The Furry Book Review

Beautiful World: Fast, Fun, Evocative Read

rechan — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:28:23 GMT

Beautiful World by Kristina Tracer is a near-future sci-fi erotic suspense novel.

Here, a company has created Irokai, a virtual-reality world that's a cross between the Matrix and Second Life. It's very reminiscent of Snow Crash's metaverse, except that Irokai is self-contained system; if you want to access it, you have to go to one of the company's buildings and hook up. While in the real world everyone is a human, for some reason in Irokai everyone is an anthropomorphic animal. Also inside Irokai, there are AI programs who self-develop - they aren't programmed so much as grown, so they operate on an independent level, unaware of their code.

The story follows Johnathan, an artist who is in love with one of the AI programs inside Irokai. He has gotten a job with the company to design a new area in-world. There is a process that allows Johnathan to actually be permanently uploaded into the Irokai database - his body dies but his personality, memories, etc are uploaded into Irokai, making him a permanent resident. This way John can live with his love.

Yet all is not well in the land of Irokai. Because this is a private company running the show, everything costs money. Want to teleport instead of walk? That's a charge. Want to design a mod for your avatar? That's a charge. Want to eat something? That's a charge. Included in the charges are things like the Residents of Irokai (those AI programs and the people who have uploaded themselves) have to pay rent in order to be kept online. If they don't, they are just backed up and turned off. This is causing some issues of civil rights, of being taxed to live, and there's a revolution afoot.

Once the big events get underway, the story takes off. When the other shoe drops, it's like a hole blown in an airplane, sucking you out under its power. I felt a real "Uh oh" when we see what's really going on, and the final stretch had a solid urgency that left me turning the pages as quickly as I could.

One thing about the novel is that like many other books in the Fandom (Out of Position, Shadow of the Father, Thousand Leaves), each chapter is from the perspective of one of our cast of characters. We see from the perspective of every relevant character to our plot.

As far as the writing is concerned, the author does a good job with her prose. I never had a problem, I saw no real errors, and everything that is described is evocative and visible without too much detail spent on it. The author's demonstration of the world is nice. It feels like another world, and there is continual consistency throughout. Furthermore, the manner that Irokai's parent company milks customers for every dime feels very realistic.

A pleasant surprise to me was that actual transsexual issues came up. This is one of the first novels that I've seen that even bothers to acknowledge TG, much less have a compelling character with those issues.

Initially I had thought that Beautiful World was a straight novel, but I was surprised when there was an M/M/F scene later in the book.

Most of the faults with the novel are minor. We spend four chapters (out of a 200 book) dedicated to the subplot of John uploading himself into the world. That's a lot of book real estate for a subplot that doesn't feel that tense. The sex scenes are brief but unnecessary - the novel would have lost nothing had the author just chosen to fade to black instead. Certain scenes (the two between John and Adam) come off as... is there a literary version of "overacting"? They come off as chewing the scenery. But these are the only scenes that seem this way. Finally, the issue comes with the final scene of the novel, where we learn the Villain's true motivation for what occurs, and when we learn his motivation, reflecting back on his past actions seem to show a lack of consistency. Or rather a, "If that's what the villain wanted, then why did he do x in this scene, not Y?" Also the reaction to this revelation is somewhat out of left field - there were no warning signs for it.

The real disappointment of the novel is its brevity. I wanted to know more about the world. For instance, John uploads himself into Irokai, leaving his body behind. What happens to the body? What about John's parents - what do they think of this decision? Also in Irokai, even the programs/AI desire food and sleep. Why? A novel has much more space to explore the world of the story, a little more time to get into the lives of those involved, and I wish the author had taken advantage of that space.

The book's brevity also hampers its plot structure. The first half of the book is really devoted to introducing us to the characters, the world, as well as getting us familiar with the plot's underlying situation. Once all the pieces are out on the board, events get underway and then escalate a little too fast. Had there been more of a lead-up, with increased intensity, the big events and the crunch time of the novel would have had a bigger payoff.

Thus the book feels a tad underfed and bony.

The Kindle version is $5. It's well worth that price - I liked the book, it's a nice read and the flaws don't outweigh the overall positive weight.

Animorphs

silver_kiden — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:56:29 GMT

here's a series that i'm surprised nobody has reviewed.
Animorphs
author: k.a. applegate (and ghostwriters)
rating: 5 stars out of 5

the animorphs series is about a group of kids who are dragged into the middle of an intergalactic war, taking place right here on earth. they cut through a construction site one night, only to be the unsuspecting witness to the death of an alien warrior. before he died, he gave these children the power to morph into any animal that they can touch. spanning more than 60 novels, this series follows the adventures of these children as they fight against the alien invasion, and how the decisions they make while fighting this war affect them. watch as these characters confront issues of morality versus expediency, and how the death of both friend and enemy will change how they see the world. this series is extremely well written, showing how different people from different backgrounds deal with stresses in different ways. the reluctant leader, the warrior, the caring heart, the comedian, and the loner face the world together, grow together, and grow apart, all in a believable background. this was one of my favorite series as a kid, and is probably most directly responsible for me finding the fandom in the first place. see kids just like you used to be face their own dark side, and learn that the world is full of shades of grey. will they even survive?

Basecraft Cirrostratus

rikoshi — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:55:08 GMT

Basecraft Cirrostratus
Justin Lamar
FurPlanet

Even by themselves, the terms “amateur,” “adult,” and “furry” can all give one pause when it comes to fiction; when all three apply to the same work, there can be even more reason for hesitation. Still, when it's only a mere ten bucks to see whether someone's debut novella is any good, it can be worth it to gamble from time to time, and in this case, for the most part, that gamble has paid off.

Basecraft Cirrostratus tells the story of Elor Kaya, an esteemed professor who is wanted for sedition and indoctrination against a totalitarian regime. Fleeing the country with the secret police hot on his tail, he escapes into self-imposed exile aboard the titular Basecraft Cirrostratus, a massive flying machine that operates in international airspace. Once there, he seeks out the only connection he has left: Vinz, his ex-lover from a decade prior.

Problem is, Vinz doesn't want anything to do with Elor anymore, having moved on both personally as well as romantically. Instead, Elor is forced to turn to the organized crime syndicate that acts as the true power within the decks of the Basecraft Cirrostratus, which, as it turns out, is home to many a political refugee aside from Elor.

The plot itself is actually quite solid and very breezy. The pacing is good, with events never dragging and the story never going off the rails. Lamar clearly has a good handle on the setting, and the political backdrop and behind-the-scenes machinations play very well into the events of the book as they unfold. Things get a little heavy-handed at some points, but only very occasionally, and it's never bad enough to induce eye-rolling. The ending lacks some emotional punch simply because the emotional framework didn't have time to develop thoroughly enough during the course of the plot, but the plot itself does have an arc (as do the characters, to be fair). On two notable instances, dumb luck sees things through where it would have been preferable to have direct action on the characters' part, but for the most part, the plot itself stays together fairly well.

When it comes to amateur writers, one of the biggest pitfalls one usually comes across is the author belaboring points too much, or taking too long to say what needs to be said. Here, though, I had the opposite problem: much of the time, I wanted the author to slow down and take some more time to build on things, especially as they related to the characters and their relationships. For example, there's a love triangle that serves as an emotional focus for much of the story; I definitely bought into one of the relationships, but not the other—we're told that they're in love, but it never really comes across on the page. A bit of a textbook example for the caution of “show, don't tell,” which might have been avoided if more time were taken to develop things.

This is also an adult story, with the erotic aspects being entirely male/male. Sex, though, happens on page as something that's important between the characters, and (with one marked exception near the very end) it's never gratuitous, and it serves itself as part of the story and not a goal of it. Most of the sex scenes are actually pretty tasteful, and, like much of the rest of the book, never slow things down at the expense of the plot.

The best thing I can say about the book is that it's very cinematic. With the right special effects (and maybe a little less on-screen sex), this would actually make a fairly decent action thriller flick, the kind you watch with a big tub of popcorn without needing the story to shatter and rewrite your world.

In the end, Basecraft Cirrostratus bears some hallmarks of amateur writing, but when taken as a whole, it does more things right than it does wrong. It's good—not great, but certainly not bad, and Lamar certainly shows promise for future offerings. If it were maybe half again as long, with some more time spent making some of the character relationships a little more believable, and if the point of view were a bit tighter (it gets kind of loose in some points), Basecraft Cirrostratus could have been better. Still, as-is, if you're the kind of person looking for a dieselpunk action thriller and don't mind some gay sex and relationship drama thrown in along the way, you could do worse than check this book out.

"Clan Ground" by Clare Bell

kyellgold — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:26:26 GMT

I had the good fortune to meet Clare Bell at Further Confusion. I'd read "Ratha's Creature" a long time ago and so I knew her by reputation only, but she proved to be a delightful person and a very savvy author. We did a panel on making worlds furry and had a great time doing it. And she wanted to read one of my books! *swoon* So it seemed only fair that I return the favor.

"Clan Ground" is the second in the "Named" series about a tribe of intelligent jungle cats (fully feline, not anthropomorphic in any way other than speech and thought). Ratha, having brought fire back to her tribe and, by her mastery of it, assumed leadership of the tribe, is now faced with the problem of how to integrate this new power into the life of her clan. Certain clan-members are designated Fire-Keepers, set to tend the fire and guard the perimeter of the clan ground. Others are herders, keeping the tribe's domesticated food supply in line. This division seems to be working pretty well until an outsider comes into the tribe, seeking shelter. The clan takes him in, and soon he is working with the Fire-Keepers, seeming to have a good feel for how to work with fire.

Meanwhile, Thakur, one of the herders Ratha is close to has taken to exploring, and has befriended a small tree-climber, which seems to be a lemur-type critter. He brings it back to the clan and discovers that its hands are very useful for tending fire. The idea of letting a tree-creature near the fire is uncomfortable for many, so he trains it in secret.

Things heat up--ha ha--as the new clan member begins to be more aggressive. The division between the Fire-Keepers and the herders becomes more pronounced. And Ratha needs to take the next step, from simply leading her clan to becoming a true leader.

The book is told alternately between Ratha's viewpoint and Thakur's, a narrative style I've become fond of recently. It serves in this case to highlight the changes the clan is going through, from the incorporation of fire to the acceptance of this outsider to the introduction of the tree-creatures. You get a very good sense from the story of a clan in turmoil, set loose from many of their traditions, and the struggle many of the cats go through in trying to deal with it. When you have no learning to guide you, you have to make your own path, and that is what Ratha turns out to be good at. (Though it wouldn't be as exciting a novel if she didn't make a few mistakes along the way.)

Bell builds personal stories into these philosophical ones as well: Ratha's uncertainty about her leadership, Thakur's search for companionship, the difficulty the clan has in maintaining the line between the Named and the outsiders, who have no intelligent thought. The main characters are all well-defined, and even the side characters are rendered well. I found myself quite engaged in the story, and even a couple weeks after finishing, I can remember the uncertain young Fire-Keeper Bira, the headstrong Fessran, the lonely and quick-witted Thakur.

The thing I found most admirable about the book, though, is the way Bell avoids the trap of absolute rights and wrongs. The outsider, Orange-Eyes, is neither good nor evil. Ratha herself makes mistakes. The book allows the characters to grow and learn, and the difference in the end is who can make the best decisions for the whole clan. That makes the whole thing feel more real, and like the best furry stories, it's a relevant, human story, even though the protagonists are jungle cats.

It was some fifteen years between reading the first and second books of the "Named" series. It won't be that long between the second and third, I can promise that.

Shadow of the Father Review

confusedoo — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:05:38 GMT

Well, it's later than I really hoped, but it's still the first review up on furrybookreview.

Kyell's new book, Shadow of the Father, released this January at Further Confusion. Fans of Kyell have been following production for quite some time, starting with daily updated word counts on kyellgold's livejournal during initial writing phases, and some bonus content in the form of journal entries written from the perspective of yilon, the main character. There's also been a pre-release review posted on Weasel Wordsmith by jakebe.

At this point, there's quite a bit of back story established in modern Argaea, to say nothing of the historical events alluded to in the various novels and short stories. Jakabe felt in his review that Shadow is still a good entry point even if you aren't familiar with the history of Argaea, told in the novels Volle, Pendant of Fortune, Prisoner's Release and Other Stories as well as a few other short stories scattered here and there. I somewhat disagree. While you wouldn't by any means be lost in the book if you haven't read any previous work, the characters would make less sense. At minimum, I would recommend at least reading Pendant of Fortune and Yilon's journal before picking up this book.

Shadow starts up right away with Yilon, second son of Volle being named as successor to lordship of the country of Dewanne, and establishing Yilon's intimate relationship with Sinchon, a mouse, which sets up a wide range of conflict over the course of the book. As an aside, although the two characters are technically 'of age', that equates to roughly 16, which makes the few sex scenes ever so slightly uncomfortable to this aging reader. I hope no one calls the pedobear on me. In all fairness, the sex scenes are not written for the titillation of the reader, but to illustrate the relationship between the two characters.

The various tensions caused by Yilon's relationship with Sinch are mostly underplayed, subservient to the main plot of the book, something which could be described as a rip-roaring adventure yarn--At least those would be the word's you'd use to write a cliche back cover blurb for young-adult novels. While a tad too explicit to truly qualify for the young-adult stamp, in plot and structure, this really is a classic bildungsroman, a coming of age story wrapped around an adventure in a foreign land. The basic outline is that Yilon makes a few mistakes in the beginning due to inexperience, rashness, and impetuousness, i.e. youth, and spends the rest of the book learning why what he did was a mistake and trying to fix it.

The book is quite a departure from Kyell's other novels in that it has a much more active plot, and between Yilon's story arc and Sinch's story arc there is much less room for the characters to examine their motivations, to develop and grow organically over the course of the book as in previous books. The time frame of the narrative is so compressed that this sort of slow build and change is just not possible. I think that's part of why having the background from the previous Argaea novels and short stories is that much more vital to this book. Yilon is very much his father's son, and it holds up better if the reader knows it.

Overall, it's a very excellent book. The return to Argaea with a new generation revitalizes the setting for me, even as Volle's brief appearance cements in my mind that his narrative arc is coming to a close. I've read the book twice already, and I'll likely read it again in the coming months.

That said however, as a reviewer, I do feel I need to bring up a few points I had issue with. While this book has action and adventure, it feels a little bit like the rough edges have been trimmed up, the points filed off, the sharp corners sanded down. It's a bit like a roller coaster, which may have a thrilling design, but never puts you in genuine peril. The language of danger in this book is somewhat toned down. For those familiar with film terminology, the Foley effects are missing. Missing is the dull twock of an arrow hitting a body, the almost inaudible drip of blood from a wound falling into a puddle. It's almost PG-13. This comes from a couple different places, partially from the tropes of the coming of age novel, partially from the balance Kyell struck between plot advancement and character development, but it is also put into sharp relief by the contrast between Shadow of the Father and Seventh Chakra, which I reviewed earlier.

Both books are good in their own way, but they have a number of similar plot points, which invite rather direct comparison. Reading the two back to back (literally, as I sat on airplanes and in airports on the way home from FC) one can't help but make comparisons between the two. It was after I started re-reading Shadow that I was able to articulate why Chakra resonated with me more. This part has little to do with the quality of the book itself, but rather my own reactions as a reader. I pointed out a couple times already that Shadow is very much about young characters, as well as using some tropes common in fiction for young-adults, and I have premature old-man syndrome--I'm crotchety, cynical, and want you to get off my lawn. That makes it only natural that I wind up gravitating more toward the gritty and hard-boiled adventure.

In truth, none of the issues I had with the book can honestly be called faults of the book so much as a difference between myself and the intended audience. It certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story as the pages flew beneath my fingers. This is definitely another solid piece from Kyell, the superhero. I seriously don't know how he manages to get all of this done and still have time for half the stuff he does in the fandom, much less having an actual job, too. If you weren't able to be at FC to pick it up in person, I highly recommend ordering it, or picking it up at first available opportunity.

Seventh Chakra Book Review

confusedoo — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:01:02 GMT

Well, having come back from Fur Con with several hot new properties in my paws, it's time to start the cavalcade of reviews. I'm starting with Kevin Frane's new book The Seventh Chakra.

Simply put, if you read nothing else of the review: Is this book good? Yes. Were this not a text only medium, I could put the proper inflection on that simple 'yes.' As it is, I will have to dig into my bag of allusions to describe it. Try as I might, I can't get the phrase 'yes like a panting otter-slut would say it' out of my head. While that might be slightly misleading, as there's not any actual sex in this book, does have a wicked seductiveness, pulling you into this well thought out melange of intrigue, violence, and uncertainty. This is a book which will grab you by the lapels, and it is not subtle in interacting with the reader.

Set in the same universe as Frane's first novel, Thousand Leaves, The Seventh Chakra is very much an intense thriller. It's quite a sharp contrast in plot to Frane's debut novel, with a story very contained narrative of the main character, a weasel named Arkady Ryswife. I suspect that many of the readers of my review have been following along much of the pre-release publicity and teases directly from rikoshi and perhaps even the pre-release review from Weasel Wordsmith, which lets me talk a bit more about the story without delving into spoiler territory.

Even before getting into the book itself, the presentation and production itself is amazing. The cover, by Kamui, is beautiful as always, and the text is as (if not moreso) gorgeous and readable as anything I've ever held from a furry publisher. This is lovely, and rather necessary as the story really compels the reader to continue on, always just one more page to find out what happens. It's a very difficult book to put down.

The story itself, as I already alluded to, is very linear. It is an action story in the vein of James Bond or Jason Bourne, full of intrigue, secrets, gunfire. The one cliche of the genre that is missing is the love interest. While that may run counter to the prevailing tropes of furry fiction, the story is compressed into such a brief time period that shoehorning a relationship, or even a dalliance into this plot would have been thoroughly out of place. Without going into deep spoilers, the plot of the book follows a spy team for a religious organization, the Iolite league. The missions, as predictable in any thriller, go various levels of awry.

As mentioned, the plot follows Arkady's experience exclusively, though it is heavily intertwined with his team mates, Il-Hyeong Quinn, the swift fox on the cover, and Ming-Jun Devra, a rabbit. I'm not putting in a cut tag for spoilers, as I really don't want to go too far into the story itself. Everything builds on itself to such a great degree that most of the interesting bits, even from the middle, reveal a lot of the early surprises and twists. There are a few general things to share though, such as the stakes are always extremely high. Once you get past the first third of the book, there are really no breaks in the rising tension. Even in the parts that are not ostensibly action scenes, there are other concerns, shifting and somewhat nebulous, that don't really allow for a break for the reader. The climax of the book is a suitably epic payoff, though honestly by that point in the story it really doesn't actually surprise.

Honestly, if there is any criticism I have for the story, and I suppose I must, it's that once you get to a certain point in the story, it loses it's real surprise factor and becomes a inexorable march toward the final showdown. The showdown itself is tense and well written, but really contains little in the way of surprise. Another point of minor issue is the plot points dealing with language. It takes a bit of mental gymnastics to reach a state where you can believe that these characters have no knowledge of that which is second nature to a current day reader. Save for the furry characters, and a bit of fancy bio-engineering, there is little to set this setting apart from contemporary life. Thus, what to me is an obvious failure of even the most basic etymology may make sense in the context of a future in which the need for such a study has seemingly abated. (I hope this sentence makes sense to those who have read it, but not those who have yet to have the pleasure.)

One thing that I criticized in Frane's first book that is improved here is the denouement. The closing chapters of the book very neatly package the character of Arkady. It's a very satisfying ultimate conclusion, and while it doesn't lead directly into Thousand Leaves, it does set up the character for his role in the later book.

I did want to recommend reading this book twice. I read it twice, and spend the first half of the book making connections and asking myself questions, generally going 'oh shit' as my mind put two and two together. Furthermore, I'd recommend picking up Roar volume 1 so you can read A Song for Pandora, though I don't recommend reading (or re-reading) it until you've made your way through this book.

Also, I've apparently been scooped by Lovejoy the Liquor Fairy, who just earlier today broke the news that Frane's next novel will be detailing the Butterfly Island War, an event which significantly shaped the geo-political scene that underlies The Seventh Chakra and, to a lesser extent, Thousand Leaves. Although I didn't have any inside scoop or information, going by extrapolation, that was a very obvious choice for a next novel. From the references in this book, that's a very rich storytelling vein to mine.

I'd be more than happy to have a much more in depth conversation about the book privately, but for an initial review this soon after release, I've felt rather obligated to keep as much plot as possible out of the review to keep the sense of discovery fresh. It's a very good book, and I highly recommend picking it up first chance you get if you like anthropomorphic literature on any level.

First of Many: "The Guardsman", "The Orphidian Conspiracy", and "Wolf Moon"

cjkrythos — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:30:37 GMT

Ok, Those of you who have seen my numerous posts across many different forums will know that Im a collector of furry related fiction, so I started a mild hobby of hunting down knowledge of different furry books and conveying them into a list. The list has grown and is now to date, the largest list in existence and the most well reviewed one too. All books on my list have been discussed or someone has at least pulled a review before I submitted them to the list. Ive been quite careful to try and ensure that all books on the list meet at least one of four guidelines to be considered "furry" or anthropomorphic in some form.

To see the list, you will have to browse the raccoon's bookshelf at the planetfurry bbs. 7-8th posts on the following page
http://www.planetfurry.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9427&start=30&sid=14a9dd2186f5bd0f582ef35bcb8b6f99

I encourage anyone to sign up and post knowledge of any books you are positive fit one of the 4 guidelines ive mentioned. The reason Im doing this is because I would like to encourage furries to show an interest in novels and graphic novels instead of an almost exclusive interest in general art. Stories can entertain for days, if not weeks while a comic will be read in a matter of a single hour and cost likely twice as much. Im not saying comics are any easier to make than novels. Im just saying there is a big underappreciation in the written word among furs. Yes, im probably preaching to the choir as im betting a few of you are writers yourselves, but neverless, this is my hobby, and my first act since creation of this list will be to start reviewing the books as I read them.

If by any chance you all would prefer to stick to books printed and published for and by furries, then thats alright, but for starters, ill list three independent books that ive come across that I have read so far.

Im going to do this in groups of three or a group with all the books in the series, the current books that ive read will be reviewed as a list in alphabetical order for the most part.

1. "The Guardsman" by PJ Beese and Todd Hamilton
The story is told from the point of view of one Ki Lawwnum, a Lionman warrior who happens to be the primary guard of the emperor. The Lionman are a race of warriors that lost a war to an emperor many years before and to allow them to save face, the leader proposed that in return for allowing them to save honor and face, he would allow them to become his personal guard. The lionmen in the book all seem to be bound by this odd need to serve the empire and the emperor with an absolute attitude showing no restraint for the enemy. On the down side, the emperor sadly seems to be slipping slowly further and further into madness. Ki is bound by his code to serve the empire, but the leader of this empire is clearly not in his right mind. The question that comes up is "is serving the emperor serving the empire, or should he find another way" and better yet, if he chooses that other way, would that still be standing true to his code? or would he be considered treasonous? Personally I rather liked the story, but I will admit things were a smidgen on the predictable lane. The emperor was way to easy to hate, and its pretty easy to see where most of the story will be going. Granted, it does have a final bit of surprise at the end. I can guarantee you wont see the ending coming either. It has one of those satisfying endings that I enjoy so much. Not exactly happy, but still fairly short and satisfying. Ill give it a 6/10

2. "the Ophidian Conspiracy" by John Carr
OK, this book.... I really dont know where to begin, so Ill just start with a summary. The story consists of a sortof universal investigator is sent to a planet of snake people called Ophidians who are generally about as technically advanced as the wheel itself, where he is supposed to determine why a planet of technically backwards beings suddenly acquired a small fleet of battlecruisers. Apparently there is a treaty that says no technology will be shared with planets of a certain level of technology. I dont do spoilers, but I can say the story was fairly predictable. I think my biggest issue with this was the lines. I mean seriously, the lines were horribly cheezy. There were moments when the writer showed potential by employing a unique level of viewpoint into the mind of an anthro snake, but he quickly throws it away in favor of more humanoid behavior. Also, the main character suddenly develops a passionate sense of love for the woman who he is traveling with despite arguing with her constantly throughout the story and never seems to get along with her, but yet suddenly he finds himself all oogly eyed. I have my hunches of where that was supposed to have come from, but ill leave it up to you to figure that out. it aint too hard and if I say anything, it will ruin what little surprises the story has for the reader in the first place. My second complaint was with the writer's habit of fast forwarding through all kinds of stuff, like he was rushing to get the book done. I dont know if I should be feeling sorry for him for having to rush through it like this, or if I should slap him for letting anyone rush him. I think the book would be a good read for teenagers who not only could find a copy, but could also resist the urge to mangle it like most kids do with books. I will say it had potential, just seemed to be badly presented and poorly written. For being so damn predictable with a rather good concept and for rushing the story so hard, I have to give this book a 3/10.

"Wolf Moon" by Charles DeLint
OK, now heres one to talk about. The story was about a young traveler, haggard with sweat, running from some kind of monster, which is clearly trying to kill him. The book cover clearly shows a werewolf howling at the moon and we all know stories these days portray werewolves as horrific monsters, but suddenly you discover the monster is not the werewolf in this book, but instead, turns out to be whats trying to kill the werewolf(yes, for those of you who havent caught that, the man is the werewolf, running from some kind of monster). Through some odd turns of events(yes, this part happens pretty soon in the book, so im not really revealing anything by telling you), the man escapes and eventually finds himself in a town, where he is forced to stand up to an intruder and show what he really is. The only problem is, will the townsfolk see him as the monster instead of the monster that is actually killing them. I will say that this was a fantastic story, never mind the short mentioning of werewolf boners, which seemed like an odd addition to a teenage level of read, but hey, who am I to complain. The author does an exceptional job of visualizing every detail of the story, the characters, and the environment they are in. The concept behind the story was unique for once, and instead of a monster werewolf ravaging the countryside, it turns out to be the complete and utter opposite situation. Ive already given away too much because I want every surprise to leap out at you if you choose to pick this one up. I give this one a 9/10

My final act in this post will be to shamelessly plug a site that has helped me greatly in getting ahold of books that I want. The site works by mailing books you have and want to get rid of in trade for books you want to read. You mail your books to other members, those members notify the website of the book's arrival, and then you request books from other members. Its a cycle that works quite well despite some of the obvious concerns. I hear a lot of people wondering how everyone stays honest on the site. Well, for one thing, if you fail to notify the site after a month that your book has arrived so that the sender can be credited, the website seeks legal charges from the person. Ive never had a single book go unaccounted for and ive been a member for almost a year so far. Ive hunted down comment after comment on this site and I havent heard a single negative one, so I gotta say.... TRY IT!!!! Also, if you post 10 books, they give you a couple freeby points to request random books and get you started.
http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php?n=2&r_by=cjkrythos

and now, my shameless plug is done, I return you all to your regularly scheduled.... whatever it is thats going on around here :P

thanks for reading.

Unsheathed (a Podcast by Kyell Gold and K.M. Hirosaki)

fraddas_759 — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:00:44 GMT

incase you didn't know or you been living in a gutter for a while, Kyell Gold and K.M. Hirosaki started a little Podcats on I tunes. I know this is mostly for book reviews, but I'm still absorbing "X" and the Heathen city Comic finally arrived today (dumb postal workers ><). that and I figured it be kinda cool to be the first one to do a review there first podcast ^.^. so, trying not to reveal too much so I don't spoil a good podcast for those who haven't heard it and as K.M. says the most boreing Blowjob conversation ever, here's the stuff. (SPOILER ALERT)

for the first half of the podcast, they mostly talked about how Anthrocon was for Hirosaki-san's first oficial appearance at one as an otter (as Kyell quoted). and he mentioned things about X getting good publicity, and on a good note Hirosaki might make an apperance at "rain furrest" so hope he does. and MFF too. they also talk about other releases at anthrocon like Heat #6, Heaten city issue 2. and the downside is he hasn't read them yet because of work and a few other things, which is understandable. also, this is news to me, but apperently there's a new furry Table top RPG called Shards (I beleive that's the correct spelling). news to me though and I'll post why on my LJ in a bit. Anyway they had talked that and a few other things too.

the other half was spent talking about projects(future books or stories) there working on. like Hirosaki-san working on a project that's been touch and go according to him. and is being a tease in not saying anymore about it and we can hope it will be finished sometime in the future, and shout a big YAY when it's done. As for Kyell he of course he's working on "Shadow Of The Father" which everyone knows takes place 15-16 years after pedant of fortune. Which of course about Volle's son and the mischief he get's into. and sooner or later he might be writting a draft of the sequal of Out of Position. and they also mention other things but I rather let the other people listen to it and have there own laughs.

and of course if anyone has any Questions for them or coments feel free to email them like they also mentioned. and I can't wait until there next Podcast, to Hirosaki-san and Kyell, I enjoyed it and it was good listening to your guy's perspectives.

X

confusedoo — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:05:08 GMT

Well, I must confess to being a little surprised that I'm posting the first review of X. I know it's not available on the web quite yet, but a lot of copies sold at AC. Heck, I felt like I was dilly-dallying waiting this long to post. Well, diving right in:

While I'm guessing that many of the people who read this community have followed the publicity avidly, or at least know the concept, I'll give some background. X is an anthology, edited by Kyell Gold, of ten stories inspired by the ten commandments. Each story is accompanied by an illustration. The story features the creme-de-la-creme of the furry creative world, with Stories from Kyell, K.M. Hirosaki, Whyte Yote, Renee Carter Hall, and art from Heather Bruton, Blotch, Adam Wan, Shinigamigirl and others. I may be well read by furry standards, but I recognized 9 out of 10 authors, and knew 7 out of 9 artists (Heather Bruton is represented twice).

Name recognition is all well and good, but the real proof is in the writing. I must say that each contributor is in top form for this outing. There really is no weak link, which is quite a feat given the number of authors and the constraints of the premise. While it is only natural that readers will gravitate toward a few favorites among the ten, all the stories are of high enough quality that it will be personal taste rather than writing skill that will determine your favorite. While the art for each story is good, there is a single frontispiece illustration for each story, and it is printed in black and white. It added some to the story, but for the most part I felt the faded more into the background. As much as I enjoyed the art, I think only Nylak's illustration of Renee Carter Hall's story and Jonas' illustration of his own work really added much of anything for me. Since the stories and styles are quite varied, I thought I'd devote a few setences to each author and story, going down the list according to table of contents:

I am the lord thy god, though shalt have no other gods before me - Alex F. Vance
Alex stays true to his form here, giving us a dense story of inscrutable characters whose motivations are never quite clear. The story is set in a monestary, told from the point of view of the prior. It concerns a young charge, a boy on the cusp of adulthood and the cusp of the law. He is ostensibly sent to the monestary to avoid prison and hopefully straigten him out. The setup gives a delicious tension as the story proceeds. The language is quite evocative, and while not much happens in terms of action (to the possible dismay of those who know Vance's work from Maranathra and Heathen City) the characters quite ably carry the story through their interplay. It is fairly clear that neither of the main characters are quite who they seem, the task for the characters, and ultimately the readers, is to decipher what lies beneath. It's got a lovely ending, not qute M. Night Sham-wow, but fairly surprising nonetheless.

Thou shalt not make for thyself and idol - Renee Carter Hall
Renee Carter Hall, aka poetigress, provides a provocative tale of two archeologists working on a temple dig in a jungle. One archeologist is a native, a jaguar-morph who's people are known as Onca, the female is a human. Of all the stories, I think I found this one the hottest, and that's quite a feat given how gay I am. Something about the intensity of feeling between the two characters really clicked for me. I think this sex in this piece is the most purely passionate in the book, though it's probably helped by the fact that it's fueled by dueling sex gods... This is actually a fairly straightforward story driven by plot and action, mostly in contrast to the more character driven stories from most of the other authors.

Thou shalt not make wrongful use of the name of thy god - Whyte Yote
Wyte Yote's entry into X is a bit of science fiction, and probably the second most literal exporation of it's commandment. In fact, it delves farther into traditional theology farther than any other story in the anthology. Whyte Yote asks probing questions about how artificial life fits (or doesn't fit) into a more traditional religious society. The stregnth of this story lies in the interplay between the creator who hasn't gotten over the loss of his lover and the creation who has innocently embodied that lover and questions the nature of soul. They're two wounded characters who follow different arcs through the story, but ultimately wind up ok.

Remember the sabbath and keep it holy - Kyell Gold
This is actually one of the few stories in the book I haven't read multiple times. Although I'm in rather different circumstances, I still felt a strong emotional connection with the protagonanist, a gay rat in a small town. He's torn between the prospect of a new lover and the community he's been a part of his whole life. Typical of Kyell, it's a well written romance with a hopeful end, but the character(s) do suffer to achieve that hopeful resolution. In a way this one struck me because I wonder if there could have been this hopeful ending without the suffering part, or if that was the only way for the characters to come to the necessary realizations.

Honor thy father and mother - pyrostinger
This story is one of the few that didn't resonate particularly strong with me. It is well written, about two orphans struggling to survive in a had world without their parents. The elder brother (still quite young) finds work in brothel, though not as a sex worker. It's endearing as the young badger Sasha attempts to serve as parent to his younger sister while the mistress of the brothel somewhat slides into the role of mother. While the story is well written and charming, I never quite managed to truly connect with the characters or overcome my cynicysim about the fate of two orphans traveling to a big city.

Thou shalt not kill - Fuzzwolf
This was one of the biggest surprises to me. I've read a number of stories from Fuzzwolf, and they have a tendency to be much more straightforward and purely yiffy. While this one doesn't skip on the yiff, it's also a deftly handled non-conventional love story. I do hope it's not too much of a spoiler to say that a story titled 'Thou shall not kill' has a heartbreaking ending. Knowing the title of the story and Fuzz's tendency to be rather unsubtle, much of the book was waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it finally came, it was in a different form than I initally expected, and it was very moving.

Thou shalt not commit adultery - Jonas
Jonas presents the story of a military dog torn between his small town past and the girl he loved but never had and the present day sophistication and complication of his city life and feline wife. This story is one of the more straightforward explorations of it's title commandment in this collection. The dog is married, loves his wife, or at least thinks he does, yet winds up with the hometown girl. The interesting part of this story is the lack of passion and lust. The emotions seem muted, the women seen through rose colored glasses. The main character Scott's relationship with his former commanding officer seemed more intense than with either of the women. Even as the protagonist recounts his misadventures from the morning after, he goes out of his way to deemphisize the sexual aspects of the encounter. I suppose in a way, that makes for a much more thorough adulterous episode.

Thou shalt not steal - Not Tube
Thou shalt not steal reads much like a classic myth or fairy tale. It has the elements: a prince locked in a tower, a charming rogue, impossible challenges to overcome. This makes sweet and charming, but to me this also makes it suffer a bit. While it takes a lot of skill to strike a good tone and balance for a classic fairy tale, it tends to stick out for me when placed amongst the more subtle, darker works amongst which it has been placed and not in a good way. I am generally drawn to the darker, cynical stories with more twists, turns and subtle tensions. This story, while competent and nicely written just doesn't really draw me in. I don't quite care enough about the archetypal characters to be really emotionally invested in their success or failure.

Thou shalt not bear false witness - K.M. Hirosaki
K.M. Hirosaki's entry into X is perhaps the one that disturbed me the most. I trust that he will be proud of that, particularly as it is set amongst nine other tales of deliberate twisting, streching, bending and breaking morality. Lest he let his ego run away with that, I will say that the only typo I noticed in the book was here, p. 229 "Party?" he repeated. "No, I didn't." I suspect the line was originally different, and the pronoun was not updated in the editing. At any rate, this story is the most comparable to the everyday lives of furries, as they interact, hang out, drink, and pair off. It's the most blatant breaking of any commandment in the book, lacking the subtlety, machiavellian manipulations, or justifications of the other stories. I think the bald-faced transgression, coupled with the familiar and realistic setting, is what really gave this story the impact that it had.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's property - B.C. Currier
B.C. Currier has the final word in the anthology, and is the only author I wasn't already familiar with. I strongly suspect that it is a pen name for someone else, as neither google or I could find any prior postings, and one does not get to this level of writing on one's first go around. I must confess that this is my favorite of the stories in the book. It follows a fundamentalist radio minister as he attempts to reach his son who has falled under the sway of the cult-like furries. The action plays out through a far-fetched physical and psychological journey as the Reverend must confront his own past in order to reach his son. While headlines of the past few years suggest that the character of the Reverend may be more common than previously supposed, the ultimate decisions reached by the Reverend on his journey do seem a bit extreme, out of character and somewhat unlikely. Nevertheless, the story and characters really sucked me in and had me rooting for them. I can't really blame Currier for giving us the ending I want instead of the cynical ending I would expect in the real world.

Overall the book is an excellent read, with something for just about everyone. It is an interesting take on a lot of classic themes. It is also nice to see an anthology with a theme beyond setting or style, without resorting to porn. While this book is certainly adult and frequently deals with sex, it never feels as if the purpose of the book is titilation. It's a great collection, and would make an excellent introduction to the top writers of the furry fandom. Everyone should be very proud of how this turned out.

The way this works

kyellgold — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:07:22 GMT

Just so people know, if you're not familiar with LJ communities: you do NOT need to be a member of furrybookreview to read the postings. You only need to watch it. If you become a member, the expectation is that you will post reviews and contribute.

I know I was confused about that, so I just thought I'd toss that out since there have been a lot of people joining, and nobody posting. Let's see some reviews, people!

Dream-Carver: an Ironclaw novel

dronon — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:38:22 GMT

Dream-Carver: an Ironclaw novel
by Erin van Hiel
Sanguine Productions, 2007
208 pp., ISBN 1-932592-01-6

Dream-Carver is a fantasy adventure novel that takes place in the world of the Ironclaw role-playing game, roughly equivalent to the 17th century but with magic. Does one need to know anything about the game to understand the story? No. As a reader who has never played Ironclaw, I had no problems following the book.

What became immediately apparent about the setting were the houses of nobility in fierce competition, each house based around a different species. At first I was worried that I would have to write side-notes to keep track of various characters, groups and alliances. (Blame Guy Gavriel Kay's novels, and my terrible memory for names.) But as soon as I was a few chapters into the book, I found my fears were unfounded. The number of major characters is modestly small, and because much of the story takes place at sea, political plot complications are greatly reduced.

The narrative switches its point of view between characters fairly frequently, but the central character is Annarisse, a horse priestess and a disfavoured but proud daughter of nobility. The start of the story finds her abruptly reassigned from an orphanage to be the spiritual guardian for Baron Treeden MacDuncan, a young wolf nobleman.

Treeden is a well-written, unlikeable character. Self-interested and lacking in empathy, most of all he seeks to escape from his mother's powerful connections that keep him on a short leash. Annarisse's presence being the latest manifestation of her distant control, he bares the priestess no kindness.

Having come into possession of information about a lost pirate treasure, Treeden hopes to gain enough wealth to afford himself a certain amount of independence. To achieve this, he employs the boat and crew of Captain Salvatore, a gruff, older fox whose expertise as a sailor is overshadowed by a drinking problem, the result of years of regrets.

The dynamics between these characters are at the core of the book, and although there are additional antagonists (a rival fox admiral also seeking the treasure, and a mysterious underwater entity), the three of them generate a good deal of conflict just by being on the same ship together. In all their interactions, Annarisse, Treeden and Salvatore are constantly aware of how their actions might effect their well-being, their short-term power struggles against one another, and their long-term relationships with the noble houses.

Annarisse quickly discovers that she can no longer work for Treeden's family in good conscience, making her presence on board somewhat superfluous were it not for her spellcasting and healing abilities. (This was one part of the book that felt stereotypically RPG-ish.) On the other hand, her newfound resolve allows her to act as a free agent, whereupon she allies herself with Captain Salvatore. While the two of them disagree about the Captain's ethics and lifestyle, they unite under a mutual distrust of Treeden.

Annarisse is very pious and proud; she takes her calling seriously and wants to help others achieve a sense of goodness and piety - although recognizing that not all spiritual battles can be won, goodness will do. Dedicated without being fanatical, she questions her own decisions and frequently regrets that her more petty emotions sometimes hold sway in the heat of the moment. This fallibility, at ends with her desire to uphold her greater beliefs, and her awareness of her personal weaknesses and sacrifices, made her an extremely believable character for me.

Turning now to discuss the story-telling, although it was an entertaining read that made me want to know what happened next, I had little sense of where the plot was actually going at any given time. The characters were very much caught up "in the moment". Their present circumstances kept changing, causing them to constantly readjust their immediate goals so that their long-term interests might eventually bear fruit. Events conspired against them - being suddenly attacked at sea, stops at ports and distant islands, storms - even the nature of the treasure hunt changed.

Other curious features of the story involved a weasel thief who seemed too clueless of the severity of her situation, a wolf spy who was added and removed from the plot without really accomplishing anything, and how Treeden's presence as an antagonist suddenly ceased to be a factor two-thirds of the way through the book. Finally, the confrontation against the ultimate enemy for the treasure was rather quick and somewhat underwhelming.

As it turns out, the reason the story was structured this way was that it was inspired by an actual Ironclaw RPG campaign that the author had played. I didn't realize this until I had read the acknowledgements at the end of the book, although had I been more observant I could have also found out from the book's jacket. In retrospect this explained much of the above; the campaign had certainly made its characters jump through a lot of hoops.

In terms of furriness, despite the setting and the occasional references to ears, claws, etc., I didn't find the first half of the novel to be particularly furry, but this changed as I got deeper into the book and more exotic anthropomorphic races were encountered - bats, a tiger, and undersea creatures.

The author's writing style is very direct, focusing on the situation at hand and keeping a clear understanding of the characters' motivations. If anything, I think the book could have benefited from a stronger, more evocative sense of atmosphere and emotion in places where it was mostly physically descriptive, but overall I liked it. I was able to picture the surroundings and was never confused as to what was happening.

What interested me the most in the book was not the adventure nor the treasure-hunt, but the story of the growing understanding and respect between Annarisse and Salvatore as characters. Ultimately, this was the real tale being told. And there are many other plot details I've deliberately left out of this review to avoid spoilers, lots of things that added both depth and flavour to the story. The end of the book is a positive one, achieving closure while at the same time leaving open the possibility for a sequel. In short, if you don't mind that this sea adventure has an RPG feel to it, Dream-Carver is an enjoyable read that I would recommend.

Out of Position Review

confusedoo — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:19:21 GMT

This is a review is cross posted (after slight editing) from my own LJ. It contains a fair number of spoilers, so it'll be behind a nice big cut.

For those who haven't yet read the blurb on the back of the book/website, or read the first third of the book on the web, or even seen another review by now, the story features the football playing tiger Dev and the crafty cross dressing fox Lee. Lee trips Dev in to bed, and surprise, Dev likes it! This sets up the basic premise of Lee and Dev trying to make their way as a couple in the professional sports world.

The setting is essentially a furry copy of the current modern world, the same universe and time frame as Kyell's previous novel, Waterways. He even goes so far as to map the city names he's created to various locations in the US. It's a well constructed universe, solid and fleshed out. The small school scenes feel very real to me as someone who went to a div III school in the midwest, and the later scenes still kept that feeling of authenticity even as they went into places where I don't have the experience to know any better. The setting never detracted from the story, and mostly blended into the background of the character interaction. It felt like much more of the setting was assumed, unlike the stories set in Argaea (the setting of Volle and it's sequels) where the setting was more explicity described to point out the contrasts between that world and our onw..

It is a very character driven story, and those characters are once again magnificent people who are engaging and likeable even if they do have their own set of flaws.

Dev the tiger is my favorite character in the book, the one that I want waiting for me at home. I did have some issues with his characterization though... While the issues about coming out were very thoroghly explored in Waterways and I don't expect this book to spend all it's time going over the same sort of themes, Dev's acceptance of his own sexuality feels abrupt and rushed. It just came out of the blue after this chance encounter. Dev is confused for a couple weeks, then bam, he's back to get some more from Lee. From then on, he's suddenly ok with being gay, he's just primarily worried about staying in the closet. Has Dev really made it to his junior year of college without an inkling that he liked guys? Is it something he's thought about before but Kyell didn't find the space to tell us?

There's a bit of a time gap in the story, and when it picks back up it felt like a rather abrupt switch had gotten thrown that was not properly explained or explored. There's only a brief pause before Dev is again happily handling Lee. That is a relatively minor quibble for me, as I easily got swept up in the relationship interplay between Dev and Lee, and the progression towards pro football and his efforts to survive and thrive there. Dev is sweet (though he'd probably growl if you called him that) and straightforward. Most of the time it feels like his emotions are buried and restrained, but every so often these moments pop up that just are so beautiful it made me want to cry. In particular I was touched by the scene where he meets Lee's father and deftly short circuits a rather heated argument with his genuine sincerity, as well as a moment toward the end when he asks whether he should be thinking about the future as his or as ours [his and Lee's].

Lee is a more complicated character, though it didn't necessarily feel that way to me. The drive, intelligence and willing to be a bit underhanded at need felt very familiar to me. In a lot of ways we have similar views on commitments, which made his decision to quit school to take the job resonate with me. I don't know that I could have made the same decision as Lee, but I understand exactly what forces were pulling him in each direction. Lee also faded a bit into the background in the final section of the novel. While a critical player, he was often absent, off doing a job that those of us non-sports fans may not really understand. Lee's lack of physical presence was as much a character in the final section as his presence was. It was wonderful story construction and hightened the emotional impact, but it did let his character fade and subtly change (itself an important plot point).

This is an adult novel, and there is plenty of sex. I am happy to report that OOP is in my opinion the hottest of all Kyell's novels so far. For one thing, unlike Waterways, it didn't feature underage characters I felt weird getting aroused over. It also pushed a lot more of my buttons. One thing that did bother me a little was the seeming one sidedness of the sex in the relationship. It always seemed to be the same person taking the same roles. Dev tried oral a couple times and didn't like it... There was never any discussion of any possibility of him bottoming for Lee ever. That stuck out to me, and in a way felt like it was an assumption of Dev's dominance and masculinity, playing into both masculine stereotypes (i.e. big football player couldn't take it up the butt) and furry stereotypes of foxes being submissive. It made their sex life seem rather one dimensional over the course of the novel even if the individual sex scenes were always very well done, and not exactly condusive to being read while in public.

Final thoughts: Overall I really loved this novel. I read it twice from cover to cover on the way home from Further Confusion. It is most definitely worth picking up. I was a little worried about the football, but frankly I needn't have bothered. It's mostly a story about pro athletes in general, and could have been written with baseball, hockey or whatever players instead. The football action that is there is written in an aproachable manner, but still meaty enough (I hope) for actual football fans. It's the complete package in a furry novel, and I'm betting that it's going to be the furry novel of the year.

Final [Spoilery] Thoughts: Something about the ending that bothered me in retrospect was that it felt cribbed from the Ironman movie. While reading it, everything felt right and good, but after putting the book down, for a bit I thought that the whole press-conference revelation and quick end felt rather familiar, and realized that it was almost exactly like the end of Ironman with Tony Stark poised to issue a denial, then throwing caution to the wind and bursting out his secret. It was still a blockbuster moment for me, and nearly brought me to tears both times on the plane, even if it wasn't unexpected. One other thing that bothered me was the casual drinking and driving. While it may be in character (I'm from Cincinnati, I know how those things can go) it still worried me. I lost a friend in high school to a drunk driver, and that kind of thing bothers me.

Semi-unrelated note: I have read speculation that the first pro athlete to come out while active will likely be a solid 'franchise' player or backup who is still active but approaching the end of their productive career. It wouldn't be a big name, but someone who's worked hard, hasn't made a huge impact in any kind of record books but sees an opportunity to make a name for themselves by coming out prior to retirement. I do think there is also a plausible alternative scenario with the changing environment. I could see the first out active pro athlete as someone who has been out throughout their playing career, from high school through college and into the pros. That would be someone who was a natural and truly gifted athlete, a star who's talent ensures they cannot be overlooked by recruiters, but who stepped out of the closet such a long time ago that there would be no 'coming out' press because that happened so long ago that it faded into a non-issue.

Tangentially related note: On CNN headlines the other day there was a story about the progressive brain damage players in the NFL suffer due to repeated concussions and playing through concussions. That made me really worry about Dev, as he's the kind of player (at least right now) who would be very likely to suffer a concussion as a linebacker, but still play through it because he doesn't have the security in his job to sit it out, or play through it as a second string because he needs to stay in the game to stay on the team. It just made me concerned about the long term health and well-being of a fictional character.

Final Note: I noticed the map and the location of the Chevali dot. I wonder who you're going to be rooting for in the Super Bowl this weekend? :) Isn't that a funny coincidence?

Out of Position

kmhirosaki — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:27:41 GMT

I've reviewed many of Kyell Gold's books in the past. I almost wasn't going to do one for Out of Position, out of the notion that I should give someone else a shot, first, but given how popular the book seems to have been right at its release, I'm going to guess that reviews will be popping up everywhere soon enough, and I have no reason not to add my voice to the pile.

As a brief disclaimer, first: it's probably no big secret, especially to Kyell's fans, that he and I are very close friends, but as a fellow writer, I try to keep my bias out of my literary opinions as much as I can. Also, I did do some work helping to edit Out of Position, as well, but I'll come back to that point later.

Now, on to the review proper:

Out of Position is fairly unique for one of Gold's novels in that it's the first book that he has written that really has a contemporary adult theme to it; Waterways (set in the same fictional universe) handles the young adult angle, but Out of Position is more about grown-ups and the problems that a relationship can have in the real, grown-up world.

The story concerns a tiger named Devlin Miski, a tiger who plays football for Forester University, and his fateful run-in with a tricky, sneaky (and very sexy) fox, Wiley "Lee" Farrel. Initially seduced by Lee in all-too-convincing drag, Dev ends up having his first sexual encounter with another male, and is forced to reevaluate first his sexuality, and then the other values in his life.

From there, the plot follows both Dev and Lee (through switching perspectives) over the course of their growing relationship. What starts with a one-night-stand (and revenge plot) turns into a very serious relationship that has more than a fair share of bumps for both of our protagonists. What really makes the book click is the expert way that real-life relationship problems are handled: they have stupid fights where both of them are in the wrong; pressure from family and friends force folks to make tough decisions; school and sports and a whole bunch of other things keep trying to get in the way.

If Waterways is the story of figuring out who you are and how to go out and face the world, then Out of Position is the story about being out there in the world and being forced to deal with all of its pressures while still staying true to yourself and the people you love--and the very tricky art of finding the balance between those things.

Football plays a very big part in the book, but as Gold himself states in the introduction, it's not a story about football. Since (again, as Gold himself points out) most gay furry romance readers probably aren't huge football fans, it's worth pointing out that the story is, at its core, a gay furry romance novel and not a piece of sports fiction. Early in the book, there's even a nice, succinct, very helpful aside that explains football in a brief overview that only lasts two pages and which should give even the most clueless reader enough knowledge of the sport to understand the references in the rest of the book. So, fret not, gentle readers: don't let the big, scary football stuff scare you off. (Besides, look at that cover, and tell me that Dev doesn't look delicious in that uniform.)

That's another thing that definitely warrants mentioning: this is a very, very sexy book. The two main characters are very confused and conflicted, and this leads to quite a lot of pent-up emotions and outbursts of passion, and Mr. Gold has outdone himself, more than once, in putting together some truly arousing sex scenes this time around. Whereas Waterways more just touched the surface of youthful sexuality, Out of Position gets good and explicit quite a number of times, and the quality of those scenes is something that no connoisseur of furry erotica need worry about.

As sexy as the book is, though, the emotional heart of it is even stronger. During the last quarter of the book, I got choked up repeatedly, even when reading sections of it in public. It's a beautiful story--unquestionably Gold's best--and I daren't spoil any more details of it here. In the aforementioned process of helping to edit the book, I read the bulk of it no fewer than three or four times, and never got sick of it or felt like any of it lost its impact.

The end result is a spectacular read that paints some terrific characters, gives a top-notch romantic story, and includes some really great written erotica on top like the cherry on the proverbial sundae (and that's not even including the gorgeous interior illustrations by Blotch, either!). Fans of Kyell Gold's work cannot go wrong by checking this book out. Gay furry romance fans who don't think that the written part of our fandom is worth taking a look at ought to take a look at this to see how it's done.

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures

skiprudder — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:40:52 GMT

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
By Walter Moers
Translated from the German by John Brownjohn
2006 The Overlook Press
ISBN: 1-58567-725-6

Since Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers is a fantasy epic, Rumo, our protagonist, is of course an orphan. In the first book of the novel, he is taken from his home by monsters and imprisoned in a tower, learns to be a warrior, and eventually escapes. In the second book, now grown, he sets out to rescue his love who was kidnapped by forces of evil. This is quite possibly the oldest fantasy plot there is—it certainly seems the most common, but this is not always a bad thing.

In his 1973 interview with documentarian Richard Schickel, Alfred Hitchcock argued that the plots of all his films were at their heart entirely predictable and formulaic—and that the reason the films themselves aren’t repetitive and dull is entirely due to characterization. It is the individuals in these films--their motivations, emotions, impulses and thoughts that make a work unique and indeed alive. Hitchcock so believed in this concept that he coined the term MacGuffin, an item or plot device that is the motivation for the characters in the film, but is of little or no importance to the audience when compared to the actions of the characters themselves.

Though the tools used to create rich and layered characters in film differ from the techniques used in the novel, the central importance of characterization in a work does not, for novels invariably tell the same sorts of tales time and again, and in this Rumo is no different. Fortunately, for all of us, Walter Moers populates Rumo with an endless variety of bizarre and interesting people, who though caught in webs of larger events, pursue their own agendas under the weight of their own emotions, neuroses, and histories. It is the richness of the world and the characters that Moers peoples it with that make Rumo rise above the great mass of fantasy novels.

Moers was a long time comic and graphic novel writer in and illustrator in Germany before he began writing novels set in the fictional continent of Zamonia. He is obviously enjoys a high degree of familiarity with the conventions of the fantasy genre, and he grabs the reader right from the start by turning one such fantasy convention slightly on its side. Like so many fantasy heroes in recent years, Rumo is an orphan (see Harry Potter, Sabriel, The Golden Compass, to name but a few). Authors do this of course so that their young protagonists can act like adults. They are free to make their own choices. One also gets the feeling that authors sometimes make their heroes orphans to do gain a hair more of the reader’s sympathy as well!

Rumo is different from most fantast orphans because his orphan-hood is not tragic, but rather a part of who his people are. Rumo is a Wolperting, half dog-half deer, and looks like a large dog with small horns on his head. Stories of the species are native to Moers’ Germany in the way that tales of jackalopes are told in the Southwestern United States. Wolpertings abandon all their children in forests soon after they are born, and the reason they do this is extraordinary. Some Wolpertings stay wild animals their whole lives, living as dumb beasts in the forest. Others, such as Rumo, make a conscious choice to become people. They decide to walk upright, talk, and eventually make their way to the city of Wolperting. In short sentience is not automatic, but rather a choice. Because of the recognition of this choice, because it had to be done se he could become a Wolperting, Rumo never feels tortured over his lost parents, and this is a rather refreshing change for a book in the fantasy genre. It is simply bad luck that no sooner than Rumo chooses to be a person he is kidnapped by cannibals, taken to their floating island, and the adventure begins in earnest.

It is Rumo’s journey to becoming a person that is the dominant thread of the first book of the novel. In this, he is guided by Volzotan Smyke, the shark-grub, the first of the many rather bizarre characters Rumo encounters over the course of his journeys. When introducing a new character Moers does something that could be very distracting—he pauses Rumo’s story and tells each new character’s story up to the point they meet Rumo—how they got there and perhaps where they want to go. He even sets out a note in the margins introducing the story each time one is told. These little asides could be detrimental to the overall novel, breaking the flow of the story. However, each character’s story is paid such beautiful and detailed attention that it becomes more than an aside. Even the minor characters have richly detailed and complicated lives and their tales provide essential information in many cases, as these characters will very often re-enter Rumo’s story later on, and their motivations in the present become clear in the light of their past histories. It’s a rather unconventional technique, but it works, in large part because Moers creates such a strong main plot arc that these diversions enrich rather than pull one away from the overall story.

Part of the joy of Rumo’s discovering what it means to be a person is that he becomes a Wolperting person, and not a human person. K.M. Hirosaki, among others, has pointed out that often in furry literature species is simply a “cosmetic veneer” playing little role in advancing either plot or characterization. Moers, though not a furry (as far as I know) makes no such mistake. Being a Wolperting is a unique experience, as is being a shark-grub, a clockwork warrior, or an undead ice yeti. The world of Wolpertings is one filled with marks of personhood—speech, literature, studies, warfare, love, even bureaucracy, but in ways that make each of these things distinctly Wolperting. Moers very effectively is able to convey how Wolpertings use their senses in ways that are radically different from humans or the other people of the continent of Zamonia. My favorite device is that young male Wolpertings follow a “silver thread” of scent when they close their eyes that leads them over hundreds of miles to their future mate.

Walter Moers writing also has a highly humorous style; comparable at times to Lewis Carroll—there are innumerable moments while reading where one is overcome by laughter. This is counterpointed by moments of cruelty and violence however, particularly in book two, where Rumo journeys deep into the underworld and the violence more than anything (but also the vocabulary level and length at 687 pages) make this not a book for children. However, its playfulness and grand adventure style makes it strongly reminiscent of those books we enjoyed as children. The translation of the book from its original German by John Brownjohn is also a strong point. I have not read the original, but the language of the English version is artful, idiomatic, and at no time feels like a translation.

Ultimately, Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures is a very good book. It falls short of being a ‘great’ book in that there are no profound ideas explored, apart from perhaps the already aforementioned choosing to be a person as a child, and it doesn’t make one think in ways that the truly great books do. That said it more than accomplishes what it sets out to do, providing a rollicking and diverting grand adventure. It is a joyful book, a celebration of being alive in a bizarre world. It was difficult to put down, and passes that perhaps greatest test of any book for me—when I finished it I had that feeling of “So now what do I do with my life?”

-Skip Ruddertail

Nurk, the (Somewhat) Brave Little Shrew

altivo — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:15:34 GMT

Though Harcourt blurbs it as a "first novel," most of us will probably know that artist and author Ursula Vernon (ursulav) has already published several books, including multiple volumes of her comic/graphic novel Digger and Black Dogs which I take to be intended as the first volume of a series. In one sense, though, Harcourt is correct. Nurk: the Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew (Harcourt Children's, $15.00, ISBN: 978-0152063757) is written for a juvenile audience, and is Vernon's first published venture in that particular field.

Don't dismiss the book as merely kid stuff, though. The author's droll wit and ironic sense of humor is clearly evident in a manner that will tickle the fancy of the adult reader as well. Nurkus Aurelius Alonzo Electron Maximilian Shrew (no wonder everyone shortens it to just plain "Nurk") is an orphan, having lost his parents when they were eaten by owls (shades of Mervyn Peake's Lord Sepulchrave) under unclear circumstances. He continues to live alone in his family's former home at the base of a large willow tree on the river bank, loosely watched by a great aunt who "looks in" on him once or twice a week. Though he is quite self-sufficient, he yearns to follow the example of his grandmother, Surka Aurelia Maxine Shrew, whose portrait hangs in the front hall of his home. Surka was noted for her ferocious and adventurous nature, evidenced by the fact that the artist portrayed her holding a sword and a severed head in her hands. Nurk isn't quite sure he has the courage to achieve his goal, though, and certainly he has never been far from home.

When a grumpy hummingbird arrives to deliver a letter with a smeared address that appears to direct it to "...URK... UPSTREAM" Nurk assumes it is intended for himself and manages to convince the suspicious bird to hand it over. After he opens it and reads a waterstained plea for help, he realizes that it was in fact intended for none other than Surka, who has been missing for several years and presumed dead. In a quandary for what to do now that he has opened and read a letter never intended for his eyes, and that he can't deliver to the intended recipient, the young shrew seeks advice from his friend the salamander, who tells him to return the letter to the sender. This is easier said than done, since there is no return address or signature. Finally Nurk decides he has no other choice, and prepares for his journey downstream by converting an empty snail shell to a boat and provisioning it suitably, not only with food and drink, but with plenty of clean, dry socks.

Carried by the current, he soon finds himself entangled in any number of small adventures, but the real story unfolds only after he rescues a waterlogged dragonfly princess named Scatterwings. It turns out that Scatterwings herself is the letter writer, and her family needs help to rescue her brother, Prince Flicker, who is being held captive by the Grizzlemole, a blind wizard "half the size of a mountain." I'll let the prospective reader discover the outcome of the quest, the nature of the odd difficulties encountered by Nurk on his way, and the wry witticisms introduced by Vernon as she relates the tale. Naturally, the author has provided the jacket art and internal black and white drawings herself, and they complement the story very well.

I believe this book is deliberately left open for sequels in which we may get to meet Surka Aurelia Maxine Shrew as well, and I look forward to the experience. The fact that Nurk reaches the end of his adventures without using a sword or severing any heads does not reflect badly upon him, and I suspect that his grandmother Surka will eventually be convinced of that too (though perhaps not at first.) While Surka may well resemble the ferocious shrew clans of Brian Jacques' Redwall stories, Nurk has started out more in the character of Kenneth Grahame's Mole, a mild-mannered creature who follows a yearning in his heart and gets much more than he thought he was seeking. I recommend this book to any reader who appreciates small creatures who can get into terrifying situations and yet see the ironic humor of their self-induced plights.

Rating: 4 of 5 possible apples

Heathen City #1

maus_merryjest — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:48:33 GMT

Bullets for breakfast. Death for dinner, and a light salad for lunch.
Heathen city seeks to raise the bar for anthropomorphic publications, but does it deliver?

Heathen City, by Alex Vance, could be considered a dark and gritty crime story featuring anti-heroes, and a generous helping of gay sex. While the intention of raising the narrative bar is commendable, the problem here is that someone has gotten caught up in the very trendy idea that high quality means dark, gritty, depressing and violent. It's the same symptoms that you find in most science fiction productions nowadays-- I'll be very frank: The whole dystopic angle? Only works if you've got a darned good story to tell, otherwise it's just a gimmick amateur writers pull to say "See how mature I am? I am writing unhappiness!" It's easier to pull of an unbalanced and mildly entertaining story set in a dystopic setting because the environment already comes with package-deal obstacles common to the genre.

The plot as it stands, trying to cut out any spoilers: Owen is a hustler who decides to hang his... nevermind, he's decided to go out of business, quit the life of prostitution and stay out of trouble. Trouble soon finds him, however, and in the blink of an eye he is dragging his new beau, Ruy, with him while escaping from people who don't exactly want to throw a tea party. They seek the help of Malloy (a Seminarian-turned-boxer-turned-drug dealer), with whom Owen shared a past (and probably a toothbrush), and then they're off on the road. I've heard Shanghai is lovely this time of year, provided you watch that left turn at Albuquerque.

Knuckles for Snacks.
What we've got here, in the core, is an emulation of Quentin Tarantino, and it doesn't really work because only Tarantino is Tarantino (whom I usually find overrated anyways). It's very easy to pull all sorts of tricks with a dystopia, But quite frankly? I'm tired of the prevalent attitude that glorifying the gutter is "masterful storytelling." We have a plot that isn't very well integrated, rather poor characterization, and some very awkward soliloquies that feel out of place- brevity is the soul of wit (as Polonius has the affrontery to observe, after talking your ear off for ten minutes), not excessive verbosity. This creates a certain stiffness about the delivery, and it can be rather awkward . The plot in itself is diaphanous enough that it is hardly there- it is not so much of a plot as things that keep happening, so we have more of a Naturalistic* approach over a Romantic** one.

One of the title's advertised features is "morally ambiguous characters," and on that I do have an opinion: There's quite a bit of 'moral ambiguity' in Furry as it is- it's the whole 'non-judgmental' approach (through which a great deal of people get away with all sorts of things, from pirating to swindling others, with only very few saying anything about it). A novel approach, instead, would be writing characters who aren't morally ambiguous- granted, it isn't cool being morally unambiguous nowadays, but writers don't write to be cool, just to be good---- right?

Concerning the overall plot and the choice of background, the author replied to a review with the following: "I love romance, though perhaps HC #1 might lead you to think otherwise. I just think it's... rather precious, and use it sparingly, so it can be all the more powerful for its rarity. I find it too serious a subject to treat lightly, or to visit too often. Sex and arrogance and corruption and violence, however, are such crude metals that they don't lose their shine, and make a fine, fine background for a sparkle of romance, when the time's right for it." {link}

While this was a very enlightening post, as it allowed me to understand what the author sought to do, I am not entirely sure that this works. When your starting place is the gutter and your whole focus is looking down to glorify the gutter instead of looking up... well, what you end up with is a romance of the gutter, which happens between characters that belong there- and for whom you really don't care that much anyways (unless you belong in the gutter, too). Let me put it this way (and you'll excuse me if I get a little Rabelaisian): When you coat a beautiful mink stole with excrement, you don't have a beautiful mink stole anymore. You have sh_t on a dead rodent. A trip to the gutter, if necessary at all in a storyline, should have a purpose further than to serve as a shock device.

Pain for Teatime.
Then, we have the anti-heroes. I'm not really in for the whole anti-hero worship. The infatuation with that particular archetype tends to be very juvenile. The core of the anti hero is that he does not have any real identity and determination, and are usually shaped and forced by the events that occur to him rather than the other way around: The anti-hero doesn't do what he knows is right because of his determination, but rather because circumstances (mysteriously) conspire against him to the point where he has no apparent choice but to do the right thing. Anti heroes are malleable and amorphous, and usually have their appeal during adolescence- that strange period when you're trying to figure out who you are (if you don't know already) and generally rebel against just about everything. After that, though, clinging to admiration for anti-heroes is rather telling about a person--- after all, we admire what we value.***

There are some very good furry storytellers out there who are publishing their books and comics from whom, I think, one could learn a lesson-- Kyell Gold writes some nice stuff, both erotica and non-erotica alike (although his erotica is more of a romantic nature than your usual share, and it never feels like the book was written around the sex... it seldom, if ever, feels forced or out of place, and there's usually a reason for it), and I am quite fond of "Volle". Vince Suzukawa, the creator of The Class Menagerie, is doing quite well with his new comic, I.S.O. which, although set in territory that some might say is over-used (Coming out story set in a college environment), it isn't Associated Student Bodies: Cody's tale of coming to grips with sexuality is very well told, with good characterization, and the whole concoction is very fresh, actually: no gratuitous sex (though plenty of shirtlessness, which doesn't detracts from anything ;) ) and the comic is very well balanced... balance is what ultimately can make a story truly memorable or a forgettable, uneven venture.

Does this plot make me look fat?
Heathen City isn't that balanced, I am afraid. The art is beautiful, but plot and delivery are weak, and the focus -as I said before- is constantly downwards. As a graphical endeavor, it deserves great kudos, but as a story I am afraid the first installment doesn't impress--- So far, the series gives me the impression of being that teenager consisting of twenty pounds of makeup and one pound of leather and lace, smoking cigarettes through his multi-pierced lips and trying to shock you with the unusual shape of his haircut. It's trying to be so edgy that it cuts itself, and bleeds all over the place. Number two may be different, I'm certainly hoping so, but I am not too optimistic. The author admitted that Heathen City was an erotic work because eroticism in furry publications tends to sell twice as much as non-erotic work. Taking that into mind, I think the story tends to suffer because of the 'quota' element that needs to be met.

If you want something lovely to look at, go ahead and buy it. But if you come for the story, you might have better look looking somewhere else, or ride it out and hope the next issues become more balanced.

But that's just my two cents, after all.

* The naturalist approach concerns itself with the individual as a victim of circumstances, shaped and inconvenienced by them, without input upon his fate. It is usually Deterministic in approach, and its characters are usually 'shades of grey' without many (or any) convictions. The basic premise is one of helplessness, and the events depicted in its plotlines tend to be more accidental narrative than purposeful argument.

** The Romanticist approach concerns itself with the individual as the master of his own destiny, able to take events as they come and react according to his desires and goals, and to confront adversity without being consumed by it. It is Non-deterministic and its plot is driven by the character's decisions, not by their helplessness.

*** A sidenote: People often confuse the term 'anti-hero' for 'non-traditional hero,' where 'hero' is defined very narrowly by convention as someone who is physically and mentally strong as well as unwavering, etcetera, basically a Superman. As an example, Frodo the Hobbit is not an anti-hero, he's quite a hero, in fact: he is given the choice, and he takes the burden of the Ring by choice during the White Council. After his journey to Lorien, it has become very clear to him what a world with Sauron triumphant would be like, and he would rather risk the journey to Moria and certain death than live in a world like that- despite the fact that he is not a great fighter, nor strong and formidable, nor has any great power that sets him apart. Nevertheless, it is his choice, and his commitment to that choice [with understandable moments of weakness under his burden] that makes him a hero.

The Hero

kmhirosaki — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:52:56 GMT

There's a fine line between "tried and true" and "overplayed." The Hero, by Teiran, skirts this line for most of its story, occasionally dipping more firmly into one category or the other before returning back to the more nebulous state in between, where it's more difficult to tell one from the other.

Set in a world very clearly inspired by Dungeons & Dragons (the author himself even cites as much in his opening notes and devotes the story, in part, to Gary Gygax), the fantasy tropes of the books setting won't be shocking or new to anyone familiar with the game, or indeed, anyone who's read much high fantasy. While this isn't inherently a bad thing—spending less time on fleshing out the setting could mean more time on fleshing out the characters and plot—unfortunately, the room and the opporunity that the author left himself to do something more unique go underutilized. Even the fact that the characters are 'furries' plays little, if any, part in either the story or the way that events play out, being more just a cosmetic veneer than anything else.

The story itself is simple enough: a young hyena named Flint, a lowly servant to a cruel innkeeper, falls in love with traveling wolf adventurer Aldain, a Knight of the Cross (think D&D paladin). Due to religious doctrine, male/male relationships are forbidden, but Flint and Aldain quickly end up having sex anyway, which kicks off the plot proper: Aldain must uphold his knightly duties and his faith, and the naive young Flint traipses along after him anyway, without seeing or realizing what the problem is with a man loving another man.

One big problem with Flint's character, though, is that it's stressed—rather repeatedly—that he's nineteen years old, when he clearly demonstrates the emotional maturity (and intellectual capacity) of a twelve- or thirteen-year-old. Were this the case, the story and the character would make a lot more sense, but as it is, especially given the vehemence with which it's stressed that Flint is, in fact, ninteen, it really feels like the author was trying a bit too hard to wash over any implications of underage sex. In a medieval setting, someone who's ninteen years old should be, for all intents and purposes, an adult, but Flint is so markedly oblivious to things like sex, social mores, and even his own land's cultural values and practices, that it's hard to believe his character (and, subsequently, his emotional responsibility to the story).

The other strange thing about Flint's character is that, despite the fact that his sole motivation in the story is to get back together with Aldain, he paradoxically sleeps with all of Aldain's friends in the process. While this is an erotic novel at its core, and it makes sense to spice up the sex scenes by making use of different characters, it feels kind of awkward and forced, especially given Flint's naïvely vulnerable nature. At one point, one of the other characters actually points out that it's weirdly unusual how the group of them all have this inexorable pull to want to lovingly protect (and sleep with) Flint, which had me hoping that it would turn out to be some kind of supernatural draw on the hyena's part; in the end, though, it just turns out that he's young and doable, which feels like a missed opportunity to do something more interesting with the motivations of the other characters (especially since one of the characters who ends up having sex with him nearly right after meeting him admits to having held no prior inclination towards males).

For a simple story (even the Bad Dog Books website claims that the book doesn't try to be "clever or unique"), there are times when the book tries to introduce more detailed subplots, but these never take off the ground. There are hints at political strife and behind-the-scenes plotting amongst religious higher-ups, which begin to show promise of something deeper, but they never really go anywhere, and the focus of the story remains on Flint's quest for Aldain's love. The church is quite vehement about its anti-gay stance, and yet aside from the clergy themselves, none of the other characters seem to regard homosexuality as being the least bit abhorrent or even unusual, despite the fact that the church is shown to have a pervasive influence in this land. There's the potential for a lot of intense sociopolitical drama and inner conflict for the characters, but it never really blossoms, since the love that Flint and Aldain share is shown to be nothing but this pure and beautiful thing from beginning to end.

The author also notes that the story was originally a shorter piece written for an anthology, but after being rejected, it was suggested as a candidate for a novel, with one of the criteria being that the length be doubled. Unfortunately, the result is that the plot itself isn't quite heavy enough to support a full book. Things like foreshadowing and long-term setup, which are essential for a proper, novel-length work, are missing, and there are several important plot points in the third act that come (sometimes literally) out of nowhere. It really does feel like this would have been better left as a novella or even just a short story.

To its credit, the book does still manage to incorporate erotic elements into the plot in a way that makes sense (even if Flint's naïveté sometimes doesn't). With the exception of the first sex scene (which goes on for 18 pages, in which the characters have sex three times), the sex never goes on for so long that it derails the story, and it never comes out of nowhere. It would help if the plot segments in between the erotic scenes carried more detail for the story, but on its own merits, at least the sex is what it is.

Lastly, one major thing that this book could have used was a serious editing pass, as it looks like the manuscript didn't quite get one. There are plentiful mistakes with comma use, dialogue attribution, and homophonic typos (and there's one embarrassing section that takes place in a desert, where roughly half the time, the word is given as 'dessert'). Combined with frequently awkward paragraph structure (possibly a result of needing to 'pad' the story to novel length), this reinforces the feeling that it may have been a bad idea to try to force what might have been a cute, tightly-woven story into a longer, book-length work.

All in all, The Hero does ultimately succeed at being a cute little love story with some erotic elements thrown in, but it perhaps tries a bit too hard to be a novel when it really could have been happy as a short story.

Thousand Leaves

malinandrolo — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:18:52 GMT

(cross-posted from my writing blog)

Disclaimer: Kevin is a friend of mine and I edited "Thousand Leaves" for Sofawolf, so I am admittedly somewhat biased. :) I read it a while ago, but because it's just been released, I can post this.

Furry fiction lends itself to one of two main types of story: one in which the characters cannot stop obsessing over their "furriness" (whether good or bad), and one in which the furriness barely plays a role. It's rare to find a world that is so internally consistent that the ramifications of a society composed of so many different species are apparent to the reader, but completely ordinary to the characters. It's even rarer to find a good story set in such a world.

The world of "Thousand Leaves" is a multi-species community, at a level of technology roughly contemporary to ours. The city itself is a marvel of architecture and class distinction, with three levels separated from each other physically as well as by class. Reeve, one of the heroes of the book, has just come off a relationship that propelled him into the higher class briefly. He misses both the higher class and the relationship, but more importantly, he's starting to feel that something is wrong with him. His ex, who has taken up with a new boyfriend, misinterprets Reeve's attempts to warn him, even when some of their other upper-class friends start to get sick. Reeve has to turn to their mutual friend Monique and, in a strange turn of events, his ex's new boyfriend, to get to the bottom of the disease.

To tell more about the plot would be to ruin the excitement of what is a tautly constructed thriller. The early part of the book starts slowly, introducing you to the ensemble cast and the spiderweb of relationships that connect them, while laying the groundwork for the medical thriller to come. Think of it as the clack-clack-clack of the roller coaster mounting the hill. Once you crest the hill--and you'll know just where that is--the book doesn't let you go.

Kevin has a terrific touch with character, which allows him to pull off the very tricky feat of having an ensemble cast with character arcs of their own. Each of the personalities in the book is distinct and well-realized, with marvelous dialogue between them. The real joy of "Thousand Leaves" is getting to know the characters, and that's what gives an extra dimension to the medical thriller: you've come to truly care about the characters whose lives are at stake. That's not to short-change his ability to describe the city or the pathos he plunges his cast into, nor the complex plot he has his characters navigate, nor the textured feeling of the world they live in. But the characters are the heart of this book, and a vibrant, engaging heart it is.

I don't usually review Sofawolf books because I'm so intimately involved in the selection, edition, and production. And of course I'm going to say good things about our titles. But I'm particularly proud of having been a part of the release of "Thousand Leaves," not only because it's good for Kevin and good for Sofawolf, but because it's such a great story and exemplar of what we look for in a furry novel. So take my review with a grain of salt, but give "Thousand Leaves" the benefit of the doubt. We wouldn't be printing it if it weren't a great book.

'Dream-Carver' by Erin van Hiel

rikoshi — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:30:20 GMT

Dream-Carver is the third novel based on Sanguine Productions' pen-and-paper RPG system Ironclaw. For those unfamiliar with the setting, the world of Ironclaw is one populated by anthropomorphic animals, loosely based on Age of Enlightenment Europe, with a hefty dose of magic thrown in to keep things tricky. Unlike, say, D&D, where the conceit is a high-fantasy world, Ironclaw very much stresses things like social conflict, class interaction, and a world where a nobleman might well be more fearsome than a powerful wizard.

In this regard, Dream-Carver is quite successful in capturing the flair of the world and applying it to a story that's quite different from the previous two novels set there (Scars and Black Iron). The central character is Sister Annarisse, an equine priestess who also happens to be of minor noble stock as well. The story does a great job of highlighting just how much authority one person can have when both a member of the clergy and a member of a noble house. Most of this is shown in her interactions with the other two main characters, the vulpine Captain Salvatore (a commoner) and the rather brash Baron Treeden, son of a very powerful wolf noblewoman.

Most of the book takes place with the characters aboard a sailing vessel, which serves as a nice device to keep the characters in contact with one another, especially when their personalities might otherwise cause them to part ways rather swiftly (van Hiel does a great job of letting all of these larger-than-life personages abrade on each other with all the hauteur one would expect of three people who are all used to getting their own way in their respective avenues of life). On the other hand, this means that a good portion of the book is also dedicated to describing the ins and outs of a naval voyage, which will be a good thing if you're interested in that sort of thing, but which could probably be boring and tedious for those who are not.

Description is one area that van Hiel does quite a good job with, both when it comes to aspects of naval history as well as both the romantic and not-so-romantic aspects of the pre-industrial world. In an odd departure from a lot of books featuring animal-people characters, there's markedly less description for the characters themselves; perhaps there's an assumption that the reader will be familiar with what sort of two-legged critters they should be imagining, and it doesn't stand out that much, but it's worth noting. At any rate, as mentioned above, the characters' personalities are well-defined, which is more important than physical appearance, anyway.

The story itself is quite brisk; individual chapters are usually only around 3 to 5 pages long, with each chapter containing at least one point that moves the story forward. Were it not for the subject matter (there are subplots concerning alcoholism, crises of faith, and the ethics of slavery), it's almost structured like the sort of story you'd read a little bit at a time to a child before putting them to bed. As it is, for us grown-up readers, the pacing is nice and fast and the story itself doesn't ever 'drag,' despite the occasional brief stop to describe something in detail.

One complaint is that there are times when it's a bit too obvious that the story is based on a role-playing game setting. New characters join the voyage with little to no preamble, at points, and while they do all eventually find their purpose within the story itself, the method of introduction sometimes feels like, "and then the GM needed to bring this character into things." Similarly, there are one or two minor characters who just kind of drop out of the story without mention once their core purpose has been served. Considering the fast pace of the book, this is more forgivable than it otherwise might be, and if one were unaware of the setting's origins, it might almost go unnoticed.

All in all, this is a well-rendered book that fans of Ironclaw should definitely appreciate, and for those who aren't familiar with that setting, they should enjoy a look at a "furry fantasy world" that isn't too typical of the ones normally portrayed in fantasy novels. The climax and denouement are a bit too rushed, but as is probably appropriate for a story about a naval voyage, it's the journey that's important, and overall, the story itself doesn't disappoint.

Recommended For: fans of 'Ironclaw', low fantasy, and aficionados of naval history

Reincarnated trickster: Michael Bergey's New Coyote

altivo — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:24:22 GMT

I would describe Michael Bergey's 2005 book New Coyote (Five Star, $25.95, ISBN 1594143226) as a must read for science fiction and furry fans alike. The Plains Indians and many of the southwestern tribes as well had an archetypal legend of Coyote, the Trickster. He was a demigod who had mystical powers of self-reincarnation and recreation and he loved to catch others in tricks that could be very nasty indeed for the victim. Of course, in our modern age, hardly anyone believes in the ancient spirits, and consequently they have declined in power until they are nearly forgotten.

Coyote doesn't accept this state of affairs, however. He always has a plan, and his new plan requires that he be born again into physical flesh, without memory or knowledge of who he is, so that he can study modern society and culture and perhaps find a way to restore himself and his fellow gods to their rightful places. His avatar, if we may borrow a term from Asian thought, looks like an ordinary coyote, but we quickly learn that he is both smarter than the average human, and can both understand and speak human language when he chooses.

So where does he set himself down to begin his study of human society? Why, in the middle of an illegal marijuana plantation in the western US, where he acts like an ordinary dog, herding goats for the human owner, Mooney. When Mooney narrowly escapes capture by narcotics agents and has to run, Coyote goes too. This is where the adventure really begins. He manages (mostly) to keep humans from trying to kill him, and pries into everything that is going on with a little help from some of his fellow demigods.

Unfortunately, Fox seems to have it in for him and begins to campaign for Coyote's death, claiming that it would be best all around, and Coyote must find a way to foil the Fox as well as the human villains. The story is largely told in first person, as seen through Coyote's own eyes. The author, a veterinarian by profession, has an excellent feel for the heightened awareness of the canine, and reminds us frequently of the things he smells or hears that mere humans would miss. He also has a magnificent feeling for the trickster tradition of the Native American demigod, which manifests itself repeatedly as Coyote evades capture and turns the schemes of humans back on themselves. I won't give away the outcome, other than to say you'll be hoping for more. As it happens, there is more to be had, as Bergey's second book, Coyote Season, was released in 2007.

As far as I know, these books have not been offered in paperback format. The hardcover editions are in print and available from online booksellers as well as large bookstores, but if the price seems too steep, try your library. Five Star is an imprint of Thorndike/Gale, a publisher that sells primarily to libraries so even if your local library doesn't have the book, they should be able to borrow it for you from somewhere else.

Rating: 5 of 5 possible apples

Quozl by Alan Dean Foster

silver_kiden — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:29:38 GMT

well, today i am going to review a quaint book by the name of Quozl. when i first read this book, i had no idea about the furry community, i just enjoyed the storyline and rather unique viewpoints it gives. i recently reread it, and i'm as enamored of it as ever. this book is about a race of spacefaring, anthropomorphic aliens that are somewhat like a squirrel crossed with a rabbit. they cannot swim, and they have sublimated their violent instincts through art and dance, though they breed like rabbits (pun intended) without strict scientific intervention. they come to earth during world war two, as a colony ship from an overpopulated planet, in the hopes of finding a new home, and with no way to return if they cannot find one. unfortunately, the planet they planned to colonize is already occupied by a violent, unpredictable race...us. the elders and leaders determine that it is too dangerous to make contact, so they colonize in secret. but can the colony stay secret? read and fallow the lives of these oddly peaceful, violent, and very sexual creatures.

five out of five silver dragon scales, with a rating of pg-13.

N'duk the Hunter - Volume One: The White Towers

kmhirosaki — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:59:09 GMT

Mitch de la Guardia's N'duk the Hunter stories are reminscent of those of Conan the Barbarian, and if I had to guess, I'd say that they're intentionally so. The stoytelling hearkens back to a simpler, more straightforward narrative, similar to the heroic epic, but not bogged down in the poetics; at the same time, the stories also don't follow a very modern literary structure, either, which can be both a benefit and a detractor.

The titular N'duk is a mongoose, presented herein as a mytho-historical figure whose tales are told as legend and as lore, which almost impels the reader to assume that the more outlanding parts of the stories can either be taken at face value or as natural embellishment of what "really" happened. He is a wanderer and a warrior, carrying out heroic deeds as both a mercenary and as a man of honor. With no place to call home, he goes from one place to the next, dealing with problems as they arise.

The stories within The White Towers are, as stated in the introduction, presented in no particular order, and there is no narrative thread that connects them. On the one hand, this does help the heroic epic feel of the stories, but on the other hand, it sort of forces the stories to short-change themselves by preventing much of anything in the way of character development for N'duk himself. He's got his personality, but it's not exactly a fully three-dimensional one, and it doesn't change at all throughout the course of the stories presented here (there are, apparently, Volumes Two and Three also available, but I don't know whether that changes anything or not).

Another major drawback to the storytelling style is that none of the stories has any real dénouement to speak of. The typical structure of the stories themselves is something like: N'duk undertakes (or is forced into) a quest, N'duk confronts what needs to be confronted, climax, The End. Again, this does sort of back up the 'feel' that I think the stories are going for, but for some of the stories (particularly the volume's centerpiece, the novella-length "The White Towers" itself), the endings come across as too abrupt, which robs some satisfaction from them.

From a technical competence standpoint, de la Guardia's writing and grammar are certainly much better than you'll come across on 98% of what's written on the Internet, but the volume doesn't appear to have been checked by a professional editor. For the most part, the writing is fine, but when it comes to the more advanced and obscure points of grammar (the ones most people don't need to heed every day, like comma splices and dangling modifiers), there are some frequent slip ups. Perhaps this sort of thing is invisible to the average reader, I'll admit, but as a writer myself, it's something that I notice.

That being said, there is some simple charm in being able to pick up a story that's not overly complicated and that doesn't get bogged down in its own attempts at literary cleverness. It's clear that de la Guardia at least knows what it is that he wants his stories to do, and they do that pretty well. My chief complaint, I guess, would be that I wish that the stories themselves had a little 'more' to them: more characterization, more tension, more conflict and the like.

Still, if you are looking for something of a furry adventure bent, you could do worse than N'duk the Hunter. The simplicity never quite reaches 'elegance,' as they say, but the stories are at least fun, the world itself is well-realized on the whole, and hey, sometimes you just want to read about a mongoose who kicks ass and takes names.

I think stories could use more of those in general, really.

Victorian anthropomorphics: The Island of Doctor Moreau

altivo — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:21:36 GMT

H. G. Wells published The Island of Doctor Moreau in 1896, and though it isn't as well known as The War of the Worlds it has been in print almost continuously since its first appearance. This brief novel is readily available from libraries and new or used bookstores. Several audiobook versions have been released, and it has been adapted to film several times. The most recent film was released in 1996 and featured Marlon Brando as Moreau, though for a darker feeling you might prefer the 1932 release with Charles Laughton, entitled The Island of Lost Souls.

Film and television adaptations notwithstanding, I really suggest that anyone involved in furry fandom read the original. The book is not long, and can be finished in an evening or two. You will come away with an understanding of the peculiar revulsion that some people feel about furries and anthropomorphics, based on its roots in the morality and religious attitudes of Western culture.

Edward Prendick survives a shipwreck only to end up in a dingy on the South Pacific, without food or water, and doomed to an unpleasant death. At the end of his endurance, he is picked up by a mysterious ship that carries a cargo of live animals under the supervision of a medical man named Montgomery. Montgomery cares for and revives Prendick, but when the ship arrives at an island port of call to discharge the cargo, its drunken captain also dumps Prendick into his dingy again and abandons him. Eventually the dingy and Prendick arrive on the island, where he is decidedly unwelcome to the master of the tiny dwelling there, the mysterious Dr. Moreau.

Moreau, we learn, was exiled from civilized society (meaning England) for his experimental abominations. Soon he is explaining himself to Prendick in an effort to win the Englishman over to his side, and the protagonist views those experiments in surgical modification of animals to make them more "human" as utterly blasphemous. This is of course the view taken by most of Judeo-Christian tradition: the animals were created for the service and convenience of humans, and only humans were made "in God's image." This makes Moreau's attempts to construct humanity from animal flesh utterly horrifying, even without the concerns Prendick seems to feel about the pain inflicted on the animals in the process.

When he ventures out into the wilds of the island, Prendick observes and becomes entangled with many of Moreau's experimental subjects, some of whom are nearly successful, while others are dismal failures. The story draws to a rapid and suitably moralistic conclusion in which the guilty parties receive their deserved end, though there seems to be no happy ending for the many experimental subjects.

Wells spins an entertaining tale, as always, and will hold the reader's attention readily enough. I suspect that most furries will not agree with the attitudes expressed by Edward Prendick or the author, but will find themselves rooting for the various underdogs, undercats, and so forth. This is a novel that might well be retold from a different viewpoint by a modern, furry-sensitive writer. It will also give you second thoughts if you've ever considered whether you'd allow medical science to "make a real furry" of you.

Rating: 3 of 5 possible apples

jafra — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:56:29 GMT

Hello all, so this will my first review so let me know if it's okay or not. heh I've been outta school to long so I'm a bit rusty.

Okay It's actually a series and not just one book that I'll be reviewing. It's called the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster and i'm fairly certain that most the fluffs out there would love it but may not have heard of it because it's a bit older. Theres 8 novels in the series total dating between 1983-1994.

A human from basically our world gets teleported mysteriously to another alternate universe thats mostly inhabited by anthro animals. This world is also a few generations back from ours so magic and the sword are the main weapons of choice just to give ya a time frame. The main character is named Jon Tom and has to figure out why this happened to him and has to learn how to adapt to this new world. Luckily he quickly made a friend of an otter named Mudge. Together they travel across this weird world encountering one adventure after another.

I've re-read the entire series at least 3 times now. I highly recommend this series to any and everyone... if you can find it. because of it's age your best choice is to scout out local used book stores. It gets a 5/5 easily from me. hehe okay i hope that wasn't to bad. Happy Hunting fluffs

A Crusade is a Crusade is a Jihad: White Crusade

altivo — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:24:15 GMT

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
–George Santayana

Much of substantial furry literature falls most easily into the science fiction genre, or occasionally fantasy if heavy duty magic is involved. Ben Goodridge's White Crusade (Bad Dog Books, 2007, ISBN: 9789079082025, $19.95) is no exception, set five centuries after the collapse of human civilization in a time when the Animal-People are the dominant intelligent races. Human remnants still survive, but most seem to be pitiful and helpless dependents. The exact origin of the animal folk is not clear, but they are at least partly descended from humans and divided into multiple Tribes by both geography and genetics. Most strive to live in harmony with the earth and to avoid the destructive behaviors of their human ancestors. This is the realm of apocalyptic (or sometimes post-apocalyptic) fiction, in which the author tells of events that come to pass after the destruction of civilization as we know it.

Goodridge primarily follows the experiences of Tay of the Wolf-Clan, shaman, healer, and Alpha of his tribe of mixed races, as he learns of the threat posed by the White Crusade and brings all his resources to bear on thwarting the Crusade's goal: the ultimate return of humankind to dominance in the world, and a return to the paradigms of human civilization. Peaceful and gentle Tay finds his world badly shaken on the day that the dying Kaim of the Tiger-Clan crashes into his village in a stolen car, carrying a slow but fatal poison in his veins and a purloined talisman of unknown power stolen from the Crusade's Alpha. While he tries unsuccessfully to save Kaim's life, Tay hands the mysterious Cube over to Zack the trader and Sonac (who can only be described as a geek, I think) and delegates them to determine its power and purpose.

Only when the intelligences trapped inside the Cube speak through Sonac's collection of broken human toys and computers do the three begin to understand the significance of the object and the depth of the threat it poses if returned to the hands of the Crusade. Fleeing the wrath of the approaching and increasingly violent Crusaders, the three animal folk set out on a journey eastward, leaving their home in the Pacific Northwest and heading to the old Midwest, where the Cube's resident voices tell them they will find the other pieces of the puzzle. The arm of the White Crusade is long, and its power great. The three pilgrims encounter many obstacles, most of them the result of direct interference by the Crusade or its sympathizers. The ultimate confrontation on the shore of Lake Michigan at the site of Chicago (now known as Kaago) is one of gigantic power and import. The world is saved of course, but individual destinies are not always what we might wish.

Ben Goodridge has crafted his story believably and in great detail. The mad fury of the Crusade's supporters and their suicidal dedication is clearly demonstrated, and all too believable. In an age in which we see similar events on a smaller scale appearing in the news almost daily, it isn't hard to understand the genuine threat posed by the kind of mob psychology that propels such a movement. While I'm disappointed to see the Animal-People (who all ought in my own mind to be as noble and pure-hearted as Tay himself) caught up in such a violent and hysterical hatred, I suppose I should not be surprised. They are after all, as several of Goodridge's characters remind us, descended from humans and liable to the weaknesses of humanity in the end.

I don't hesitate to admit that I'm squeamish about scenes of graphic violence. This book has several such scenes, but I can't say that they were gratuitous. All contribute to the development of the story and characters, and I couldn't in good conscience say they should be trimmed or omitted. I found them particularly painful, probably because I find them too easily believable. My own belief about the inherent cruelty and lack of empathy on the part of many seems to coincide all too well with the author's assessment. There were also a few points where I felt that the action was a bit rushed, leaving out details that might have better supported the conclusions. Overall, though, White Crusade is a fine work, a captivating tale with characters we can both love and hate and a satisfying if somewhat melancholy conclusion.

The realm of apocalyptic fiction is a rich one that includes such masterful works as Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany, Davy by Edgar Pangborn, and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller. I recommend all three of those to you, but I place Goodridge's White Crusade right among them in both quality and depth.

Rating: 5 of 5 possible apples