Interlude: A Series of Shorts, by M. R. Anglin – Book Review by Fred Patten
by Pup Matthias
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Interlude: A Series of Shorts, by M. R. Anglin.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, August 2016, trade paperback $5.99 (79 [+ 1] pages, Kindle $1.99.
This fifth book in Anglin’s Silver Foxes series is only eight connected short stories of about ten pages each. It is an interlude, taking place between the action of the third and fourth novels and, presumably, the next to come.
The first five stories are set at the Isle de Lossierres, the Kingdom of Drymairad’s most exclusive resort. Xenatha (Xena), the adolescent Silver Fox (it’s a secret) who was the protagonist of Into Expermia, and her family are the “guests” of her foster father J.R.’s unwilling sister Chloe, the wolf businessman sister who owns the island.
The Isle is a rich, luxurious vacation spot, but they are there to hide out, not to enjoy themselves. It’s J.R.’s old family home. Xena wears an illegal image generator to pass as an ordinary gray-furred fox.
Although they are hiding out, they also have their first chance since they all came together to relax a bit as a family. J.R., a notorious criminal to the world, is their wolf Daddy. Xena and her younger sister Katheraine (Kathra), a white fox 11 years old, are his foster kits. Xena has an extremely rare genetic disorder that makes her build up metals in her fur, giving her the Silver Fox appearance and an attraction/control of electricity. Karalaina, a vixen with salmon-colored fur, is the girls’ mother who has just rediscovered them after ten years and came to claim them. They persuaded her to stay and join their family. Chloe Dunsworth is a rich wolf businesswoman, J.R.’s sister who is outraged when he shows up after so long with the others, asking to stay quietly on the family’s island resort.
In these first five stories, they begin to relax and bond as a family. The reader of the first four novels learns more about J. R. Dunsworth’s background, as well. The girls go to the beach, where Xena is introduced to other teen girls (chameleon, raccoon, and tigress) by Mira (wolf), her foster cousin. Her boyfriend Hunter conversates with a ghostly German Shepherd who may be a guardian angel (see Anglin’s Silver Foxes short story in the anthology Gods with Fur). When a flying squirrel swimmer almost drowns, Hunter and Kathra save him.
In the next two stories, the focus shifts to those whom they are hiding from: Maximilian (red fox), the former Minister of Defense of Drymairad who has engineered his becoming its king; Celeste, his wife, now Drymairad’s queen; and Jordan (leopard), Max’s henchman who has been rewarded by being made Captain of the Royal Guard. Celeste makes no secret of not trusting Jordan or Jané, his black panther assistant, and when nobody listens to her, she stomps off to do something about it.
The final story, only three pages, shows what is happening to an Expermian fox fanatic who is in an Outsider (Drymairadian?) prison. He is broken out. We’ll presumably see him again …
The cover of Interlude is by Tazia Hall, who did the covers of all four previous Silver Foxes books.