left out, and, more importantly, that he blames human failures on the fact that we evolved naturally, rather than because of our species, and any aliens who are at the level of contemporary Earth or lower are portrayed as just as bad; one story even has ''humanity's descendants'' portrayed as morally superior to an alien species stuck at the technology level of the 21st century. So at least we're not the ''worst'' species out there.
* Inverted in ''Literature/KillDecision''. Odin tells Linda that the reason why artificially intelligent drones driven by insect logic are such a threat is because humans would eventually bring an end to hostilities, even with the worst atrocities. Insect logic, on the other hand, cannot be reasoned or negotiated with and will just keep attacking until either all the targets or the whole drone "colony" is utterly eradicated.
* Creator/PeterWatts subverts this in "Bulk Food", a short story where we finally make the technological breakthrough that allows us to communicate to whales. As it turns out, whales are just as awful as we are, and orca Matriarchs are more than happy to sell off some their stragglers as food and entertainment.
-->Well, no one expected the whales to be such assholes.
* An aphorism occasionally seen on the Internet goes that "Knowledge is knowing that Literature/{{Frankenstein}} [[{{I Am Not Shazam}} isn't the monster]]. Wisdom is understanding that he is."
* In the sort story ''I.I.I.'' by BrianWAldiss (found in the book ''Supertoys Last All Summer Long''), the titular MegaCorp [[TakeOverTheWorld takes over all of Earth's resources]] and proceeds to RapePillageAndBurn the entire [[ApocalypseHow Universe]].
* ''Literature/TheMasterKey'': It's subtle, but compared to the Demon of Electricity, the human race has a lot of soul-searching to do. Except for the king of England, everybody Rob meets on his journey tries to kill him or cheat him out of his stuff, [[NotSoDifferent he himself]] sees nothing wrong with [[GodGuise deceiving "savages"]] and double-crossing armies, and, most tellingly, once he receives goggles that show if a person is good or evil, so many people are judged to be "evil" that he is afraid to use it on any of his loved ones, [[BrokenPedestal lest he learn that they are no better than the rest of the world]].
* Subverted in Creator/BrandonSanderson's short story ''Deefending Elysium''. The 'civilized' alien races have a peaceful society. The main character keeps knowledge of faster than light travel from humans with the belief that they would ruin the paradise society if they discovered it. [[spoiler: Then he finds out that the aliens define 'civilized' as being willing to imprison anyone who disagrees with their ideals in order to keep the peace, and that they aren't just inheirently good beings.]]
* A major theme in ''Literature/MyVampireOlderSisterAndZombieLittleSister'' is that humans can be just as evil and/or dangerous as any supernatural being. The main antagonists [[spoiler:for the first two volumes]] are the Bright Cross, a CreatureHunterOrganisation that aims to wipe out the supernatural to prevent it from threatening humans. And in the third volume, the final and most dangerous enemy is [[spoiler:the main character's own mother, who has modified her body to allow her to overpower and hunt monsters]].
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho Literature/NewSeriesAdventures'' novel ''Plague City'', the Doctor has a conversation with an emotion-parasite that has taken over the body of someone he befriended and plans to spread over the Earth. The parasite points out it's not ''causing'' the misery it feeds on, the humans do that themselves. It's just acting out of hunger, but what humans do to each other is obscene. Bill says the parasite has a seriously messed up view of humanity, and the creature says actually, this is the view of humanity it was given by its host.
* In Creator/DouglasAdams's ''Last Chance to See'', he describes accompanying a group of tourists watching in delighted horror as a komodo dragon devours a live goat. Since the whole thing has been staged for the tourists, Adams concludes that there's one creature responsible for the goat's fate, and it ain't the lizard.
* In the Literature/LittleGreyMen, the cruel giant is actually a human who shoots and traps animals for no reason.
* Near the end of ''Literature/TheQuorum'', the HumanoidAbomination Derek Leech claims this regarding his actions. When he offers someone a DealWithTheDevil, he's only providing an opportunity; what they do with it is their own choice.
-->'''Leech:''' I'm not as bad as the Quorum. I am incapable of the kind of quixotic malice they have shown. I can't feel like that. And, make no mistake, the Quorum are no worse than the general run of people. If anything, they're a little above average.
* Averted in ''Literature/TheGreatRingtailGarbageCaper''. While humans are directly responsible for cutting the protagonists off from their food supplies, the raccoons (at least the adults) don't actually ascribe any malice to such actions. They understand the garbage men have jobs to do, it's just a problem that the new ones are more efficient and responsible than their predecessors.
* ''Literature/MarketOfMonsters'': Mainstream humanity sees the "unnaturals" (humans with special abilities or diets like feeding on pain or dead human flesh) as monsters, who face persecution and FantasticRacism everywhere they turn, such as being enslaved or sold on the black market. More than one human character who abuses unnaturals is told they're the real monster here.
* ''Literature/TheHomestuckEpilogues'': The main villain of this installment ''isn't'' the insane, omnicidal Lord English, whom John has to return to Canon to fight. Both routes instead use humans, [[spoiler:namely [[SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome the adult versions of two of the Alpha kids]]. In the Candy route, Jane grows into a xenophobic tyrant and starts a war with the Trolls, with her firmly believing in [[AliensAreBastards the opposite trope]] the whole time. In the Meat route, Dirk merges with his Ultimate Self and [[HostileShowTakeover takes over the narrative itself]], attempting to steer the story towards the direction he feels it's "supposed" to go.]]