Edited by Fred Patten
Cover art by Teagan Gavet and Tess Garman
Trade paperback, 339 pages
FurPlanet Productions, June 2012

This anthology is drawn from the first decade of winners – and in some cases, nominees – for the Ursa Major Awards, furry fandom's rough equivalent to science fiction fandom's Hugo Awards.

The Ursas are a popular vote; any fan can nominate a work in one of several categories, as well as vote on the final ballot. The Ursas started in 2001, organized by longtime fan and editor Fred Patten, who's also the editor of this volume (as well as a frequent reviewer on Flayrah).

Many of the stories feature illustrations from their original publication; all are introduced by Patten.

Compare: The Ursa Major Awards Anthology as reviewed by Roz Gibson, and by dronon.

The Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association, which administers the annual Ursa Major Awards, has updated the 2012 Anthropomorphic Reading List to include the titles recommended by furry fans through the end of August. This list is often used by fans to nominate in the next year's Awards.

All fans are invited to recommend worthwhile anthropomorphic works in eleven categories (motion pictures, dramatic short films or broadcasts, novels, short fiction, other literary works, graphic stories, comic strips, magazines, published illustrations, websites, and games) first published during 2012, if they are not already on the list.

Send in your recommendations and read the List to see what other fans have recommended. Have you read all twenty-one comic strips, for example? What have you been missing?

Isiah offers his own thoughts and analysis on Roar as a part of a twelve-part review series

See also: Reviews of Roar 4 by Roz Gibson and Fred Patten.

Kyell Gold wrote The Silver Circle as his first entry into the paranormal romance genre. As such, it is not a category-anthropomorphic novel as much as a category-werewolf novel, or a category-transformation novel. But it is Furry enough to please most anthro fans.

Valerie Creighton, a mid-level career businesswoman in her mid-thirties, has just had a mini-nervous breakdown. She is recently divorced from her husband who never did support her; she is trapped at a large corporation where she watches men all rise to executive positions above her; and when one more big account is handed to somebody else (male), she blows up at a company conference and rants until she gets a nosebleed. Martin, her supervisor who, despite not promoting her, clearly does not want to lose her, suggests that she take two weeks leave to relax, and even offers to let her use his vacation cabin at Lake Wahya.

Val, who is taking her maiden name of Michaels back, arrives at the lakeside grocery store just in time to encounter two unusual men; a taciturn older man with a thick Eastern European accent and a silver ring on his middle left finger, and a handsome man about her own age whom the storekeeper clearly does not trust. The next day, kayaking out to a little island in the midst of the lake, she finds the just-killed body of the older man with his throat torn out, and the other man dying with two silver-headed arrows in him.

This is a mature content book. Please ensure that you are of legal age to purchase this material in your state or region. (publisher’s advisory)

FurPlanet Productions, June 2012, trade paperback $11.95 (vii + 141 pages), Kindle $4.99.

As a club-goer most likely to get down to goth/industrial/EBM, I'm not qualified to say much about hip hop/rap. However, I know that MC Crumbsnatcher is a secret goth too, and that's my fursuited ass he's humping at 4:00 in the video, so let's do this.

The San Francisco Bay area hosts many subculture scenes. They bring people together who often stay separate in less busy places. MC Crumbsnatcher's ties might be tagged as spoken word/slam poetry, indie rap, electro, Nerdcore and Homocore. His Facebook page also lists Poo Joke Teller, ruiner of childhoods, and being a trained psychic. Let's add Furry to the list.

Content warning: Video contains extremely graphic sexual language and suggestive dancing.