For most of his wizarding life, Simon Canopus Artyle lived in the same splendid little house that was nestled up against the trunk of a giant tree. The tree was an Ephaian Oak, only it was much larger than any normal Ephaian Oak should be, having grown to its inordinate size due to the fact that Simon had spent over two centuries living in proximity to it, and magic flowed through Simon more readily than it did most people, including other wizards. When a wizard lives anywhere, though, giant tree or no, a full-fledged community typically grows up around them within five or six decades, since, as a general rule, a wizard is a very good thing for any town to have (and after this happens, most wizards decide against packing up and leaving, since the inevitable will inevitably happen again, and most simply can’t be bothered to make the effort anyway). (p. 1)

This opening paragraph indicates the leisurely, relaxed style in which Frane presents this somewhat Georgian anthropomorphic comedy of manners. Simon Artyle, a fox wizard of a couple of centuries (although he looks to be only twenty-nine or thirty), is a reader, a lover of books and libraries, to such a degree that other wizards have made him their Grand Historian of Magic, Wizarding, and Spellcraft.

“The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle”, by Kevin Frane. Illustrated by XianJaguar.
FurPlanet Productions, June 2010, trade paperback $9.95 (vii + 78 pages; also at Amazon).

Despite the title, the protagonist of Otters in Space, Kipper, is a tabby cat.

The bus stop sign and shelter were in front of a giant, white church. The Church of the First Race was an historical building, preserved from the time when humans still walked the Earth. It dwarfed the taller but smaller-scale high-rises around it. It was the oldest building in New LA. Kipper had been inside once and sat on the monstrous pews, but, like most cats, she didn’t feel comfortable with First Race doctrine. It was a dog religion – they preached that humans, the First Race, had left Earth as emissaries to the stars and would return to bring all the peoples of Earth into a confederation of interstellar sentience. Someday. (p. 1)

“Otters in Space: The Search for Cat Havana”, by Mary E. Lowd.
FurPlanet Publications, January 2012, 2nd Ed.; trade paperback $9.95 (176 pages); ebook $5.99.

Seattle’s first Furry conventions began in 1998. There were eight annual ConiFur Northwests, growing from 275 to 525 attendees, before they self-destructed after the 2005 event.

Rainfurrest (or Rainfurrest Anthropomorphics International) was first held in 2007 to be ConiFur’s replacement. It seems to be more successful; Rainfurrest has grown from 370 attendees in 2007 to 1,420 last year.

Practically all Furry conventions have souvenir “conbooks”, and two or three short stories by members are a feature of these. Rainfurrest 2011 decided to take this a step further.

Dallas, TX. FurPlanet Productions, September 2011, trade paperback $10.00 (108 pages).

Academia strikes again. This scholarly study, #20 in the McFarland’s “Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy” series, edited by Donald E. Palumbo and C. W. Sullivan III, presents a literary and historical analysis of the theme of intelligent animals in modern (20th) century science fiction and fantasy.

Though animal stories and fables stretch back into the antiquity of ancient India, Persia, Greece and Rome, the reasons for writing them and their resonance for readers (and listeners) remain consistent to the present. This work argues that they were essential sources of amusement and instruction--and were also often profoundly unsettling. Such authors in the realm of the animal fable as Tolkien, Freud, Voltaire, Bakhtin, Cordwainer Smith, Karel Čapek, Vladimir Propp, and many more are discussed. (back-cover blurb)

McFarland & Co., April 2010, trade paperback $35.00 (vii + 260 pages). Foreword by Van Ikin.

These two Young Adult talking-cat fantasies are recommended for readers age 10 “and up”. Yes, they are up to our age level and Furry interest.

“The Tygrine Cat”; Cambridge, MA, Candlewick Press, April 2008, hardcover $15.99 ([vii +] 242 pages); map by David Atkinson.

“The Tygrine Cat on the Run”; London, Walker Books, January 2011, paperback £5.99 (286 [+ 1] pages).

The “Mollisan Town quartet”, by pseudonymous Swedish author Tim Davys, is (are?) four hard-boiled complex crime thrillers, each set in one of Mollisan Town’s four districts, with a stuffed-animal cast. Hey, if regular animals can be anthropomorphized, why not plushies?

“Amberville” (February 2009); hardcover $19.99 (343 pages), Kindle $8.99.
“Lanceheim: A Novel” (June 2010); hardcover $21.99 (371 pages), Kindle $9.99.
“Tourquai: A Novel” (February 2011); hardcover $19.99 (325 pages), Kindle $9.99.

The first three novels were published by Albert Bonnier Förlag in Stockholm in 2007, 2008, and 2010, and published in English by HarperCollins one or two years later; all three are translated by Paul Norlen. The concluding novel, Yok, is scheduled for July 2012.

This gritty crime novel is a parody with anthropomorphic dog and cat detectives. Oh, gee, we haven’t seen THAT before!

San Bernardo is their territory, a seething metropolis where fat-cats prance in the exclusive island enclave of Kathattan while working dogs wallow in the stinking squalor of the Kennels. (back-cover blurb)

NYC, Simon & Schuster/Scribner, July 2009, trade paperback $14.00 (259 pages), Kindle $10.99.

We are down to the nitty gritty; the Annies announced their nominees last month, nominations for the Ursa Majors have opened, and yesterday morning the nominees for the Academy Awards were announced.

San Fernando sounds like a bleak place! It’s a small island port that has sunk into squalor, tyrannized by a giant, sadistic gangster, “Smiley O”, Smiley O’Hannigan – a wolf so massive that he seems to be literally bulletproof – and his predator thugs. The isolated town has been written off by the rest of the world:

‘But … but nobody leaves San Fernando!’ It was true. The nearest port, they had said in school, was two weeks’ journey by boat, north to the southern tip of Galway. Nobody could get visas anymore.   No one was allowed out. (p. 68)

Johnny Ludlam is a sixteen-year-old jackrabbit, the fatherless son of an elderly music teacher. In happier days his father was the local hero, a lifeguard who had saved almost forty people from drowning before he disappeared in a rescue gone bad.

Today the inhabitants of San Fernando are all dispirited, and the impoverished Johnny and his mother are about to lose their apartment. Johnny’s sole friend is the streetwise junkie Rab, a color-shifting, normally pale-green anole. Johnny’s mother is reduced to giving him her valuable clarinet to pawn for rent money, but nobody will buy it. Nobody has time for music any more in San Fernando.

Johnny dreams of becoming a hero, as his father was. And he may have a crazy chance.

Illustrated by Cooner. Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, January 2011.
Trade paperback $9.95 (191 pages), Kindle $5.99.

Dangerous Jade is a work of anthropomorphic fiction for adult readers only. (publisher’s rating)

Actually, although there are some torrid romantic scenes and a lot of adult language here, it is all standard M/F sex between consenting adults; less X-rated than many mainstream novels or R-rated motion pictures.

This is also #4 in FurPlanet’s new Cupcakes line of works shorter than novel length. Dangerous Jade is “only” a novella, but it delivers a complete and satisfying story.

Illustrated by Meesh. Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, January 2012, trade paperback $9.95 (vii + 81 pages).

These are Books 2 and 3 in Englert’s “A Bull Moose Dog Run Mystery” series. They are enjoyable enough, but not worth reviewing separately.

If you've been paying attention to the Recommended Anthropomorphics List, you might have noticed a movie called Leafie: A Hen into the Wild. Otherwise, you have probably never heard of it, unless you are one of Flayrah’s South Korean readers.

When I first saw Leafie's trailer, I was impressed with the animation and character design, and wondered how the movie would hold up. I was finally able to see the movie, and it is certainly one that furries should seek out.

The Wolf Chronicles trilogy is the story of why wolves and humans can never be friends. Or why they MUST be friends. Actually, I am not sure of anything. If there is one thing at which Hearst excels, it is Being Mysterious.

'Promise of the Wolves'; NYC, Simon & Schuster, June 2008, hardcover $25 (341 pages), paperback $11, Kindle $11.99.

'Secrets of the Wolves'; NYC, Simon & Schuster, August 2011, hardcover $24.00 (371 pages), Kindle $10.99.

I'd like to ask you to nominate and (later) vote for Flayrah as Best Anthropomorphic Magazine in the 2011 Ursa Major Awards. Here's why we deserve your support.

There are many ways a journalist can cover a local event, add a little humor, and still leave the reader with information and some chuckles. However, in its coverage of a campaign to promote giving homes to animals in shelters, one NBC employee became completely enamored by the first image that popped into her head from the name of the campaign, and ran with it until all useful content of the coverage was forgotten in the slew of 'edgy' comedy.