> But the characters have to be recognizably human to us, or it quits being a book about human characters. It seems like there could be considerable distance b

> But the characters have to be recognizably human to us, or it quits being a book about human characters. It seems like there could be considerable distance between "likable" and "recognizably human". Lots of complaints are around the characters being "unlikable", when they're doing completely human things that are just not nice. If an author is forced to only include friendly and likable characters, there's a pretty substantial limitation on the types of human behavior that can be covered.