Reader Pinchot delivers a sterling performance in this mind-bending dystopian tale. Sebastian is a happy, healthy house cat, with a family who feeds him and a loving friendship with Sheba, the dog next door. Meanwhile ant queen Hymenoptera, enraged by the anthropocentrism of humans, develops a race of super ants while releasing a pheromone that causes all animals to become humanlike. Sebastian, now over six feet tall and capable of handling firearms, adopts the name Mort(e) and becomes a ruthless soldier for the revolution, all the while looking for his canine friend, who went missing. Pinchot gives a masterly reading of Repino's ambitious debut, which quickly develops into an absorbing morality tale. Pinchot's calm, cool delivery fits perfectly with the world-weary tone of the book. His characters, especially Mort(e), are distinctive, diverse, and believable. He relays the dialogue with a realistic earnestness that belies the fact that it's transfigured animals doing the talking. Suspenseful, action packed, and thought provoking, this listen is not to be missed. A Soho hardcover. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

This intriguing debut starts out as a simple pet's-eye view tale; Sebastian is a neutered and declawed housecat who befriends a dog named Sheba. Into their world comes an army of giant ants, led by an omniscient queen intent on destroying humanity. Using tailored chemicals, the ant queen has caused animals to grow hands and to become larger, self-aware, and bipedal. As a result, most pets, including Sebastian, rise up and kill their masters, though the cat loses his friend Sheba in the resulting turmoil. Sebastian takes the ambiguous name Mort(e) and joins the war against humans. In an interesting twist on George Orwell's Animal Farm, Mort(e) becomes disillusioned with the revolution but is drawn back in because he learns that the ant queen doesn't have the animals' best interests at heart. Yearning to be reunited with Sheba, Mort(e) finally gets his wish as he becomes pivotal in the final battle between ants and humans. VERDICT Animal Farm set in a postapocalyptic world based on interspecies rivalry rather than communism, with a little religion on the side, this imaginative story can be taken as a somewhat satirical examination of the role of the individual in society. Highly recommended.-Henry Bankhead, Los Gatos Lib., CA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A war novel/religious allegory about cats, dogs and giant ants driven by a hive mind. Yes, really. So, let's imagine W. Bruce Cameron's silly and maudlin A Dog's Purpose recast as a violent and frightening post-apocalyptic global battle for the souls of Earth's survivors, layered with a messiah prophecy that makes The Matrix look simplistic by comparison. If that's a bit much, maybe just think Animal Farm re-imagined by Orson Scott Card. Either way, you end up with this devilishly entertaining debut about anthropomorphized animals caught in a conflict between an invading army of insects and the planet's few remaining humans. The novel begins from the point of view of Sebastian, an aloof but observant house cat whose only true companion is a dog named Sheba. Through animal eyes, he describes Earth's descent into chaos as giant antsthat's Hymenoptera unus to youbreak through the planet's crust to wreak havoc on human civilization. At the heart of their plan is the decision to release a virus that gives all animals self-awareness, a bipedal structure and better-than-human intelligence. After the change, Sebastian recreates himself as the cat-warrior Mort(e), the hero of a breakaway army called The Red Sphinx. "Don't you all know who this is?" says his superior to a new crop of recruits. "This is Mort(e). The hero of the Battle of the Alleghenies. The Mastermind of the Chesapeake Bridge Bombing. The crazy bastard who assassinated General Fitzpatrick in broad daylight. This choker was killing humans before some of you were born." After a while the story gets kind of messy with a memetic virus called "EMSAH," the aforementioned prophecy and the preordained battle to end all wars, but it's still awfully good sci-fi that imagines a world where humans are no longer at the top of the food chain. A wild riff on interspecies warfare sure to make pet owners think twice the next time their tabby cats dart by. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.