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Furry Books I read in 2015 (plus a few others)
9 years ago
The really good, the merely good, and the crappy, they're all here. Sorry I'm too lazy to do all the links. Just cut-and-paste in Amazon if you're interested in any of these.
* Acorn 666 Episode 1: Fire Sky by St. John
This was a serialized story that I honestly don’t remember that much about. Something about the apocalypse going on in New York City caused by evil owls, and the evil owls would give magic acorns to other animals to turn them into evil owls. I just remember thinking it was stupid and not getting the rest of the series.
** Aldair, Master of Ships by Neal Barrett Jr.
This is an old book from the 70’s, part of a 4-book series. The first one is Aldair in Albion. This is the second, and the other two are Aldair: Across the Misty Seas and Aldair: Legion of Beasts. This is a 100% furry book, with the typical scenario of humans long gone, and uplifted animals in their place. The animals seemed doomed to repeat human history, as the story takes place during the “Roman” sera, with pigs representing the Romans, wolves the Germanic barbarians, bears the Vikings, crocodiles the Egyptians, elephants the Africans, ect. The writing style is very 70’s, and probably wouldn’t be of much interest to modern furry fans, but sombody looking for something different might want to try the series.
**** Bones of the Empire (The Fall of Eldvar Book 5) by Jim Galford
The fifth and final installment of the very epic Eldvar series, this follows the (surviving) protagonists from the previous books as they try to destroy the enemy necromancers at their stronghold. While not technically a furry book, most of the lead characters are furry (a ring-tailed lemur, wolves, a fox/wolf/lioness, fennecs, ect.). There’s also elves, zombies, humans (Gypsies), orcs, dragons and lots of magic. A highly recommended series for those willing to invest the time (each volume is LONG.)
**** The Border by Robert McCammon
(non-furry SF) The earth is the latest battleground for two alien races that have been at war for millennia. They have no more regard for humans than humans would have for ants on a WWII battlefield. The surviving remnants of humanity live in terror not only of becoming collateral damage as the aliens fight each other, but prey for cannibalistic mutants that roam the cities and countryside at night. An injured boy with no memory is rescued by one of the surviving groups of humans, and may hold the key to saving the earth, if he can survive. This is a brutal story to read, but is ultimately about the human will to survive no matter what, and that humanity might be worth saving after all. And, unbelievably, this is a self-contained story. Not part of a series, with a definite end. Highly recommended.
* Corr Syl the Warrior & Corr Syl the Terrible by Garry Rogers
For some inexplicable reason the author of these wanted me to review them, and sent me copies. I just wish the books were better. The basic premise is that animals evolved sentience and human-type bodies ages ago, and have since developed a super-high tech, peaceful and ecologically sustainable society. They’re so mentally advanced that they can heal themselves of pretty much anything, carry on simultaneous t rains of thought, move super-fast, climb up walls, make themselves vanish into the background, dodge bullets, ect. Humans are shown to have evolved later, and are still the brutish, short-sighted creatures we are today (human technology exists at modern levels). When the greedy humans are manipulated by an evil spider to try and start a war with their peaceful animal neighbors, it’s up to the special warrior caste to stop them. While I’m not a gamer, I know what the term ‘over-powered character” means, and this book is that in spades. The animals are so ridiculously overpowered it’s like watching Superman fight a retard with a club, and there’s absolutely no tension about who will win.
***Dinoworld Scarface: Origins by K. Thomas Olsen
Ever wanted to see a raptor learn martial arts in outer space? If so, then this book is for you! A prequel of sorts to Dinoworld: Dawn of Scars, this is the origin story of the human-hating Scarface raptor. From his childhood struggling to survive on “Dinoworld,” he’s taken as a pet/attack dog by a bounty hunter, and gets all sorts of advanced combat training, including a stint at a ninja-type temple and in a blood sport arena, before returning to his home planet and revenge against the humans who killed his family. It’s all very silly, but would be of interest to dinosaur fans.
***** Darkeye by Lydia West
Intelligent dogs of every species, wild and tame, roam an abandoned human city. Mysterious automated food distribution centers provide enough for all, and packs of cape hunting dogs enforce the peace. But the feeding stations are starting to break down, and no one knows what will happen if they stop working altogether. Mhumhi is a young cape hunting dog in a mixed pack of ‘orphans’ raised by a domestic dog. His siblings include a dhole, a brush dog and an Ethiopian wolf. Mhumhi’s search for his missing adoptive mother leads to one revelation after another, and eventually takes him outside the city in search of answers. There’s a few things in the series that require a huge suspension of disbelief, but that isn’t enough to detract from the story overall. My only caveat is this is not a tale for the squeamish. Nonetheless, this has my highest recommendation.
** Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel Book 1) by Deborah O'Neill
This is kind of a weird book about a dinosaur-type alien who works to prevent the KT extinction and make sure intelligent dinosaurs evolve so he’ll have companionship. Some humans and rogue intelligent dinosaurs work to thwart his plans. Not a bad book, but nothing too exciting, either.
** Either Side of the Strand (Alysha Forrest Book 4) by M.C.A. Hogarth
A book set in the Pelted Alliance universe of uplifted furries, humans and aliens, this is a very Star Trek-type of saga about first contact and politics within the star fleet. The all-female crewed Stardancer explores ruins on a planet, only to discover the intelligent telepathic space octopuses are not entirely gone. Not much in the way of action, but lots of introspection, talking, angst and philosophical discussions. If you’re sick of reading crapsack world stories or non-stop violence, this might be your speed.
***** The Forges of Dawn (Iron Lyons Book 1) by E. Kinsey
Magic and war among lions, as young lioness Uhuru loses her family and pride to the expansionist lions the Pale Ones. She eventually succeeds where no one else has in crossing the magical wastes keeping Africa isolated from the rest of the world, and find allies and enemies in the wider world before returning to her homeland to take on the Pale Ones. There’s a LOT more to the story than that, but I don’t want to give away too much. A must-read for lion and big cat fans.
*** Freed (The Flightless Trilogy Book 3) by Emily Matthew
The third and final book in the Flightless trilogy, this follows crippled eagle Keereet and his friends Lola the vixen and Gabbo the otter into (literally) the dragon’s lair, to try and find out about the history and future of Keereet’s avian race. What they find isn’t pretty, and Keereet must return to his floating city home to try and set things right. While this trilogy isn’t the best thing evah, it was entertaining and recommended to avian fans.
**** The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly
Jurassic Park with dragons. That’s pretty much all you need to know. Non-stop action, lots of people getting eaten, and duplicitous Chinese officials. What’s there not to like?
*** Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
Technically not a furry book, this takes place in the 70’s, and is about the teenage son of a psychology professor who decides to ‘adopt’ a chimpanzee baby and try to teach him sign language. Heavily inspired by the RL stories of signing chimps Washoe, Lucy and Nim Chimpsky, the author did his research, and a lot of the incidents in the book were taken directly from those RL experiments. The human son, Ben, is initially reluctant to have anything to do with his chimpanzee ‘brother,’ but eventually grows to love and care for him more than his professor father. I thought the book had too much space devoted to Ben’s social life in high school and romance with a friend’s sister, but I guess that’s to be expected in a book aimed at teen readers.
** Helga: Out of Hedgelands (Wood Cow Chronicles Book 1) by Rick Johnson
This is one of those ‘furry in name only’ books, where the characters are supposed to be anthro animals, but they do nothing to indicate that, and the story could just as well be told by humans. I don’t remember much of the plot—Helga, her family and all the wood cows are driven out of their ancestral home unfairly, she gets separated from her family and has various adventures with other animals, and eventually realizes she has to lead a rebellion against the bad ruler who exiled her kind. It wasn’t a horrible book, but the fact I can’t remember much of it does not bode well, and I didn’t bother to get the other books in the series.
***** Hunters Unlucky: Complete Series by Abigail Hilton
Half a dozen sentient species share a very large island. The ferryshafts are herding animals that are a best described as a deer/wolf mix. Years ago they lost a war with the big cat Creasia, and ever since have been subjected to periodic population culls, and rules against learning their own past. A ferryshaft foal named Storm learns how to avoid the Creasia culls, and becomes a rallying point for the other discontents in his herd. Other inhabitants of the island include the fox/badger Curbs, giant eagles, and huge white-furred sea creatures unlike anything on our world. Highly recommended.
** In A Dog’s World by Mary Lowd
A furry book in the truest sense, this takes place in the “Otters in Space” universe, of uplifted dogs, cats and otters. Despite the nominal SF setting with rockets and space stations, this story is very much a high school and college coming-of-age and romance book. Katasha is a feline high school senior who wants to go to a mostly-dog technical school, and secretly wants to date and hang out with dogs instead of cats. This is a gentle slice-of life story; not super-exciting, but okay if this is the type of story you like.
*** IN NATURA: a science fiction novel (ARZAT SERIES Book 2) by David Samuel Frazier
There are some premises that are so utterly improbable it’s hard to take that suspension of disbelief jump. This is a sequel to an earlier book where it is discovered that intelligent raptors have somehow discovered how to induce suspended animation for tens of millions of years, and they’re woken up by humans as they’re digging a shelter from another impending extinction-event size asteroid strike. This is the sequel after the strike, where the two human scientists and their dinosaur companions awake to a changed world, and discover that somehow other groups of intelligent raptors have awoke and are striving for control with surviving groups of humans. It might be nice to (just once) read something where post-apocalyptic humans haven’t been reduced to caveman or medieval-level living conditions.
* Internshipping: A romantic comedy with a furry twist! by Lex Rovi
Another furry-in-name-only story, I get the impression the author took an already existing romance and stuck furry descriptions into it. And the sex parts were not worth plowing through the rest of this tripe for.
*** Kronos Rising by Max Hawthorne
A kronosaur suddenly appears in Caribbean waters and starts eating people. This has all the tropes you’d expect from a Jaws-type book—the incredibly smoking-hot brilliant Japanese female scientist, the studly small-town cop who is tormented by his war-time experiences, the eager side-kick, the loyal black second-mate, the corrupt politician, the sadistic hunter, the elderly mentor, and, of course, the kronosaur with the insatiable appetite. I’d like to see one of these stories, just once, have an old, ugly female scientist, and a fat, out-of shape policeman, and an honest politician. In any event, this has lots of action and a very large body count, and for the genre, is as good a book as any.
** Love and Ordinary Creatures: A Novel by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
A mainstream fiction book, Love and Ordinary Creatures is told through the eyes of a cockatoo in love with his very human caretaker. Snatched in a net from his Australian homeland as a young parrot, Caruso has adapted to captivity and has learned all he knows of love from his previous owner, who was obsessively fixated on his childhood sweetheart. Now in his new home with the beautiful and talented Clarissa, Caruso has found both love and happiness—until a handsome stranger arrives in town and sets his sights on Clarissa. (Sorry I got lazy and copied the Amazon description) In my experience, captive cockatoos are psychopaths that scream constantly, self-mutilate, and try to bite off your finger at every chance. The cockatoo in this story is the calmest, most mellow bird in the history of the universe. Other than that, this is just another lame romance book. And I didn’t understand the ending.
**** Mort(e) by Robert Repino
This was a very weird but interesting book. Sebastian is a typical housecat owned by a typical family. He makes friends with a dog owned by the neighbor that his owner’s wife is having an affair with, and that friendship is one of the driving forces in the book. Inexplicably, every mammal in the world suddenly gains sentience, hands and the ability to walk on two legs. Sebastian takes the name Mort(e), and becomes a soldier with a group of cats involved in tracking down the last remnants of humanity. But he never forgets his dog friend, and is obsessed with finding out what became of her. Its eventually revealed what is behind the animal’s transformation, and Sebastian/ Mort(e) must decide where his loyalties lie.
*** The Mount: A Novel by Carol Emshwiller
An improbable race of aliens referred to as ‘Hoots’ take over the earth, and force humans into beasts of burden like horses. People who are into pony-play would probably enjoy this book. Otherwise, it’s just kind of bizarre.
*** Raven Quest by Sharon Stewart
A Watership Down-type talking animal book, Tok the raven gets banished from the raven community for a crime he didn’t commit, and sets out to find the legendary “Gray Lords,” which he hopes will enable him to rejoin his flock.
**** Salome's Daughters: An Epic Cat Fantasy (The House of Bast) by Jane F. Tatam
Humans are gone, degenerated into mindless creatures called gorribles, with stupid dogs as their companions. Cats rule in their place, with Siamese as the royal clan. There has been peace for many years, but when the old queen dies she appoints the more politically connected daughter as heir, and things go quickly downhill. The new queen Belvedere shows her true colors, killing or driving out any perceived rivals, and soon the cat kingdoms are on the brink of civil war. Exiled princess Alice must rally her supporters to try to win back her throne. While this sounds like a kid’s book, there’s a lot of adult stuff, including graphic mating scenes and extensive violence, such as a shocking scene where Belvedere cannibalizes her offspring as they’re born. I’d still recommend it; just be aware that it’s not exactly G-rated.
* The Soar (The Chronicles of Argon Book 1) by Hannah O'Neal
I was wondering why this book was so bad, and then I read in the description it was written by a teenager. OK then. This is basically a swipe of the Guardians of G’Hoole, so if you liked that series, you’d probably like this. I didn’t, and I didn’t.
*** The Starling God by Tanya Sousa
An orphan starling is raised by a good Samaritan and released back into the wild. Mentored by a kindly pair of mourning doves, the other birds eventually come to believe he is a promised messiah-figure, born of a human. Some of his fellow starlings, who consider their kind favored by humans among all other birds, don’t like this threat to the status quo. The Starling God eventually goes on a journey to discover human’s and bird’s place in the world.
**** Swallowtail & Sword: The Scholar's Book of Story & Song.. by H. Leighton Dickson
An anthology of stories covering the history of the various characters from her superlative Tails from the Upper Kingdom series, this is a must-read for anyone who enjoyed those books. And if you haven’t read the earlier books, what are you waiting for??
**** The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
(non-furry)A near-future story of the battle over water rights in a parched and ruined southwest USA. The protagonist is a ‘water knife,’ an enforcer for Las Vegas charged with cutting off the illegal flow of water. Along with a relocated reporter from the Midwest, he gets drawn into the fight over some newly-discovered documents that could change the balance of power in the area. This is recommended for Bacigalupi’s fine writing style and speculation on how water politics will eventually shape the southwest.
**** White as the Waves by Alison Baird
Moby Dick as told from the point of view of the whale, this covers White-as-Waves story from birth, through his bachelorhood, and as an adult bull sinking whaling ships in order to protect and avenge his fellow whales. Recommended.
* Acorn 666 Episode 1: Fire Sky by St. John
This was a serialized story that I honestly don’t remember that much about. Something about the apocalypse going on in New York City caused by evil owls, and the evil owls would give magic acorns to other animals to turn them into evil owls. I just remember thinking it was stupid and not getting the rest of the series.
** Aldair, Master of Ships by Neal Barrett Jr.
This is an old book from the 70’s, part of a 4-book series. The first one is Aldair in Albion. This is the second, and the other two are Aldair: Across the Misty Seas and Aldair: Legion of Beasts. This is a 100% furry book, with the typical scenario of humans long gone, and uplifted animals in their place. The animals seemed doomed to repeat human history, as the story takes place during the “Roman” sera, with pigs representing the Romans, wolves the Germanic barbarians, bears the Vikings, crocodiles the Egyptians, elephants the Africans, ect. The writing style is very 70’s, and probably wouldn’t be of much interest to modern furry fans, but sombody looking for something different might want to try the series.
**** Bones of the Empire (The Fall of Eldvar Book 5) by Jim Galford
The fifth and final installment of the very epic Eldvar series, this follows the (surviving) protagonists from the previous books as they try to destroy the enemy necromancers at their stronghold. While not technically a furry book, most of the lead characters are furry (a ring-tailed lemur, wolves, a fox/wolf/lioness, fennecs, ect.). There’s also elves, zombies, humans (Gypsies), orcs, dragons and lots of magic. A highly recommended series for those willing to invest the time (each volume is LONG.)
**** The Border by Robert McCammon
(non-furry SF) The earth is the latest battleground for two alien races that have been at war for millennia. They have no more regard for humans than humans would have for ants on a WWII battlefield. The surviving remnants of humanity live in terror not only of becoming collateral damage as the aliens fight each other, but prey for cannibalistic mutants that roam the cities and countryside at night. An injured boy with no memory is rescued by one of the surviving groups of humans, and may hold the key to saving the earth, if he can survive. This is a brutal story to read, but is ultimately about the human will to survive no matter what, and that humanity might be worth saving after all. And, unbelievably, this is a self-contained story. Not part of a series, with a definite end. Highly recommended.
* Corr Syl the Warrior & Corr Syl the Terrible by Garry Rogers
For some inexplicable reason the author of these wanted me to review them, and sent me copies. I just wish the books were better. The basic premise is that animals evolved sentience and human-type bodies ages ago, and have since developed a super-high tech, peaceful and ecologically sustainable society. They’re so mentally advanced that they can heal themselves of pretty much anything, carry on simultaneous t rains of thought, move super-fast, climb up walls, make themselves vanish into the background, dodge bullets, ect. Humans are shown to have evolved later, and are still the brutish, short-sighted creatures we are today (human technology exists at modern levels). When the greedy humans are manipulated by an evil spider to try and start a war with their peaceful animal neighbors, it’s up to the special warrior caste to stop them. While I’m not a gamer, I know what the term ‘over-powered character” means, and this book is that in spades. The animals are so ridiculously overpowered it’s like watching Superman fight a retard with a club, and there’s absolutely no tension about who will win.
***Dinoworld Scarface: Origins by K. Thomas Olsen
Ever wanted to see a raptor learn martial arts in outer space? If so, then this book is for you! A prequel of sorts to Dinoworld: Dawn of Scars, this is the origin story of the human-hating Scarface raptor. From his childhood struggling to survive on “Dinoworld,” he’s taken as a pet/attack dog by a bounty hunter, and gets all sorts of advanced combat training, including a stint at a ninja-type temple and in a blood sport arena, before returning to his home planet and revenge against the humans who killed his family. It’s all very silly, but would be of interest to dinosaur fans.
***** Darkeye by Lydia West
Intelligent dogs of every species, wild and tame, roam an abandoned human city. Mysterious automated food distribution centers provide enough for all, and packs of cape hunting dogs enforce the peace. But the feeding stations are starting to break down, and no one knows what will happen if they stop working altogether. Mhumhi is a young cape hunting dog in a mixed pack of ‘orphans’ raised by a domestic dog. His siblings include a dhole, a brush dog and an Ethiopian wolf. Mhumhi’s search for his missing adoptive mother leads to one revelation after another, and eventually takes him outside the city in search of answers. There’s a few things in the series that require a huge suspension of disbelief, but that isn’t enough to detract from the story overall. My only caveat is this is not a tale for the squeamish. Nonetheless, this has my highest recommendation.
** Dragon Dawn (Dinosaurian Time Travel Book 1) by Deborah O'Neill
This is kind of a weird book about a dinosaur-type alien who works to prevent the KT extinction and make sure intelligent dinosaurs evolve so he’ll have companionship. Some humans and rogue intelligent dinosaurs work to thwart his plans. Not a bad book, but nothing too exciting, either.
** Either Side of the Strand (Alysha Forrest Book 4) by M.C.A. Hogarth
A book set in the Pelted Alliance universe of uplifted furries, humans and aliens, this is a very Star Trek-type of saga about first contact and politics within the star fleet. The all-female crewed Stardancer explores ruins on a planet, only to discover the intelligent telepathic space octopuses are not entirely gone. Not much in the way of action, but lots of introspection, talking, angst and philosophical discussions. If you’re sick of reading crapsack world stories or non-stop violence, this might be your speed.
***** The Forges of Dawn (Iron Lyons Book 1) by E. Kinsey
Magic and war among lions, as young lioness Uhuru loses her family and pride to the expansionist lions the Pale Ones. She eventually succeeds where no one else has in crossing the magical wastes keeping Africa isolated from the rest of the world, and find allies and enemies in the wider world before returning to her homeland to take on the Pale Ones. There’s a LOT more to the story than that, but I don’t want to give away too much. A must-read for lion and big cat fans.
*** Freed (The Flightless Trilogy Book 3) by Emily Matthew
The third and final book in the Flightless trilogy, this follows crippled eagle Keereet and his friends Lola the vixen and Gabbo the otter into (literally) the dragon’s lair, to try and find out about the history and future of Keereet’s avian race. What they find isn’t pretty, and Keereet must return to his floating city home to try and set things right. While this trilogy isn’t the best thing evah, it was entertaining and recommended to avian fans.
**** The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly
Jurassic Park with dragons. That’s pretty much all you need to know. Non-stop action, lots of people getting eaten, and duplicitous Chinese officials. What’s there not to like?
*** Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
Technically not a furry book, this takes place in the 70’s, and is about the teenage son of a psychology professor who decides to ‘adopt’ a chimpanzee baby and try to teach him sign language. Heavily inspired by the RL stories of signing chimps Washoe, Lucy and Nim Chimpsky, the author did his research, and a lot of the incidents in the book were taken directly from those RL experiments. The human son, Ben, is initially reluctant to have anything to do with his chimpanzee ‘brother,’ but eventually grows to love and care for him more than his professor father. I thought the book had too much space devoted to Ben’s social life in high school and romance with a friend’s sister, but I guess that’s to be expected in a book aimed at teen readers.
** Helga: Out of Hedgelands (Wood Cow Chronicles Book 1) by Rick Johnson
This is one of those ‘furry in name only’ books, where the characters are supposed to be anthro animals, but they do nothing to indicate that, and the story could just as well be told by humans. I don’t remember much of the plot—Helga, her family and all the wood cows are driven out of their ancestral home unfairly, she gets separated from her family and has various adventures with other animals, and eventually realizes she has to lead a rebellion against the bad ruler who exiled her kind. It wasn’t a horrible book, but the fact I can’t remember much of it does not bode well, and I didn’t bother to get the other books in the series.
***** Hunters Unlucky: Complete Series by Abigail Hilton
Half a dozen sentient species share a very large island. The ferryshafts are herding animals that are a best described as a deer/wolf mix. Years ago they lost a war with the big cat Creasia, and ever since have been subjected to periodic population culls, and rules against learning their own past. A ferryshaft foal named Storm learns how to avoid the Creasia culls, and becomes a rallying point for the other discontents in his herd. Other inhabitants of the island include the fox/badger Curbs, giant eagles, and huge white-furred sea creatures unlike anything on our world. Highly recommended.
** In A Dog’s World by Mary Lowd
A furry book in the truest sense, this takes place in the “Otters in Space” universe, of uplifted dogs, cats and otters. Despite the nominal SF setting with rockets and space stations, this story is very much a high school and college coming-of-age and romance book. Katasha is a feline high school senior who wants to go to a mostly-dog technical school, and secretly wants to date and hang out with dogs instead of cats. This is a gentle slice-of life story; not super-exciting, but okay if this is the type of story you like.
*** IN NATURA: a science fiction novel (ARZAT SERIES Book 2) by David Samuel Frazier
There are some premises that are so utterly improbable it’s hard to take that suspension of disbelief jump. This is a sequel to an earlier book where it is discovered that intelligent raptors have somehow discovered how to induce suspended animation for tens of millions of years, and they’re woken up by humans as they’re digging a shelter from another impending extinction-event size asteroid strike. This is the sequel after the strike, where the two human scientists and their dinosaur companions awake to a changed world, and discover that somehow other groups of intelligent raptors have awoke and are striving for control with surviving groups of humans. It might be nice to (just once) read something where post-apocalyptic humans haven’t been reduced to caveman or medieval-level living conditions.
* Internshipping: A romantic comedy with a furry twist! by Lex Rovi
Another furry-in-name-only story, I get the impression the author took an already existing romance and stuck furry descriptions into it. And the sex parts were not worth plowing through the rest of this tripe for.
*** Kronos Rising by Max Hawthorne
A kronosaur suddenly appears in Caribbean waters and starts eating people. This has all the tropes you’d expect from a Jaws-type book—the incredibly smoking-hot brilliant Japanese female scientist, the studly small-town cop who is tormented by his war-time experiences, the eager side-kick, the loyal black second-mate, the corrupt politician, the sadistic hunter, the elderly mentor, and, of course, the kronosaur with the insatiable appetite. I’d like to see one of these stories, just once, have an old, ugly female scientist, and a fat, out-of shape policeman, and an honest politician. In any event, this has lots of action and a very large body count, and for the genre, is as good a book as any.
** Love and Ordinary Creatures: A Novel by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
A mainstream fiction book, Love and Ordinary Creatures is told through the eyes of a cockatoo in love with his very human caretaker. Snatched in a net from his Australian homeland as a young parrot, Caruso has adapted to captivity and has learned all he knows of love from his previous owner, who was obsessively fixated on his childhood sweetheart. Now in his new home with the beautiful and talented Clarissa, Caruso has found both love and happiness—until a handsome stranger arrives in town and sets his sights on Clarissa. (Sorry I got lazy and copied the Amazon description) In my experience, captive cockatoos are psychopaths that scream constantly, self-mutilate, and try to bite off your finger at every chance. The cockatoo in this story is the calmest, most mellow bird in the history of the universe. Other than that, this is just another lame romance book. And I didn’t understand the ending.
**** Mort(e) by Robert Repino
This was a very weird but interesting book. Sebastian is a typical housecat owned by a typical family. He makes friends with a dog owned by the neighbor that his owner’s wife is having an affair with, and that friendship is one of the driving forces in the book. Inexplicably, every mammal in the world suddenly gains sentience, hands and the ability to walk on two legs. Sebastian takes the name Mort(e), and becomes a soldier with a group of cats involved in tracking down the last remnants of humanity. But he never forgets his dog friend, and is obsessed with finding out what became of her. Its eventually revealed what is behind the animal’s transformation, and Sebastian/ Mort(e) must decide where his loyalties lie.
*** The Mount: A Novel by Carol Emshwiller
An improbable race of aliens referred to as ‘Hoots’ take over the earth, and force humans into beasts of burden like horses. People who are into pony-play would probably enjoy this book. Otherwise, it’s just kind of bizarre.
*** Raven Quest by Sharon Stewart
A Watership Down-type talking animal book, Tok the raven gets banished from the raven community for a crime he didn’t commit, and sets out to find the legendary “Gray Lords,” which he hopes will enable him to rejoin his flock.
**** Salome's Daughters: An Epic Cat Fantasy (The House of Bast) by Jane F. Tatam
Humans are gone, degenerated into mindless creatures called gorribles, with stupid dogs as their companions. Cats rule in their place, with Siamese as the royal clan. There has been peace for many years, but when the old queen dies she appoints the more politically connected daughter as heir, and things go quickly downhill. The new queen Belvedere shows her true colors, killing or driving out any perceived rivals, and soon the cat kingdoms are on the brink of civil war. Exiled princess Alice must rally her supporters to try to win back her throne. While this sounds like a kid’s book, there’s a lot of adult stuff, including graphic mating scenes and extensive violence, such as a shocking scene where Belvedere cannibalizes her offspring as they’re born. I’d still recommend it; just be aware that it’s not exactly G-rated.
* The Soar (The Chronicles of Argon Book 1) by Hannah O'Neal
I was wondering why this book was so bad, and then I read in the description it was written by a teenager. OK then. This is basically a swipe of the Guardians of G’Hoole, so if you liked that series, you’d probably like this. I didn’t, and I didn’t.
*** The Starling God by Tanya Sousa
An orphan starling is raised by a good Samaritan and released back into the wild. Mentored by a kindly pair of mourning doves, the other birds eventually come to believe he is a promised messiah-figure, born of a human. Some of his fellow starlings, who consider their kind favored by humans among all other birds, don’t like this threat to the status quo. The Starling God eventually goes on a journey to discover human’s and bird’s place in the world.
**** Swallowtail & Sword: The Scholar's Book of Story & Song.. by H. Leighton Dickson
An anthology of stories covering the history of the various characters from her superlative Tails from the Upper Kingdom series, this is a must-read for anyone who enjoyed those books. And if you haven’t read the earlier books, what are you waiting for??
**** The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
(non-furry)A near-future story of the battle over water rights in a parched and ruined southwest USA. The protagonist is a ‘water knife,’ an enforcer for Las Vegas charged with cutting off the illegal flow of water. Along with a relocated reporter from the Midwest, he gets drawn into the fight over some newly-discovered documents that could change the balance of power in the area. This is recommended for Bacigalupi’s fine writing style and speculation on how water politics will eventually shape the southwest.
**** White as the Waves by Alison Baird
Moby Dick as told from the point of view of the whale, this covers White-as-Waves story from birth, through his bachelorhood, and as an adult bull sinking whaling ships in order to protect and avenge his fellow whales. Recommended.
Although I won't feel much shame myself.