Mandibles by Jeff Strandĭespite the goofy title, this is a fairly serious story about a human space traveler that crash-lands his sabotaged “podpod” on an alien planet. Alone it’s a rather pointless story, but I imagine the surviving characters will show up to play a bigger role in a forthcoming book. The second book in this series is more an isolated vignette in the greater war - showing some human mercenaries in a battle with a particularly brilliant penguin leader. There are plenty of battles, including the penguin army wiping out the entire human population of the Falkland Islands(!) ( something even the Argentine army couldn’t manage). While about 80% of the book is told from various penguin’s POV, there are some human characters, including the prerequisite gorgeous female scientist working in Antarctica and a geeky but handsome male wildlife photographer. While enthusiastic at first, several rockhopper and chinstrap penguins begin to doubt that their leaders have other penguins’ best interests at heart, and start to investigate what exactly is going on. A race of mutant master penguins, the ‘Royal Emperors’ (who are much larger than normal penguins and have digits on the end of their flippers for manipulating spears) rally all the penguin species to wage war against humanity in the southern hemisphere. What would they do, peck people to death? Well, yes, that is what they do! I did give the first book four stars - despite the ludicrous premise, it’s still a very good anthropomorphic story. Of all the animals that would wage war against humanity, I think penguins would be low on the list. Sunset of Lantonne ( The Fall of Eldvar #3) by Jim Galford
I can’t tell more about the plot without including spoilers, but suffice to say, this was one of the best anthropomorphic series I’ve read. Other furry races include dogs (as nomadic Mongols), monkeys (Japan and south-east Asia) and barbarian bears and rats. This takes place in a Tibet, China and Mongolia dominated by the big cats, but ruled by those of sacred blood - evolved domestic cats. He brings with him a disparate group-his happy-go-lucky brother, a cheetah sorceress, a tigress scholar, a warrior snow leopardess, and the only remaining monk/seer, a reviled ‘mongrel’ a feline of mixed blood. Captain Wynegarde-Grey, the lion head of the Imperial Guard, is sent by the empress to discover what has been killing the members of a sacred group of monk/seers. This series was a great discovery, and should be a must-read for fans of big cats. To Journey in the Year of the Tiger - To Walk in the Way of Lions - Songs In the Year of the Cat - see also Fred's review of the first two, and the third Tails from the Upper Kingdom series, by H.
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