Since the interstellar ships of the United Worlds dropped into the Earth’s atmosphere five years ago, Doctor Dan Smith’s life and career as a historian for the local museum have been busy. He’s been blessed with not only new information about the little blue world we live on, but sister planets throughout the galaxy.
Like the fact the people of the United Worlds are here on an intervention to save us from ourselves. They could no longer sit back and watch as we destroyed the only home we had. So, the human race on earth reached an agreement with them, half the population would leave, to be settled on other worlds while the remaining half stayed behind and repaired the damage with help from the UW.
Of course that didn’t sit real well with the oligarchs who owned this planet, but with a little genetic manipulation from the UW, they came to terms with it. As the ships of the United Worlds pulled out of our atmosphere, they left us a little gift. Something to assure we’d have a close relationship to our planet. As Dan’s ears elongate, and his new fluffy little cotton tail peeks out of his pants, the people who remain purely human panic as it looks more and more like the human race will become extinct.
They fight back. They demand a cure for the virus that evolves their bodies to new forms. Forms with fur and tails and claws. As friends are killed in the uprising, Doctor Smith realizes there is one chance to save himself, and earth. And that’s to stand up to the Purebloods determined to eliminate those who have evolved.
Dark bleatings, my hopping tribe. This novel is absolutely bananas. Or carrots, might be the more appropriate simile. Alien ships arrive in Earth’s atmosphere and then, without any attempt at contact, they just hang out there in the sky for 4 years. Predictably, humanity freaks out over the perceived threat, and we kill lots of people in the crossfire of trying to shoot down the ships, warring with each other, panicking that it’s the end of days. Eventually, some little alien fellas come down and inform us that we’ve effed up – we weren’t meant to destroy the planet with our over-populating and pollution. The Earth is headed for man-made destruction and the only way to stop it is for half of humanity to go off and populate other planets while the remaining half hang back and try to course correct.
Oh, and then there’s the matter of our shifting DNA. The aliens release a chemical into our breathing space, which activates dormant genes, and results in everyone growing animal bits and becoming animal hybrids. Oh, and since the XX chromosome is more dominant than the XY, a lot of people become female.
This is a welcome physical change for our protagonist, Gabrielle, who has been secretly transgender her whole life and now finally her outsides match her insides (with the addition of bunny rabbit physical characteristics!).
This book is about so much. It shares political debates and views, and of course there’s some fairly obvious social commentary here – and it doesn’t straddle the fence on the viewpoints either – this is very much a lefty book and as someone who firmly stands with my trans friends, I appreciated the messaging and how it was delivered here.
It’s very entertaining and is a much wider, sprawling tail (bahdahdumtsssch) than it first appears. There’s chaos, destruction, war, but also loveliness. If this sounds like your cup of tea, then I’d firmly recommend it. I will end on this…. it is truly like NOTHING else I’ve ever read.
If you’d like to check out the book, I’ve popped the link below for you:
Happy Goat Horror 
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