American Meat

If you like Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Vernor Vinge, Neal Stephenson and/or Paul Di Filippo, then this is a must-read. Hard boiled and well done. 14 alarms, but it sneaks up on you. Grandmother Spider, meet Sherkaner Underhill and Vicky Smith. Mia Sangre, meet Molly Millions and Ellen Ripley. Dr. Wan, meet Thomas Nau and Eldon Tyrell. Ratcatcher MacKay, meet Max Rockatansky and Korben Dallas. For the movie version (in my dreams), I'd cast Keira Knightly as Mia, Eddie Murphy as the voice of Miko D., Ethan Handler as the voice(s) of Nihilo, Terry O'Quinn as the leader of ACTS, and Tommy Lee Jones as our (anti-)hero, Batton.

This is a highly worthwhile addition to the original DARK FUTURE series written largely by Jack Yeovil (Kim Newman) back in the 1980s. Moore, a former editor then freelance writer at DC Comics, makes the mileau his own. I'm looking FWD to reading the sequel REALITY BITES. I've bought but not yet read the other new DF books and look FWD to them as well as MORE new books from Moore et alia.

I loved this series when Games Workshop first published them in the late 80s. I'm very happy to see the old books updated and back in print and thrilled that new books are being written. Long live Dark Future!

Sanctioned Operative Batton MacKay's partner and only friend is Dog. Dog is a cyber monkey, with a live monkey brain. As the story opens MacKay and Dog are in Florida doing some mercy killing on genetically mutated pigs. The partners have a run-in with a gangcult called The Mad Cows. The Mad Cows are militant vegetarians and THE nastiest gangcult in the south-eastern US. The leader is Mia Sangre, as beautiful as she is deadly. When MacKay leaves Florida, Mad Cows follow. MacKay and Dog are heading north on a job that pays enough for them to retire if they so wish. Fuzzies, Inc. (affiliated with GenTech) is the leader in DNA-Based Faunic Manipulation "DFM". Recently they have created a strain with far greater intelligence and range of emotional responses than before. These are called Intelligent DNA-Based Faunic Manipulation "i-DFM". Thus far, there are three: a dog, a cat, and a large mouse. These three have been kidnapped by ACTS, a survivalist military-stroke-religious group. MacKay's mission is to locate and recover the three i-DFM. Sounds easy. That should have been warning enough. ***** This is the best "Dark Future" novel I have read to date. Author Stuart Moore makes characters that the readers can actually sympathize with. He also used a topic that is big in today's time, animal rights. The two combine into a futuristic sci-fi story that will capture your interest on the first page and hold you tighter than Super Glue. Highly recommended! ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.