May 24, 2021
The postapocalyptic adventures of bighearted, irreverent crow S.T. continue in Buxton’s eventful follow-up to 2019’s Hollow Kingdom. In the 13 years since a screen-transmitted virus infected all of humanity and turned them into rapidly evolving, nightmarish chimeras called Changed Ones, S.T. has raised Yup’ik Dee, the last uninfected human, in a remote region of Alaska with the help of the owls and his eagle friend, Migisi. When Dee discovers the hideous, larva-like beings her family has become, she sets fire to the cabin she shares with S.T. and flees into the ocean where a pod of orcas carry her and S.T. (flightless after an injury) back to S.T.’s old stomping grounds near Seattle. There, they reconnect with his old murder, other friends like Orange the orangutan, and nemeses including a trio of tigers escaped from the zoo. But the area’s animals are all hunkered down to avoid the singularly destructive Changed Ones stalking the region. After Dee goes missing, she displays an uncanny knack for communicating across species to fight the Changed Ones and tests S.T.’s strong desires to protect her. Buxton balances the snarky humor and moving tenderness of her delightful protagonist with genuine tension. Fans of postapocalyptic dangers and witty narration will eat up this charming story. Agent: Bill Clegg, the Clegg Agency.
July 1, 2021
A sequel to Hollow Kingdom (2019) in which clever talking crow S.T. must raise Dee, the last human on Earth, to keep the Changed Ones from destroying all remaining nature. Delightful, raucous, and bighearted S.T. has pecked off more than he can chew when it comes to raising the MoFo (human) child, Dee. Before her mother succumbed to the virus killing and changing all humankind, she left Dee in the care of the trees and birds of the Alaskan tundra. As Dee becomes a teenager, she learns to speak the languages of the natural world, much to S.T.'s chagrin. He wants her to imitate the MoFos he loved in the before-times, but Dee only wants to be a crow, a bee, a fish, or a musk ox. When they butt heads, Dee's human emotions often end in angry, dangerous outbursts or the deep sorrow of depression. All S.T. wants is to keep Dee safe from predators, both natural and the decidedly unnatural Changed Ones--former humans, ravaged by the virus and quickly evolving into grotesque superpredators. All Dee wants is to throw herself into adventure and protect the animals she loves dearly but can never quite become. Then, when the creatures of the ocean and their prophet Onida call Dee from the tundra to Seattle, the heart of the outbreak, to stop the Changed Ones from further upsetting the natural order, S.T. ignores his animal friends. He tries to hide Dee away and force her to be something she isn't. But Dee has other ideas, and together they are swept up by orcas and taken to S.T.'s old home. There, crows, tigers, owls, house cats, elephants, and all manner of creature must decide if Dee is a savior worth trusting or a danger that will lead them to their end. She is a human, after all. Like its predecessor, this is a genre-bending, humorous twist on the zombie apocalypse from a bird's-eye view, but it, too, is bogged down by tedious exposition and too many morality tales shoehorned into one narrative. The addition of violence against women as a mostly underdeveloped plot device is particularly worth noting for sensitive readers. Repetitive wordplay, exhaustive lists, and convenient scenarios fight with brilliant humor, clever characters, and an intriguing look at the relationship between parents and the children who don't conform to their expectations. Exceptional in theory but too busy to fully deliver.
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July 21, 2021
If you've been looking for a postapocalyptic novel narrated by a Cheeto-addicted American crow named Shit Turd, well, here it is. Actually, it's a sequel to Hollow Kingdom (2019), which introduced readers to Buxton's unique near-future world in which humanity is virtually wiped out by a plague and in which the animal survivors are the central characters. In Feral Creatures, S.T. and his animal friends try to protect Dee, the last surviving human, from the Changed Ones, creatures that were once human, and are now deadly predators. It's a brilliant idea, beautifully executed. S.T. is simply a wonderful character, a crow whose knowledge of humans is spotty but wise ("In case you are wondering what a human is, they were essentially bald apes that covered their genitals with cloth and experienced incessant outrage."), a guy with a wacky sense of humor and a deep, passionate love for what remains of humanity. Postapocalyptic humor is pretty rare, since those two things don't generally mix very well, but this is a terrific novel: very funny, but with a vividly realized future world and a big heart.
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