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Fluff Pieces Every Week

Tag: novel

June 25, 2015

The Guardian Herd: Stormbound, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer, submits this review:

The Guardian Herd: Stormbound, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. Illustrated by David McClellan; map.516KJ+W5H1L
NYC, HarperCollinsPublishers/Harper, April 2015, hardcover $16.99 ([xiii +] 299 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $8.89.

Well, this is a big surprise! The Guardian Herd: Starfire, the first book in this series, listed 32 flying and talking horses in five herds. Others were mentioned during the adventure of the colt Starfire’s maturing to the over-stallion of his own herd. The obvious assumption was that this first sequel in a promised long series would switch to another pegasus named Stormbound. Instead, The Guardian Herd: Stormbound continues directly from where the previous novel ended. Stormbound isn’t the name of a pegasus; it’s the title of the second adventure.

The Guardian Herd: Starfire ended with Starfire (a.k.a. Star), the first all-black (except for the white star on his forehead) stallion in four hundred years, reaching his first birthday without being killed, coming into his power from the Hundred Year Star; and leading his followers – mostly yearlings like himself, plus older pegasi dissatisfied with the leaderships of the existing herds – into a new River Herd. As The Guardian Herd: Stormbound opens a month later, Star is still looking for a permanent territory for his new herd, away from the five hostile older herds. He has declined to become an over-stallion and has entrusted the River Herd to the guidance of a council of six more experienced pegasi; although the council consider themselves more as advisors under his leadership.

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June 16, 2015

Trap Me!: Finally, a Happy Gay Furry Adventure – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

 

Trap Me!: Finally, a Happy Gay Furry Adventure, by Chris and Cooper Elkin. Illustrated by Cooper Elkin.
[?] November 2014, trade paperback, $14.88 (304 pages), Kindle $8.44.

“An Unforgettable Adventure Through a Steampunk World! Follow two furries in their quest for a mysterious artifact.”

Screen Shot 2015-05-31 at 9.17.50 PM“That looked like it hurt. The shattered glass reflected the sunlight and swung it into a gentle dance on the wooden floor of the attic. The still-startled Aidan Prowl, a canine in his right mind (sometimes), blinked twice and then cleared his throat.

‘Oh, please… do come in,’ he said to the stranger who was slowly getting himself together and stood up as bits and shards fell off him. At first glance, it seemed to be a long-eared feline, wearing a black, short leather jacket over his white shirt, which was complimented by his navy blue scarf and trousers. The rosewood fur was ruffled here and there and his charcoal hair was a mess.

‘Some of us prefer to use the door. Then again, I suppose it is a little bit late for that now,’ the canine added dryly.” (p. 5)

The setting is a Steampunk world of anthropomorphic animals. Aidan Prowl, a young canine pianist with dark golden brown hair and viridian green fur who lives with his mother, is startled when Zackary Pace, a black-haired, rosewood-furred feline, crashes through his attic window. Zack, the son of Rhodworth’s leading blacksmith, has been working on a secret invention, which causes the aerial crash.

Aidan is more adventurous than his pianist nature suggests. He has been creating new musical instruments and experimenting with new sounds. He is also looking for rare musical instruments that may or may not exist. When Zack cannot pay for a unique crystal statuette that was broken in his crash, Aidan proposes a solution:

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June 11, 2015

Who Killed Kathleen Gingers?, by Gary Akins – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Who Killed Kathleen Gingers?, by Gary Akins. Revised edition. Illustrated.
Austin, TX, Furry Logic Productions, February 2010, trade paperback $15.00 (136 pages).

AC01--Who_Killed_Kathleen_Gingers_[cover] (1)For those who object to funny-animal fiction – stories in which there is no reason for the characters to be anthropomorphic animals instead of regular humans – Who Killed Kathleen Gingers? can be easily skipped. For those who don’t mind it as long as the story is well-written, and who like crime noir murder mysteries in the Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe/Shell Scott/Travis McGee tradition, don’t miss Who Killed Kathleen Gingers?

Calico Rock sheriff’s office detective Allan Connell (ferret) is sent to investigate the reported murder of vivacious Hollywood star Kathleen Gingers (mouse) at her palatial Pacific Beach vacation home. When Gingers herself answers the door, it looks like the report was a prank – until Connell and Gingers find a real body, that of Gingers’ murdered private secretary, who looks very much like her.

Whodunit, and why? Does the popular Gingers have enemies? Or did the bland secretary, who was recently hired with nothing much really known about her? Was the secretary killed by mistake for Gingers, and is Gingers still in danger? Connell is faced with the crime noir detective’s usual comic-relief (but not totally incompetent) assistant, mysterious clues, and lots of suspects: an unconvincingly indignant husband, an overly-jealous wife, a too-affable producer and his hysterical associate who is very eager to accuse a particular suspect, a sultry mistress with a secret, the vengeful father of a long-dead friend …

Akins writes the right crime noir prose:

“The ocelot-fem was lying face-down on a beach towel by the edge of the pool, head cradled in her arms, sunning herself. She was sleek and well-toned, with graceful legs that went from firm, muscular thighs down to slender ankles and feet. The black and silver of the bikini pants made a nice contrast against her black-spotted, golden-yellow fur, and as near as I could tell that was about their only real contribution since the cut of the cloth left an extremely generous portion of each shapely buttock exposed to view. Her tail lay mostly limp along one leg, the tip twitching slowly every so often. Her fur had been carefully brushed and combed to a healthy, appealing luster, and I just stood there for a moment, appreciating the overall view of her.” (p. 39)

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June 9, 2015

Mort(e), by Robert Repino – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

 

Mort(e), by Robert Repino. Illustrated by Sam Chung.
NYC, Soho Press, January 2015, hardcover $26.95 (358 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $12.99.

31jpc4qtJoL“Before he took his new name, before the animals rose up and overthrew their oppressors, before there was talk of prophecies and saviors, the great warrior Mort(e) was just a house cat known to his human masters as Sebastian. It was a time that now returned to him only in dreams and random moments of nostalgia that disappeared as quickly as they arose. All of it except for Sheba. The memory of her was always digging at him like a splinter under a nail.” (p. 3)

The first dozen pages of Mort(e) are Sebastian’s early life as a housecat, and his meeting Sheba, the large, slobbery dog of the man next door. It’s not until page 14 that Sebastian first learns of the war to exterminate humans, when he observes one of “his masters” watching the TV news:

“It was always the same: a river of text flowed beneath explosions, people running, buildings on fire, green trucks rolling along highways, men and women with helmets marching, building bridges, demolishing things, using flamethrowers to burn massive hills of dirt. And in between all the images were videos of creatures that Sebastian had seen crawling in the grass outside the window: ants. They were always on the television, always marching in a line, sometimes covering entire fields and picking apart dead farm animals. Sebastian saw people running away from ants the size of the Martinis’ car. The monsters could walk on their hind legs, and their jaws were strong enough to lift a human at the waist. […] All the channels were playing the same thing now. Nothing buts ants and fires. But this time, there was footage of a new creature. A pack of wolves, walking on their hind legs, approaching the camera. One of them carried a club in his hands the same way Daniel would hold a hammer. This was followed by a choppy clip of a group of animals marching alongside the giant ants. Sebastian could hear people screaming.” (pgs. 14-15)

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May 29, 2015

Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? – book review by Fred Patten.

by kiwiztiger

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Who Wacked Roger Rabbit?, by Gary K. Wolf.
Colorado Springs, CO, Musa Publishing, December 2014, trade paperback $14.00 (306 pages).

who-wacked-roger-rabbitThis is the third “Roger Rabbit” novel by Gary K. Wolf in 30+ years. The first, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? (St. Martin’s Press, October 1981), was bought by Walt Disney Productions and turned into the considerably different animated feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit (June 1988). (For example, there is no Toontown; Roger talks through speech balloons; does not spray his P’s; and he is killed in the novel.) The movie was a mega-hit, and Wolf wrote a second novel, Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit (Villiard Books, August 1991) that was not as much a sequel as a movie media tie-in. The title emphasized Roger’s distinctive stutter from the movie, and the dust jacket showed Roger and his wife Jessica as they appear in the Disney cartoon design in the movie. But the second novel’s new background was not that of either the first novel nor of the movie.

Now Wolf has written a third novel. Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? seems betwixt & between the first two. The date is 1947 or ’48, when “Walter Windchill” and “Luella Parslips” are still active gossip columnists.

Eddie Valiant, the private eye, is the hard-boiled narrator. “Me and my smog machine rattled our way down Sunset Boulevard to Columbia Studios, the toniest movie lot in Hollywood, where the bungalows are painted with the pixie dust that coats silver screens and the streets are paved with pure movie gold. A schmoe like me rarely gets an invite to a top shop like this. My gumshoes stick to the seamier sidewalks of Tinsel Town.” (p. 3)

Columbia is about to make a new movie starring Gary Cooper, but a deliberate change from his usual Westerns and sophisticated roles. Producer Barney Sands (a human) explains to Eddie that it’s to be set in Toontown, with Coop playing a low-class human living there.

“‘Coop will immerse himself in his role, actually living the life of the character he plays. I want him to hang out in Toontown. Get inside the heads of his Toon co-stars, find out what makes them tick. Use those emotions to structure his own performance.’ Sands flipped his Zip and lit another cigarette. I never saw a guy smoke so fast. Like he had a pair of suction fans inside him instead of lungs. ‘The end result will be sensational. The new Cooper. Crude, basic, and untamed. Giving a performance that delivers a punch straight to the gut.’
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May 27, 2015

Hero’s Best Friend; An Anthology of Animal Companions – book review by Fred Patten.

by kiwiztiger

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Hero’s Best Friend; An Anthology of Animal Companions, edited by Scott M. Sandridge
Lexington, KY, Seventh Star Press, February 2014, trade paperback $20.95 ([iv] + 447 pages), Kindle $3.99.

Hero's best FriendHero’s Best Friend; An Anthology of Animal Companions is a fantasy anthology of “twenty stories of heroic action that focuses on the furries and scalies who have long been the unsung heroes pulling their foolish human buddies out of the fire”. Superficially, this is not necessarily a furry book. The blurb cites comparisons with Gandalf’s horse Shadowfax, the Vault Dweller’s dog Dogmeat, and the Beastmaster’s “fuzzy allies”; all famously loyal animal companions, but under their human partners’ control. Those animals are no more anthropomorphic than the Lone Ranger’s horse Silver.

But these are stories by fantasy authors, and they emphasize the animals’ conscious partnership or dominance over their human companions. “[T]he unsung heroes pulling their foolish human buddies out of the fire” is the operative m.o.

In “Toby and Steve Save the World” by Joy Ward, Steve is the human and Toby, a Pembroke corgi, appears to be his dumb pet. But the story is told from Toby’s view, and it’s clear that the dog recognizes the menaces and deliberately maneuvers his clueless human into taking care of them. The story is definitely anthro. It also wallows in self-conscious cuteness.

“Dusk” by Frank Creed is narrated by Dusk, a housecat in the future. Dusk is the partner of a man codenamed Whisp, but here the human is aware of the cat’s strengths, and they trust each other. Whisp and Dusk are undercover police agents seeking a criminal gang in 2038 Chicago’s Chinatown slums, and Dusk (among others) is bionically enhanced.

“I sniffed the alien scents on the shelves in my aisle – and also the faint charcoal bouquet of expensive whiskey – while Whisp did what the wanted. From the back of the shop I eyeballed inside the stairwell where sat a thin middle-aged yellow-skinned man on a stool. He wore suspenders over a plain white stained tee and held a cup. He looked at me, but it felt wrong.
Other eyes saw through his eyes, and the fur on my spine spiked.” (p. 18)

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May 7, 2015

PULP! Two-Pawed Tales of Adventure – book review by Fred Patten.

by kiwiztiger

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

PULP! Two-Pawed Tales of Adventure, edited by Ianus J. Wolf
Las Vegas, NV, Rabbit Valley Books, September 2014, trade paperback $20.00 (255 pages).

pulp-two-pawed-tales-of-adventure-edited-by-ianus-j-wolf-67151“The Pulps” were the rough-edged inexpensive, popular fiction magazines that were published from the late 1890s through the early 1950s, on the cheapest wood-pulp paper available. There were general-fiction magazines like All-Story and Argosy, and specialized magazines like Black Mask (mystery), Exciting Western (Western), Fight Stories (sports), G-8 and His Battle Aces (aerial warfare), Love and Romance (romance), Railroad Stories (railroad adventure), Ranch Romances (romantic Western), South Sea Stories (sea adventure), Thrilling Wonder Stories (science fiction), Weird Tales (horror), and many others. The 1920s to the ‘50s was also a period of similar weekly radio adventure-fiction dramatizations.

Now Rabbit Valley Books has recreated that era, but with anthro animal casts. Editor Ianus J. Wolf presents eight stories as though they were episodes of “The RVO Radio Evening of Adventure”.

PULP! Two-Pawed Tales of Adventure is a very mixed bag. Some of the stories are just standard adventure stories with funny-animal casts. (Boring.) Some seem to be standard adventures with funny animals, but the animal natures of the characters turn out to be pertinent. (Clever.) And some present a new kind of adventure designed for a furry world. (Admirably imaginative!) But it would be a spoiler to say which is which.

“The Ruins” by Tym Greene is an Indiana Jones-type Amazonian adventure. Liam Felton, an experienced explorer (zebra), and Stewart Brace (Dalmatian dog), an inexperienced youth but the son of the company president who ordered the expedition, search through the South American jungle for the ancient Indian temple that holds the Secret of the Gods. An unscrupulous rival, Maicon Klauss (magpie), and his hulking henchman Bernard (Clysdale horse) are ahead of them.

“Prey” by Ocean Tigrox is a Western. A nameless grizzled badger bounty hunter comes into a dusty Nevada town looking for a rabbit outlaw. “The rabbit could run but he couldn’t hide.” (p. 23) He finds that the whole town is hiding a more deadly secret. There are a vulture saloonkeeper, a bobcat mayor, an eagle sheriff and his hyena deputy, a cougar callgirl, a jackal clergyman, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 1, 2015

Lost on Dark Trails – Book Review by Fred Patten

by kiwiztiger

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Lost on Dark Trails, by Rukis. Illustrated by the author.
Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, January 2015, trade paperback $19.95 (312 pages), electronic edition $12.95.

This is a mature content book.  Please ensure that you are of legal age to purchase this material in your state or region.

15390853@400-1420409110This is the sequel to Rukis’ Off the Beaten Path, reviewed here in January 2015. It is also the middle volume of a trilogy, “The Long Road Home”. It begins immediately following the events in the first volume.

Shivah (bobcat), the narrator, is an Amurescan native “squaw” in an anthropomorphic world roughly similar to late 18th-century North America. She is searching — along with Ransom, a coyote trapper, and Puck (Puquanah), a blind silver fox shaman — for vengeance against Methoa’nuk (also bobcat), Shivah’s ex-husband, a cruel native warrior who has joined a band of raiders that have wiped out Shivah’s tribe and now threaten the Otherwolf colonies along the Eastern Seaboard. Shivah, Ransom, and Puck join a party of Otherwolf lawmen led by Grant Wickham (husky) who also search for the raiders, led by Rourke (otter). But in a bloody battle at the end of Off the Beaten Path, the raiders escape and Puck is apparently killed.

Lost on Dark Trails begins with Shivah nursing Puck back to health, while Grant has been fired for allowing the raiders to escape. Ransom, believing Puck dead, has left; the others fear to commit suicide. So Shivah (a “weak woman”) is alone and apparently sidelined with the blind and recovering Puck to support. Instead, she rallies Grant (and a friend) to join her and Puck in finding Ransom; then continuing (without the friend) unofficially after Rourke and his raiders. She and Puck join them as two of the new pursuers, rather than as Grant’s tagalongs. The surprise ending of Lost on Dark Trails wraps up most of the loose threads from Off the Beaten Path, but indicates that the conclusion of the trilogy, also titled The Long Road Home, will take an unexpected new direction.

Shivah has always been a strong protagonist, and by the end of this middle novel, everyone recognizes this.

“I smiled back, and tried to look confident for them all. I was rather liking being in charge, I was finding day by day. There had been so many times in the past I’d wanted to be the one to corral the chaos amongst my comrades, to ground the menagerie of rowdy, strange men who’d become a part of my life into something more orderly. And now I could.” (p. 43) Read the rest of this entry »

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April 30, 2015

Dancing With Bears – Book Review by Fred Patten

by kiwiztiger

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Dancing With Bears, by Michael Swanwick.
San Francisco, CA, Night Shade Books, May 2011, hardcover $24.99 (268 pages).

51wb22YvMqLThis is the first “Darger and Surplus” novel, although it follows two short stories and a novelette; “The Dog Said Bow-Wow”(2001), “The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport” (2002), and “Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play” (2005). Aubrey Darger and Sir Blackthorpe Ravenscairn de Plus Precieux (“Call me Sir Plus”) are two charismatic con-men in the postutopian future. Darger is human; Surplus is a dog. To quote the opening of “The Dog Said Bow-Wow”:

“The dog looked like he had just stepped out of a children’s book. There must have been a hundred physical adaptations required to allow him to walk upright. The pelvis, of course, had been entirely reshaped. The feet alone would have needed dozens of changes. He had knees, and knees were tricky.

To say nothing of the neurological enhancements.

But what Darger found himself most fascinated by was the creature’s costume. His suit fit him perfectly, with a slit in the back for the tail, and – again – a hundred invisible adaptations that caused it to hang on his body in a way that looked perfectly natural.

‘You must have an extraordinary tailor,’ Darger said.

The dog shifted his cane from one paw to the other, so they could shake, and in the least affected manner imaginable replied, ‘That is a common observation, sir.’”

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April 28, 2015

Bête, by Adam Roberts – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Bête, by Adam Roberts
London, Gollancz, September 2014, hardcover £18.00 (311 [+ 1] pages). download (2)

“As I raised the bolt-gun to its head the cow said: ‘Won’t you at least Turing-test me, Graham?’

‘Don’t call me Graham,’ I told it. ‘My wife calls me Graham. My mum calls me Graham. Nobody else.’

‘Oh, Mister Penhaligon,’ the cow said, sarcastically. We’ll have to assume, for the moment, that cows are capable of sarcasm. ‘It won’t much delay you. And if I fail, then surely, go ahead: bye-bye-bos-taurus. But!’

‘You’re not helping your case, ‘ I said, ‘by enunciating so clearly. You don’t sound like a cow.’

‘Moo, ‘said the cow, arching one hairless eyebrow.” (p. 3)

Graham Penhaligon is a farmer. Farmers traditionally slaughter their cattle and serve them at family meals. So Farmer Penhaligon kills his cow, despite its pleading to him to spare it.

And finds himself arrested for maybe-murder. Which he expects.

Bête is set in the near future, when the animal-rights movement – specifically an organization called Deep Blue Deep Green (DBDG) – is going about surreptitiously raising some animals’ intelligence – specifically, in this case, Farmer Penhaligon’s cattle – to force the courts to decide whether an animal with artificially raised intelligence is a thinking animal no different from a person, and thus a legal person. The courts have declared a moratorium on the killing of such animals while the legal debate goes on; which has been going on for seemingly forever, as such social movements tend to do.

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