Greetings, Readers! I have another great book to share with you this month.
I did a Spotlight on the first book in this series a little while back. You can check it out Here and I recommend that book highly. Can its sequel live up to my love for Mort(e)? You’ll have to read on to find out.
A small refresher on the lore for this world is incoming; obviously, this is a heapin’ helpin’ of spoilers for the first book in this series so my recommendation is read that book first and then come back to this article. It’s fine, I’ll wait.
The world has been turned on its head. A queen ant who got fed up with humanity’s disregard for its fellow creatures has been brewing a plan since the days of the Roman Empire. Accumulation of knowledge and technology has allowed for this colony to become so much more than your average anthill. Not only has the colony grown in size and scope, but it has likewise lifted the other animals of this world out of their former ecological niches, granting them language and the use of tools. An all-out war on humanity was waged and we did not do well as a result.
The hero of Mort(e) is a house cat named Sebastian. In his unchanged state, he had a very deep connection with the neighbor’s dog Sheba. That was the central drive for him in book one and it continues into book two.
So, grab your copy and read along. We’re headed out to sea in this War with no Name.
Book Stats
- Author: Robert Repino
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, and Audiobook.
Price: $9.99 for the Kindle. $15.04 for the paperback. $13.17 for the Hardcover. $14.95 for the Audiobook, or one Credit on Audible.
Length: 400 pages or 11 hours 5 minutes for the Audio book.
Narrator: Bronson Pinchot
Number of books in the series: Three at the time of writing – two full books, one novella. A fourth, or third will be available for pre-order and will be released August 24th 2021.
Basic Premise
At the end of the last book, Mort(e) had been given a dose of the cocktail of hormones that could transform any regular animal into one of the sentient, sapient creatures that had been created by the Queen and Colony. He had also been reunited with Sheba who had never experienced the change.
He gives her the dose, loads her into a boat and says Goodbye to civilization.
As Sheba changes, she’s almost reborn. Able to talk, to think in a way she never was able to before. So many new ideas and new questions! Mort(e), somewhat grizzled and hardened from his time as a soldier on the front lines of the War with no Name is eager to set them up away from the rest of the world on a farm where they capture and re-home Queen-less alpha soldier ants from the wilds around their home. They collect quite a colony of these giant ants (They are, in terms of size, large enough to ride like horses.) and harvest meat and skins from them as if they were livestock.
But Sheba isn’t the only creature to be reborn in this world. There are others.
Deep in the ocean, a creature named Taalik is also changing. The hormones used to uplift the creatures of the land have worked their way into the ocean, changing life there, too. This new breed is called Sarcops and they are ready to orchestrate a hostile takeover of both land and sea.
Years pass and the world Mort(e) has done his best to avoid comes calling. A Beaver settlement nearby, with whom Mort(e) and Sheba trade Alpha meat and hides, is under attack. A massive arachnid monster has taken over their city and is capturing many of their people. Mort(e) and Sheba have a certain reputation with the people who survived the War. He is the Warrior and she is the Mother and their names are the stuff of legend. Mort(e) for his part earned this legendary status, being a member of the Red Sphinx; an all feline (Well. Mostly feline.) unit of soldiers that was known for being good at what they did… and what they did was slaughter the enemy. It’s no wonder, then, that the beaver matriarch extends an invitation to Mort(e) and Sheba to come and help resolve this issue.
Sheba wants to help, but Mort(e) doesn’t want to get involved with the affairs of the outside world.
His hand is forced, however, and surprise surprise – there’s more to this than just one giant spider-crab. There’s Sarcops encroachment on dry land and a string of murders related to use of the translation device that the Queen used to use to communicate with the uplifted animals. So much intrigue! It’s the perfect place for a young Dog to find herself and discover what she’s capable of…. but will Mort(e) like the person she’s becoming? She’s even taken a new name; D’arc.
How does it all shake out? If you want to know, you need to read it.
My Take
I adored the first War with no Name book and I binged this one directly after. I’ve been sitting on it and waiting to review it because next month the third and final full book comes out and I wanted to give that a plug for people who might be interested. I listened to this second one again recently in preparation for this Spotlight and was worried that, as sometimes happens, the story wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it from the first listen.
Fears that were unfounded. I loved it just as much the second time.
And let’s be very clear; I’m not even a big fan of war stories. Sure, I love books about animals and bugs and weird hybrid animals, but as I said in the first review I did on this series, these books are stories about a soldier. Mort(e) is a warrior who’s war isn’t quite done with him just yet. He and the other characters who populate these books are just really well done. Mort(e) is a cat at his core, but he’s human enough that his anxieties and awkwardness are just so easy to relate to. This is a war story I can sink my teeth into.
The Sarcops are an entirely new facet to this forever changed world and they’re just so deliciously alien and creepy. There’s something so cold about them that they’re the perfect foil for Mort(e)’s emotional complexity. (There’s one scene toward the end where the difference between Taalik and Mort(e) is laid bare and it’s a particularly touching moment.) They’d be at home in a much darker story. Imagine Lovecraft’s fish men from the dark seas around Innsmouth meets Creature from the Black Lagoon and you’re halfway there.
All in all, I highly recommend this book, just as fervently as I recommended the previous entry. And if
you’re interested, you can pre-order Book 3, Malefactor Here.
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