Genre

Urban Sci-Fi Fantasy

Synopsis

In a solar-powered future, humans live in luxury, served by unseen Little Helpers – artificially enhanced animals who maintain their perfect green cities. The animals’ number one rule: ‘do not bother the humans’. Yet, beneath this tranquil facade, a complex underworld of animal politics, crime and conflict thrives.

Enter Skotch, a freelance raccoon investigator. Until now, his biggest problem has been a lack of work. Now, his work may get him killed. His latest case? Finding a fugitive mouse scientist. But powerful forces are also after Doctor Meece, and they’re willing to kill for his secrets.

Can Skotch navigate this treacherous web, outsmart rat gangsters, beat a deadly weasel assassin and keep his pelt intact? More importantly, can he find his quarry before the elusive rodent breaks Rule One in the most apocalyptic way – and shatters their fragile world?

Review

Before you read any further I’d like to highlight a potential trigger warning, particularly for those who use reading as a method of escapism. This book covers a few factors that were starting to become more aware as a society and aspects of this book are a social commentary on those factors. Whilst some people enjoy books that do this others don’t.

Over the years Adrian Tchaikovsky is an author I’ve attempted to read multiple times, unfortunately due to being a mood reader or not quite clicking with a book / short story this is the first of his works I’ve finished, having read Green City Wars I can safely say this won’t be the last Adrian Tchaikovsky I read.

From the outset this book may seem like a simple noir mystery with animals but this certainly isn’t the case, Adrian Tchaikovsky has created a story and world with so much depth. The society of this word is filled with a plethora of animals known as ‘helpers’ that have increased intelligence and they take care of a lot of the mundane tasks for humans but as the synopsis alludes to they must also abide by rule 1. Unfortunately this increased intelligence comes at a cost and creates a society with a dependency and like our own world there are those willing to step over others to live as they are and the similarities don’t end there. Its clear Adrian Tchaikovsky has well researched animal ecosystems, who they fear and are at war with for territory as a lot of animal species in this world are aligned to certain factions / gangs that have their own desired path, place and end goal.

The depth that has been created is fascinating and is intertwined throughout a story that is mostly well paced, I say mostly as there was times I felt that this book felt a little drawn out due to certain parts of the world building being more drawn out than I would have found necessary, this however is just a nitpick from my perspective as I know there will be others that will enjoy these moments. Putting this nitpick aside I thoroughly enjoyed the story Adrian Tchaikovsky has created and even made me feel attached to a particularly annoying character. At around the 50% mark is did start to suspect what the twist and resolution of the story would be however with the way this has been written it does also lead you to believe it could go in other directions due to certain dark natures of the world.

Overall I think this is great standalone book and I would highly recommend it to those new to Adrian Tchaikovskys work but also those who have enjoyed his previous work.

As I mentioned at the start of this review this certainly won’t the last of the works by Adrian Tchaikovsky that I read, the way in which he has written and clearly researched the animals of the world is masterful so its very likely what I pick up next will be his ‘Dogs of War’ or ‘Shadows of the Apt’ series, both of which have been on my tbr for quite some time and focus on stories from an animals perspective.