Mort(e)

Mort(e) by Robert Repino, 358 pages

What a weird, weird book...

Sebastian is a perfectly content house cat who has found a close friend in the neighbor's dog, Sheba, when a swift evolution causes animals worldwide to gain sentience, prehensile digits, the ability to walk upright, and the ability to talk. In the midst of the change, Sebastian loses track of Sheba, kills his master, and sets out to find his canine friend in the vast world outside his sunny windowsill. The rapid evolution (which takes place over the course of minutes or hours rather than eons) is thanks to a chemical created by ants, which are now waging war on humans, and are pressuring the other animals of the planet to take their side in this war. Sebastian soon sheds his "slave name" and becomes Mort(e), a hardened war hero with the Red Sphinx, an elite squad of feline fighters. But still, he cannot forget Sheba, and no matter how many times he tells himself that Sheba is dead, Mort(e) simply can't accept it or quit searching for her.

Told from Mort(e)'s point of view, this is a book that has plenty of religious, societal, and evolutionary themes; perhaps a few too many for my taste. I kept feeling like Repino wanted this book to be some big thought-provoking tale, but it just came across as simultaneously too forced and too vague. I'd also say that for such a large concept, Repino keeps it pretty closed, with only a couple wild animals (a bobcat, a couple of raccoons) appearing, and while it's a worldwide phenomenon, we only see what's happening to the animals in the Midwest. I would have loved to see how  chimpanzees and other primates, as well as marine mammals (and, heck, some non-mammals), handled the rapid evolution. But we're stuck with Mort(e)--who is, to Repino's credit, an interesting character, vacillating between war hero, lovelorn pet, and crotchety veteran, albeit an interesting character that still maintains a limited worldview.

Try it if you're up for something really odd.