While others' classified Mort(e) a post-apocalyptic cat detective novel, I prefer to describe it as Puss n' Boots meets Thundercats on Animal Farm!
Alternatively an updating of “Animal Farm” and a meditation on friendship and free will, “Mort(e)” is complex, beguiling, and often bloody. Despite its science fiction-fantasy set up, this is very much a book for adults: Mort(e)’s neutered status is rudely alluded to (he is a “choker’’), and the brutality of war is presented prosaically.
In the future, ants have evolved and developed a chemical that causes other animals to grow human like gain consciousness which in turn allows them to join the ants war against humans.
The “Change” happens to Sebastian, our cat protagonist, just as the war arrives at his masters’ doorstep. In the chaos of this global animal uprising, he’s separated from his beloved friend Sheba (dog). His quest to find Sheba is interrupted when he is conscripted into the Red Sphinx, an anti-human insurgency squad led by a bobcat named Culdesac.
What happens next is convoluted and, perhaps, inevitable as the war winds down and the transition to a peaceful new order begins. Despite his desire to resign from active duty and live alone with his memories, a pitbull named Wawa drafts Mort(e) into the fray when a new, more subtle terror begins. As he investigates this deadly counteroffensive and is caught up in a strange prophecy, he begins to receive messages that Sheba may, in fact, still be alive.
My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars) - I really liked it.
