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I hate furry sci fi. I've reviewed it in the past (Barsk, Bleak Horizons, and Kismet to name a few), and I've managed to keep a fairly objective stance on these books. I can recognize their talent and skill without having much personal attachment. And that's fine! But this Goal Publications' title, Tristan, by Sylvain St-Pierre, blew my f***ing mind.I won't go into detail with my usual gripes about formatting and copyediting. Instead, I want to present you with a list:The Eight Reasons You Should Read Tristan:1. Even though the story is about the typical rogueish Byronic hero (think Drizzt or Han Solo, for example), the author dispenses with the tropish clumsy, goofy, and charming personality and instead infuses him with cold, hard manipulation. From the beginning when Tristan awakes from a ten-year cryosleep, having been tricked and imprisoned, we see him become heartless and ruthless so fast. He is not the noble trickster we see so often. He actually does just want to survive; he's not just saying it and then joins a damn political rebellion (yes, I'm looking at you, Han).2. The pacing is so tight on this book. We have segments where each chapter has Tristan advancing the plot super fast, and we have segments where he has to wait, and so do we. And we get so much character development here.3. The side characters are actually well-done. In the sci fi books I mentioned above, I could not tell you anything about the side characters from memory, but the side characters here will stick with you. I will always remember Miranda. I will remember Alex. Satan below, I will remember Alex.4. As an action book, it does a great job. It has equal parts violence and suspense, so those payoffs are just great. I know that goes back to pacing, but it really is so artfully done here.5. Alex. I will try not to make any spoilers here. But there is an M/M romance in the book that twisted at my heart so bad. If the author is out there reading this review, thank you for having Tristan do what he did instead of what his instinct was telling him. That said, this is not a romance book, but when it appears, it appears well and is handled quickly.6. World-building. For me, good fantasy/sci-fi worldbuilding is actually simple. I don't want a whole Redwall or Star Trek universe each time I pick up such a genre read. And that's coming from someone who read the entirety of Wheel of Time! For a novella, this was just delightful. Most of the world-building was generic and didn't require a lot of memorizing a million proper nouns. I could keep up with it and be super immersed. No, it wasn't the most unique sci fi setting I'd ever seen. But it's the most unique furry sci I've seen anyway.7. So what makes it unique? It's plot definitely. While we are dealing with a sci fi rogue, we are not dealing with corporate scandals like in most furry sci fi right now. It instead tackles questions of just surviving, family drama, and even finding meaning in the world. I will say, using the TRADITIONAL meanings, not the currently in vogue ones, this book is more of a romance than an epic (that is, we follow one character's personal journey and internal struggles, rather than being a large-scale battle of good versus evil [cf. the Solo movie is a romance; the main Star Wars episodes are all epics]; romance doesn't have anything to do with love necessarily). And for me that worked a lot better. I was so invested in the characters, and I didn't want their interpersonal struggles to be given grandiose stakes magically. I appreciated the simple stakes of surviving, completing jobs, having revenge, etc.8. Furry elements. You never once forget this is a furry protagonist. Now, for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what kind of furry the MC is. The blurred cover conveys it's an antlered mammal of some kind, but I couldn't tell you more than that. (And I just pasted the cover above in this post. I swear the printed version has lower contrast and is glossy, so it's a lot harder to tell what it is. I swear I'm not crazy!) But I never once found myself caring. It matters a lot in the book that the character is an anthro animal, but the species never really matters. In this world, he's labeled as Other from just his animal features generally, and that label matters. Thankfully, the author treated that Othering as so much more complex than something like Skyrim does. People hate him because he's Other, yes, but others fetishize him for that.If this isn't enough, then I don't know what else to tell you. Get this book. We need more sci fi like this. Best furry sci fi I have ever read.

Joseph Lallo’s dark fantasy series The Book of Deacon encompasses about half a dozen novels of warfare between humans, elves, dwarves, and your standard Medieval European Fantasy species. But The Story of Sorrel isn’t about them, at least not directly. Rather it follows a family of a somewhat less typical species, intelligent foxes known to the humanoid races as “malthropes”. That name, a fusion of the Greek word “anthropis” or “person”, and the Latin “malus” for “bad”, tells you just what the humans think of them.We open with the malthrope vixen Sorrel and her kits Wren and Reyna playing “the game” as they call it, where the kits try to evade their mother for as long as possible, her way of teaching them how to survive in a world where seemingly everyone is trying to kill them. On the human-dominated continent malthropes are hunted like vermin and have become so rare that Sorrel believes they may be the last of their kind, but sometime before this book she managed to smuggle her family across the ocean to a more sparsely-populated continent and they’ve avoided signs of civilization ever since. The next day, Sorrel’s belief that their kind are nearly extinct is challenged when she happens upon a tribe of fennec malthropes, who mistake her for a raider from a rival tribe of red malthropes and capture her. It turns out that the two malthrope tribes on this continent are under the “protection” of a dragon who demands a tribute of meat and treasure from both tribes, and the fennecs plan to offer up Sorrel for their meat tribute. By the time the kits find her, the dragon is already carrying her off to his lair. Can Wren and Reyna escape and rescue their mother before the dragon gets bored and eats her? We’ll see how well she taught them.SPOILER ALERT: “Children rescuing parents” is a tried-and-true plot arc, but it’s hard to pull off without making the parents seem incompetent. I was pleased to see that Lallo managed to avoid that here: Sorrel stays alive in captivity by her own wits and guile, and their escape is a product of her own efforts as much as the kits. Now, given the grim tone I picked up from the book and series, I was expecting a far more depressing ending, and was surprised when instead the protagonists pulled off a more than Pyrrhic victory using the elements previously shown throughout the story. SPOILERS CONCLUDED.I’d say that The Story of Sorrel works fairly well as a standalone story but I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to the series. Sorrel seems to be the only character with any knowledge of the events of the other “Deacon” books, but she’s always vague about it, when the dragon asks her what has become of the land across the sea she simply answers “two great kingdoms wage war.” Another malthrope-centric novel, Rise of the Red Shadow, told me more about the human side of the world in the free Amazon preview than this entire book did.Overall, I’d call this a good story by a good writer, and I’d heartily recommend it if you’re looking for a quick read or are already familiar with the setting. But if you’re looking to dip your toes into an epic fantasy universe I’d check out the other books in the series.

Just today we got the first full trailer for Abominable, the new animated feature from Dreamworks and Pearl, their production partners in China. Animation Scoop has the video. “When teenage Yi (Chloe Bennet, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) encounters a young Yeti on the roof of her apartment building in Shanghai, she and her mischievous friends, Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) and Peng (Albert Tsai), name him ‘Everest’ and embark on an epic quest to reunite the magical creature with his family at the highest point on Earth. But the trio of friends will have to stay one-step ahead of Burnish (Eddie Izzard), a wealthy man intent on capturing a Yeti, and zoologist Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson) to help Everest get home… Abominable is written and directed by Jill Culton (Open Season, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 2) and co-directed by Todd Wilderman (Trolls, The Croods).” Look for it in theaters September 27th.

image c. 2019 Entertainment Weekly

To quote George Takei: OH MY!
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Two days ago, US furry convention Emerald’s Fur Summit announced their closure, which included termination of plans for their 2020 edition as well. According to the furcon’s tweet, they cited that they have to make ‘difficult choices’, which ultimately led to the decision of the con’s final closure. They added that all of their remaining […]

The upcoming Cartoon Network series Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart was created by (OK K.O.!) and Black Dynamite [1] writer/storyboard artist Parker Simmons [2].  This is a co-production between Titmouse Inc and Cartoon Network Studios and is going to debut on the channel on July 1, 2019. The show is based on the teaser I Love You Mao Mao made by Simmons for the annual Titmouse Inc [3] "5-Second Day" back in 2014 that was also appeared on Newgrounds [4]. https://youtu.be/w7W5mjhc2O4 "Join along with Mao Mao, Badgerclops, and Adorabat as they team together to bring justice and peace to the people of Pure Heart Valley!" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dynamite_(TV_series) [2] https://twitter.com/parkerrsimmons [3] http://titmouse.net/ [4] https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/635187
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This Calarts student film raises questions I'm not sure I want answers to. Cute though.
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Just got back from Biggest Little Fur Con, and of course we’ve got lots to talk about. But first… Udon Entertainment have released the Samurai Pizza Cats Official Fan Book in North America. What’s that you ask? Well according to Wikipedia, “Kyatto Ninden Teyandee is an anime series produced by Tatsunoko Productions and Sotsu Agency. The series originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from February 1, 1990 to February 12, 1991… Saban picked up the North American rights to the series in 1991, and produced an English version called Samurai Pizza Cats.” Honestly, that explanation barely cat-scratches the surface of just how weird and wonderful this series was. Fan interest has not waned over the years, and now there’s a book all about it! “The Samurai Pizza Cats: Official Fan Book is packed with the best toppings: Pinup artwork, character designs and profiles, episode summaries, rough concepts, and exclusive in-depth interviews with the show’s creators and original cast.” Check out the preview over at Comicon.com.

image c. 2019 Udon Entertainment

we're trying a new thing, we have to make a few edits to the youtube stream but for now, enjoy the audio! Dragget MD - Tradition, the 90s, Philanthropy (pilot episode!) - we're trying a new thing, we have to make a few e…

Flash the Fox it is for Forest Hill Elementary School. The new Germantown school, set to open in August, revealed its mascot Sunday afternoon during a schoolwide event for families inside Farmington Elementary, due to the threat of rain. A costumed figure jumped out of a box as confetti cannons blasted. The fox and a […]

Just today, the Kickstarter project for furry-centered documentary series ‘The Fandom’ have successfully raised U$32,125 (S$44,308.08) – which exceeded their second extended goal of U$30K. With this amount, the production team will be able to “pursue more interviews and have the film scored professionally, as well as the making of footage with their subjects”. All […]

Oysters are great but sometimes can have an attitude and do tend to get sick easily.
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Really, Insects just are very unlucky in love.
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My name is Ahmar Wolf, I have been running Furry Times https://furrytimes.net/ for a few years. It was yesterday when I saw that Pawsy Wolf needed correspondents, I offered to help out. Although you won’t see as many posts here from me as you would do on my own site. What I will be posting […]

Ash Coyote’s furry-centered documentary series ‘The Fandom’ is set to have a feature film, as their Kickstarter project has been funded, now at the USD $25,170 (SGD $34,669)* mark, which exceeded their goal of USD $20,000 (SGD $27,548). Although funded, there is still 53 hours left to the project, which brings about possibility that the […]

The Organizing Committee of the Africa Cup of Nations has unveiled the mascot for the tournament, which runs from June 21 to July 19 in Egypt. The tournament’s official Facebook account published a video of the new mascot under the comment: “After a long journey. It has finally arrived. Welcome with us our special host […]

Maine’s governor has signed a bill making the state the first to prohibit public schools, colleges and universities from using Native American symbols as mascots. Gov. Janet Mills signed the measure on Thursday and it will go into effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns.”While Indian mascots were often originally chosen to recognize and honor […]

Since February, the rebrand to GFTV brought about numerous experiments – the most notable and biggest one being GFTV FurWave, where it is the GFTV’s attempt to establish a radio station of its own to become more available on more platforms. On the 2nd of March 2019, the first experimental broadcast of GFTV FurWave debuted […]

In the past 8 months, HRSMA’s broadcasting wing, the Global Furry Television (GFTV), has grown a lot since inaguration into the furry fandom, so much so that it is bigger than the parent associations HRSMA (Henrusian Mascot Association) and sister association OFA (Octonauts Fandom Association) combined – with a robust infrastructure, solid regional reach and […]

This is a cute little "My dog ate my homework" student film from Calarts this year.   What I love about this short is the classic unfinished look and the fact the animator actually calls himself a furry.  We really have come a long way.    
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