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Florida furry dead, police hunt serial killer.
Anthony, AKA James Firefox, was age 20. As a furry fan, he shared fandom creativity through music. As a person, media reports say he was autistic, but reaching for independence. Public buses in his neighborhood in Tampa, Florida took him to his job where he was packaging hurricane relief supplies. A light glance at his online profiles shows that he expressed frustration about social difficulties, but seemed to find a lot of happiness with music, cartoons and furry art. Sometimes it was edgy but other parts showed self awareness like criticizing memes about the las vegas shooting out of sensitivity for others.
On October 19, he got on an unfamiliar bus line when his usual one was shut down. He ended up in the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time and became an unlucky statistic. He was the third victim of a series of shootings in Tampa’s Seminole Heights neighborhood that appear to be done by a serial killer.
Ever since that time, his family has been actively speaking out for justice. His father said he had been assaulted and robbed earlier in 2017 in a different neighborhood and that his son’s special needs made him an easy target. Media says his father and stepmother have “remained heavily involved in the community since his death” and been “walking the streets, talking to people, desperately looking for answers.”
A puzzling part of the story is lack of motive, spreading fear in the community that has affected businesses and led Tampa’s mayor to be unusually outspoken about stopping the crimes. There’s currently a $41,000 reward for helping to close the case.
On November 14th, a fourth victim was reported. This time there’s a witness description resembling an earlier person of interest seen on security video.
The serial killer who shot @divinefirefox on October 19 just killed a fourth victim. https://t.co/yFTYazEF1D
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) November 15, 2017Anyone who knew him is encouraged to help fill in the story. It gives me a feeling that you may never realize what’s going on behind someone’s fursona you see online, when they’re around or after they’re not.
The Ape You Fear The Most
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the original Planet of the Apes movie. (“You blew it up!”) You can bet there will be plenty of media celebrating that milestone. Possibly first out of the gate, BOOM! Studios has a new full-color series: “BOOM! Studios and Twentieth Century Consumer Products are excited to announce Planet of the Apes: Ursus, a comic book series launching in January 2018 about the classic franchise’s most notorious villain. Written by David F. Walker (Power Man & Iron Fist, War for the Planet of the Apes) and illustrated by Christopher Mooneyham (Five Ghosts) — both longtime fans of the franchise — the series will follow the rise through the ranks of the ape who has hated (and feared) mankind the most, including what first brought him to the Forbidden Zone. This is the first project from BOOM! Studios in 2018 as part of their yearlong celebration of the franchise’s 50th anniversary.” Previews has an extensive interview with Mr. Walker about bringing the series to life.
image c. 2017 BOOM! Studios
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John Lewis: Moz The Monster
S7 Episode 3 – The Mega Blocks of Success - Tired of working retail? Do you feel you're not content with your life? Roo and Tugs are joined in the linked studio by Haku as they discuss resumé writing, how to get professional experience, and become a more
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Music
Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
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Next episode: Our next episode is about Taurs! Send your email by November 15, 2017! S7 Episode 3 – The Mega Blocks of Success - Tired of working retail? Do you feel you're not content with your life? Roo and Tugs are joined in the linked studio by Haku as they discuss resumé writing, how to get professional experience, and become a more
Q&A with Kazul of Kazplay, first place winner for cosplay at Blizzcon.
Kazul G. Fox on Twitter – on Wikifur – Other social media links
Congrats on the win, Kazul! Who is Hogger, and how did the concept happen?
The Story of Hogger [Hearthstone Lore]
Hogger is an NPC from the World of Warcraft. He is the first elite mob that human characters encounter in Southern Elwynn Forest. Hogger has the reputation for being particularly dangerous and deadly because new players aren’t expecting him to be so strong. I chose this character because the unique body shape offered a good challenge, it was my goal to make this a very animated, highly mobile costume so that I could put on a good performance. I documented my process using #WantedHogger so people could catch up and see my progress quickly, anyone who stumbled upon one WIP, could quickly get caught up on the story of what was going on. I also have a few youtube videos that go into depth about the whole concept, design and build. I have plenty more footage and more parts to cover, more videos will be coming very soon.
Youtube channel: Kazplay Videos
I started building in April 2017, through some life challenges and an across the state move I was able to finish and attend Blizzcon 2017 and take first place in the costume contest.
Thank you Hogger for being a good boy 
#WantedHogger pic.twitter.com/Wjzu5XJvt2
Can you talk a little about what Blizzcon is, and was was it like to win there?
Blizzcon is my favorite convention of all time! It’s like a big family reunion of people who love Blizzard games, the passion and excitement in the air is palpable. I would say the cosplay community at Blizzcon especially feels like family. Everyone chats with each other over the year, encouraging and offering advice. The competition is top notch, everyone brings their A game, but it remains friendly. I love the cosplayers at Blizzcon, I have mad respect for them all. Winning there was incredible, it had been a goal of mine for so long and then it finally happened, I feel like I am on top of the world!
Can you talk about your ambitions with Hogger, cosplay, or anything else you do?
My goal when building Hogger was two fold: Movement and Finish. I wanted to make sure he was very flexible and mobile so that I could put on an unrestricted performance. I also wanted to have lots of sympathetic movement, things that moved without my input directly (like the flowing tail and mane, the bouncing ear) to give the illusion that he was more alive. Then on the finish, I wanted to focus on doing plenty of weathering. I wanted hogger to look like he smelt like a wet, dirty dog and I wanted all his clothes/armor to look beat up, worn and dirty to match him. Gnolls aren’t known for cleanliness.
With all my work I strive to make convincing characters. When I hear people ask “how is it moving like that?” “How is a person inside that?” when I know that I’ve tricked their brain well enough that they can only see what is in front of them as a real creature, that’s when I win.
How about yourself… how did you get into doing this, and what do you do in animation?
I have been creative my whole life, I always have a sketchbook with me and I can get rather grumpy if I don’t have a project to work on. My mother was a seamstress and taught me sewing, my grandmother was a sculptor and painter and taught me a few things as well. I have always had a high drive to accomplish things, my parents noticed from a young age that I could and would do anything I set my mind to. When I was 6 years old the movie Toy Story came out, it was the first 3D animated feature film. It was so incredible to me at a young age that I decided that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. So I worked hard all through school, got a BFA in Animation, and I worked as an animator in the video game industry for 5 years.
With Blizzcon, ever since my first time competing in the cosplay contest in 2013, it has been my goal to win 1st prize. Each year I pushed myself with more complicated designs and challenged myself to learn the techniques I needed so that I could win.
How is the cosplay world different from what furry readers may be familiar with? Is this inspired by furry stuff or adjacent to it, and do any parts show your own unique creativity that furries don’t ordinarily do? Do you have any good words for creative furries?
I did start my costume making career in the furry fandom. There was a lot of tutorials and resources out there that helped make it approachable. The skills I learned and the connections I’ve made with other fursuit makers and artist in the fandom are very valuable to me, but I felt at one point that the fandom was holding me back as an artist. I didn’t think I could make anything more than the cartoony suits that I had built, and I thought no one would appreciate my work if I tried something else. I finally let myself take that step outside the fandom and my work has greatly benefited.
My work is far more influenced by sources outside the furry fandom. I love the cosplay community in particular because there are so many varied sources of inspiration, so many different techniques and materials. I love movie monsters, and practical effects have been a strong influence on my life. Finding the Stan Winston School of Character Arts was a game changer for me and how I build. I love video games, especially Blizzard’s games. I have been playing Blizzard games since I can remember, so I absolutely love the designs in their games.
With Hogger I brought in a lot of my love and admiration of puppetry into the design. If I had any advice for creative furries it would be pursue the things you love, let yourself admire and pursue things that aren’t in the ‘furry aesthetic’. Open yourself to a broader sphere of designs, aesthetic and techniques, and you’ll find you can do more than you thought. Also if you put real passion and effort into your work, that will resonate with an audience. I love creatures and animals, that’s what brought me to the furry fandom in the first place. But now I’m not so concerned about trying to fit in to a particular ‘furry’ label, and I find myself more free to pursue exactly what I love, and that has opened a lot of doors.
Thanks Kazul – hope to see much more good work from you. (Here’s some more fun stuff for readers).
Got some time to write out more thoughts about this incredible weekend #WantedHogger pic.twitter.com/R0D61qAnpi
Tanking a few moments to appreciate the 7 month long process of creating #wantedHogger
Thank you so much for following along! pic.twitter.com/NrFxA3oIXe
We're all smiles as we head off to #Blizzcon! #wantedHogger is especially smiley pic.twitter.com/Vkc7WQ95ga
— Kazul Cosplay (@KazulGFox) November 1, 2017Hogger is on the prowl! #wantedHogger pic.twitter.com/Orpr3Rgc0s
— Kazul Cosplay (@KazulGFox) October 31, 2017*Yawn*#wantedHogger pic.twitter.com/oJZ5L3CqdN
— Kazul Cosplay (@KazulGFox) October 31, 2017Thank you #Blizzcon2017!! It was an honor to host community night! And congratulations to @KazulGFox & all the amazing artists & cosplayers! pic.twitter.com/NqWQIxIf7q
— Chris Hardwick (@hardwick) November 4, 2017Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward. They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.600
TigerTails Radio Season 10 Episode 50
Judy Laverne Hopps Theme (1971)
Judy Hopps is a twenty-something single rabbit who settles in Zootopia after breaking up with a boyfriend. She lands a job as an police oficer. Her boss, Chif Bogo, hates her spunk but often looks to her to solve crimes (or even personal problems). Mary's other coworkers include news Nick Wilde, gossipy Benjamin Clawhouser. Mary's home is in the modest "Grand Pangolin Arms". I believe this tape was a rerun recorded from an old UHF station from around 1987ish. *Coughs*
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10th Kingdom Interview at FurryFandom.es
It has over 950 Amazon reviews.
The 10th Kingdom was a 10-hour miniseries from 2000 about a young woman and her father who were transported from New York City into the magical fairytale lands of the 9 Kingdoms. The 10th Kingdom was well received and won an Emmy when it was released. It has an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mike Retriever, admin of Spanish (and international) furry news site furryfandom.es, has an interview up with actor Scott Cohen, who played the character of Wolf in The 10th Kingdom. Mike’s article is worth checking out:
This miniseries is simply phenomenal. Award-winning screenplay writer Simon Moore, who also wrote Gulliver’s Travels (1996) and co-wrote Traffic (2000), wondered what may have happened after the ‘Happily Ever After’ of old fairytales, and his vision became the screenplay to this miniseries. But it isn’t just greatly written. It’s also endearing, funny, entertaining for both kids and adults, and, it’s immensely furry!
It comes with a plea to sign the change.org petition asking for a sequel to the show that has 3300 signatures at time of posting. From Change.org:
The 10th Kingdom has a thriving fan base that continues to grow steadily attracting new viewers. This is evident by the increasing sales, including the 15th Year Anniversary Edition, which is currently ranked among Amazon’s top Best Sellers of Fantasy Blu-rays.
The 10th Kingdom: Sign the petition for a sequel! https://t.co/qlKQvqsnu2
Read our interview with actor Scott Cohen! https://t.co/XMRkh9EX79 pic.twitter.com/Liogf5szA6
Animals to Cuddle
As we’ve noted, if you’re talking about Furry Fandom the word “cute” is never far away. And if you’re talking about cute, plush animals are probably going to come up too. Well at the L.A. Comic Con we came across an artist called Bellzi, who specializes in cute plush animals. In literally dozens of designs in fact. “Anything and Everything Cute” their web site says, and they live up to that ideal!
image c. 2017 by Bellzi
FC-284 Fake Mews - We discuss an upcoming movie release where Fayroe participated in suit as an extra, unbox some gifts from fans and read the news.
We discuss an upcoming movie release where Fayroe participated in suit as an extra, unbox some gifts from fans and read the news.
Watch Video Link Roundup:- Stick a dildo to the bean and run away day
- Vice Canada’s tweet about furry fursuit maker
- Twitter is now 280 characters, people playing Connect 4
- Boozy Badger hits rock bottom in ball pitt
- Paradox’s moving vlog episode 6
- Driverless Shuttle Gets Hit By A Truck During Its Debut Ride In Las Vegas
- Elderly woman accused of training her 65 cats to steal from neighbors
- Excited Tourist Goes On Quest To Find Hidden Penises Across The U.S.
- Secrets of Gift Giving Crows
- Walmart Shopper Who Broke His Hip Picking Out A Watermelon Awarded $7.5 Million
FC-284 Fake Mews - We discuss an upcoming movie release where Fayroe participated in suit as an extra, unbox some gifts from fans and read the news.
We discuss an upcoming movie release where Fayroe participated in suit as an extra, unbox some gifts from fans and read the news.
Watch Video Link Roundup:- Stick a dildo to the bean and run away day
- Vice Canada’s tweet about furry fursuit maker
- Twitter is now 280 characters, people playing Connect 4
- Boozy Badger hits rock bottom in ball pitt
- Paradox’s moving vlog episode 6
- Driverless Shuttle Gets Hit By A Truck During Its Debut Ride In Las Vegas
- Elderly woman accused of training her 65 cats to steal from neighbors
- Excited Tourist Goes On Quest To Find Hidden Penises Across The U.S.
- Secrets of Gift Giving Crows
- Walmart Shopper Who Broke His Hip Picking Out A Watermelon Awarded $7.5 Million
[Live] Fake Mews
We discuss an upcoming movie release where Fayroe participated in suit as an extra, unbox some gifts from fans and read the news.
Link Roundup:- Stick a dildo to the bean and run away day
- Vice Canada’s tweet about furry fursuit maker
- Twitter is now 280 characters, people playing Connect 4
- Boozy Badger hits rock bottom in ball pitt
- Paradox’s moving vlog episode 6
- Driverless Shuttle Gets Hit By A Truck During Its Debut Ride In Las Vegas
- Elderly woman accused of training her 65 cats to steal from neighbors
- Excited Tourist Goes On Quest To Find Hidden Penises Across The U.S.
- Secrets of Gift Giving Crows
- Walmart Shopper Who Broke His Hip Picking Out A Watermelon Awarded $7.5 Million
Rabbit, Take Me Home!
An interesting project we stumbled across at the LA. Comic Con, with the deceptively simple title of Bun. Brought to us by the writing and illustration team of Brian Silveira and Lisa Nguyen, Bun is a graphic novel fantasy/horror series the couple created and published themselves. Their web page describes it like this: “A boy. A girl. An unspeakable evil. A rabbit.” An interview in a local newspaper gave us a bit more description: Bun is “…an intricate tale that follows a young boy and his pet rabbit, the titular Bun. The book picks up after the boy, Milo, loses his mother to cancer. In the wake of her death, his father retreats into alcoholism and depression, essentially making the boy an orphan, alone and struggling with his grief. Milo suddenly disappears, transported to another world where his rabbit Bun serves as the only bridge back home.” The first and second installments of this black & white series are available now.
image c. 2017 by Silveira/Nguyen
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The Star Justice Series, by Michael-Scott Earle – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Star Justice series
Eye of the Tiger: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure, by Michael-Scott Earle
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, April 2017, trade paperback, $15.99 (439 pages), Kindle $2.99.
Space Witch: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure, by Michael-Scott Earle
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, May 2017, trade paperback, $15.99 (424 pages), Kindle $2.99.
Zeta Hack: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure, by Michael-Scott Earle
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, June 2017, trade paperback, $16.99 (605 pages), Kindle $2.99.
Binary Pair: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure, by Michael-Scott Earle
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, July 2017, trade paperback, $16.99 (568 pages), Kindle $4.99.
Burning Bright: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure, by Michael-Scott Earle
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, August 2017, trade paperback, $16.99 (519 pages), Kindle $4.99.
These books should be readable quickly. The pages are in LARGE type. At an estimate, they contain only half or less of the wordage of most books; so I would guess that the 439 pages of Eye of the Tiger would be only about 220 pages in most books.
The five Star Justice novels are space opera s-f, not anthro animal fiction, but the main protagonist is a bioengineered seven-foot-tall were-tiger super-warrior. Amazon’s blurb is, “Star Justice is less military space opera and more of a ‘band of misfits in space’. Think Serenity, Farscape, Guardians of the Galaxy, Mass Effect, Cowboy Bebop, and Outlaw Star. If you liked those stories, you’ll love Star Justice.” That’s an American futuristic movie and a TV series, a Marvel superhero comic book (and the movies based on it), a video game, and two Japanese anime TV series. Guardians of the Galaxy and Outlaw Star have anthro animal characters among their “band of misfits in space”, and Cowboy Bebop has Ein, the corgi data dog. Readers certainly know what they’re getting into.
The setting is over 3,000 years in the future. Humanity has settled the galaxy. Civilization ranges from urbanized planets mostly controlled by megacorporations, to frontier worlds. The megacorporations engage in warlike rivalry with each other. Each of the five novels has a different setting – Mad Scientists’ lair, Western, urban crime – but each is in its own way a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” (Star Wars™) that the heroes have to escape.
Eye of the Tiger begins with one corporation’s airplane approaching its target. The plane carries a command staff about to launch into a mission with 31 enslaved prisoners. The prisoners are all criminals bioengineered to become tiger-men super-soldiers. One of them, “Adam”, so named because he is the first experimental super-soldier to survive the process, is the narrator. He hates his sadistic controllers.
“‘Adam, Adam, Adam,’ he [a scientist-controller] sighed. ‘Oh sorry, I mean Subject Two. This is your thirty-first sortie. I just can’t seem to kill you. Whatever shall I do? Oh, I know. You have point. Shotgun, pistol, knife, and how about a smoke grenade? That should do you fine.’” (Eye of the Tiger, pgs. 9-10)
Adam is the leader of the 31 super-soldiers, all bioengineered to turn into tiger-man killers, controlled by explosive collars to blow their heads off if they disobey. The point man, the team leader, is invariably the first to be killed.
“My muscles began to enlarge. They twisted, thrashed, and tried to leap from my skeleton, but my skin kept them from escaping as agony poured through my blood. The pain of my transformation also brought a feeling of euphoria. Unlimited strength seemed to fill my arms, legs, and chest. It felt as if I could bend the shotgun into a 90-degree angle, but I kept my desires in check.
I’d need the gun if I planned to stay alive.
I didn’t see the fur, but I felt it explode from my skin and fill the remaining spaces between the armor. My jaw widened with my skull, ad my old teeth were forced out of my gums by six centimeter long fangs. I never had access to a mirror, but I knew what the other prisoners looked like when they changed their forms, and could guess what I looked like:
A walking tiger in black carbon plated military armor.” (pgs. 13-14)
The team’s mission is to parachute onto a heavily-defended enemy laboratory, fight their way inside, and steal “‘a biosample contained within the labs there. Once it has been retrieved, you will rendezvous back on the top of the roof where this aircraft will pull a fly-by pick up. Eliminate all resistance to your mission.’” (p. 12)
The “biosample” turns out to be a vampiric beautiful nude woman with glowing red eyes, floating in a liquid-filled transparent tube. The woman is telepathic and telekinetic. She calls mentally to Adam to free her, telekinetically removing the explosive collar from his neck.
They escape together amid lots of gunfights, explosions, gore, and thousands of innocent bystanders killed. Since “Adam” is a pseudonym because he was the first tiger-man, she adopts the name “Eve” because she’s similarly the first of her kind.
As soon as they are safe, Adam turns back to human:
“I had never maintained my half-tiger form for this long, and I felt my hunger gnaw through my stomach like a disease. The starvation made my anger spiral to a slight insanity, and I couldn’t help from growling every time I breathed in the stench of the sewer that covered us. The feline part of my soul wanted to clean myself up, but we didn’t have time for such activities, and that also made me angry.” (p. 75)
For most of The Eye of the Tiger, Adam is in human form, but it can be argued that he is always a tiger disguised as a human:
“The technology inside of me was new. The powers the experiments gave me made me superhuman. Even when I wasn’t in my half-tiger form, I was still many times faster, stronger, and more aware than [I had] been before my change. The world was alive with colors, scents, sounds, and raw emotion. I could sense all of it as it flew by me. It had taken a while for me to get used to myself after the final phase of their experiments. I was probably more animal than human. Unless one considered humans to be animals, then I was probably more tiger than man. More monster than thinking creature.
More hunter than prey.” (p. 149)
While they are temporarily relaxing in a cheap motel room, Adam ponders on what they have become and what they can do for the rest of their lives. (He doesn’t even know what planet his corporation has brought him to. Eve tells him they are on the primary world in the Trappist-1 system, forty light-years from the Sol system.) Eve proposes that they stay together:
“‘There are many like us,’ she said. The woman had been drying off her hair, but she seemed to be done, and she set the wet towel down on the couch next to her.
‘Like us?’
‘Some exactly like us. Some like us in the sense that they are being used as weapons. They are prisoners, and forced to fight in an endless battle between the mega corporations, governments, and militaries of our galaxy.’” (pgs. 98-99)
In a later firefight, while Adam is still in his human form, Z, a snarky super-computer hacker (incidentally a teenage beautiful blonde – that’s Adam and Z on the cover of Zeta Hack), asks:
“‘How are you still walking? You’ve got a fucking bloody hole the size of my palm on your back,’ she asked as she bent to grab one of the long guns.
‘I’m hard to kill.’” (p. 177)
Between the action scenes, Adam gets introspective about what has been done to him:
“Once my eyes had been brown with a few flecks of green in them. Now they were a strange goldish-yellow. The pupil was still round, but as I stared at myself [in a mirror], I willed my vision to begin to shift, and I saw the black circle in the middle of my iris begin to elongate. I shook my head and then rubbed the bridge of my nose before looking in the mirror again.
How long would I live?
Even if we didn’t get captured or shot full of holes trying to escape this planet, I’d been re-created and mutated with the DNA. Had they just used tigers? Or did they use other creatures as well? I didn’t know exactly what they did to me, but I didn’t imagine it had done any favors for my longevity. I might only have a few Earth months left. I didn’t recall them injecting me with drugs to keep me living, but that didn’t mean my body wouldn’t fray at the edges and come apart when the alien DNA battled against my human parts.” (pgs. 209-210)
Eve and Adam need to get off-planet and preferably out-system. Their plan, with Z’s help, is to compel the president of weapons design and manufacturing of the Elaka Nota Corporation (the megacorp that controls the world they are on, and that experimented on Eve) to take them to the megacorp’s private spaceport facility and steal a starship with warp drive. Z is reluctant to join them:
“‘Are you two just going to eat me after I help you? I don’t know what kind of crazy shit you both are into. That guy turned into a fucking walking tiger with big ass teeth. You have crazy red eyes and just admitted you are a vampire. How do I know you won’t just suck all the blood out of me and then feed me to your boyfriend when all this is over? You’re hot and all, but I’d like to keep my blood where it is, thanks.’” (pgs. 214-215)
Z does join them, fortunately since she gets the best lines:
“‘Yesterday I was figuring out how to spend all the money you were going to pay me. I was going to buy a cat. Ha. I really like them. I found this one with tiger stripes. I’ve always had a thing for the old Earth cats. Now I’m about to steal one of Elaka Nota’s hyperdrive ships with a man who is a giant walking tiger. This is the weirdest sex dream I’ve ever had.’” (p. 348)
They find, with maximum drama and violence, a strange starship at the Elaka Nota spaceport. They assume it’s an experimental model (with warpdrive, hyperdrive, and folding drive), but what it really is is revealed later. They escape to the nearest inhabited solar system, Gliese 876, in the ship that they name Persephone:
“‘Thank you! I’m going to engage the warpdrive. Partially because it sounds cool, and partially because I’m scared shitless of using the fold –’” (pg. 376)
Eye of the Tiger (cover by Alejandro Gonzalez Agudelo) includes almost nonstop graphic military action:
“My bullet entered him at the pelvis, ripped up through his stomach, under his ribcage, into his heart, through his lungs, and then exited at the top of his shoulder.” (p. 257)
And military humor:
“I moved back to the sewer hole, jumped down, set our gear bags over my shoulder, and then climbed back up to the alley.
‘Z, can you see?’
‘Oh sure, looks like black with darker spots of black on a burning black background of blackness.’” (p. 260)
Space Witch, Book 2 (cover also by Alejandro Gonzalez Agudelo), turns from futuristic mad scientists’ lair into a mostly space Western:
“‘What code did your starship’s computer give our little rock?’ the man asked as soon as he leaned on the railing of his balcony.
‘Gliese 876-C-ii,’ I said.
‘Ha! We like to call this place Greenpeace. You came to us in our dry season.’” (Space Witch, p. 49)
“It looked like a classic western type bar. One of those watering holes I recalled from the old movies with a pair of wooden double doors, dozens of dusty seats and sticky beer tables, a broken down jukebox in a corner, and inhabitants that looked like they had worked way too hard for way too many hours. There were about half a dozen men in the room, but only two of them looked up when Eve, Z, and I stepped into the tavern.” (p. 6)
But the characters stay true to space opera:
“The four men turned and set their hands on their laser pistols. I looked past them to study the woman closer. She wore a cowboy hat with a wide brim that hid her hair. The woman may have once been beautiful, but half of her face was made mostly of metal, and her left eye shone with a yellow laser glow. It was almost as if she wore a mask of polished steel shaped into the form of the rest of her face.
‘I’m not looking for trouble, Cynthia,’ John said as his hand rested on his pistol.” (p. 16)
Adam, Eve, and Z find themselves on Greenpeace in the midst of a range war between two powerful, corrupt ranchers, Wayne Sampson and Cynthia Jayhee, for control of the whole planet moon. Also, both are involved in helping a revolution on nearby (just 90,000 light-years away) Gliese 876-B-iv between its all-controlling, evil Alloprize Corporation and that world’s rebel fighters, the Children of Rah, the miners of its valuable rhodium, vital for starship engines. Both ranchers try to hire the trio to deliver food and medical supplies to Jatal Coorhar’s freedom fighters there. Somebody keeps trying to bushwhack Adam, Eve, and Z, and they don’t know which of the players is double-crossing them. Plus, they get their first eerie clues that the Persephone is something more than just an experimental starship:
“A shiver ran down my spine, and I turned to look across the launch platform. It felt as if someone were watching me again, but there was no one else here but me.
‘Persephone?’ I felt like an idiot for whispering the ship’s name, but Eve’s words were leaking into my beliefs. I was a weretiger, Eve was a vampire. None of these things should be possible, but here we were. Was our ship alive? I would have never believed it possible, but perhaps Elaka Nota had put an artificial intelligence on board.” (p. 127)
The last half of Space Witch takes place on Gliese 876-B-iv, where Adam, Eve, and Z help Jatal’s miners against the Alloprize Corp. Saying how it ends would be a spoiler.
Zeta Hack, Book 3 (cover by Boris Nikolic) sees Adam, Eve, and Z, on Persephone, arriving at the huge Queen’s Hat Station, a massive space station shaped like a giant Mexican sombrero, to sell a cargo of rhodium so they can buy food and hire a pilot, navigator, and other key crew – they’re exhausted from flying Persephone with only three people. They don’t expect any trouble at Queen’s Hat because its administration is militantly peaceful:
“‘Sounds good, Persephone. If you are looking to trade rhodium, there is no docking fee, but the harbor clerk will inspect your wares as soon as you exit onto our platform. We’ve got a no firearms policy in the station. If we catch a gun on you, we’ll throw you in prison for a few weeks. If you kill anyone on the station, we’ll throw you out the airlock. I’m forwarding you the bylaws attachment. There are more details of our policies in there.’” (Zeta Hack, p. 7)
But Zeta Hack’s theme is urban crime & warfare. They have hardly gotten into the space station when they are involved in a bank robbery with multiple deaths. Adam is forced to kill the robbers in self-defense. The station’s District B “Tight Uniform Bitch” police commissioner (a beautiful chain-smoking redhead) offers to let them go if Adam and Z will unofficially rid the district of its organized crime bosses within a week. Eve is held as a hostage. Otherwise all three will be spaced.
Suave gambling palaces, corrupt police, white slavery, bloody gang warfare, a killer android that masturbates, two million unsuspecting victims, unexpected allies, and an invading megacorp fleet. More is learned about Persephone and Eve:
“Then Eve discovered the scientists who controlled her experiments created other subjects. While less powerful than she, they showed more promise of becoming easier to manage weapons. It was important to Eve that we get a crew, no, a small army, and then hit back at Elaka Nota so the sisters she had met could be saved.” (p. 14)
Persephone is revealed to be, not an Elaka Nota experimental starship, but a mysterious starship of unknown origin discovered by the megacorp drifting empty in deep space.
Also, Adam’s and Z’s being forced to work closely together complicates their personal relationship:
“My feelings for the snarky hacker were growing stronger, but my love for Eve hadn’t faded. How could I have feelings for two women who were so different? What the hell was I going to do? What would I tell Eve?” (p. 345)
In Binary Pair, Book 4 (cover by ImGuss), a mysterious message sends Persephone, Adam, Eve, Z, and their two unusual new crewmates, engineers Paula and Kasta (that’s Paula and Kasta – or maybe Kasta and Paula – with Adam on the cover) to the other side of the galaxy and System Y-114a, a.k.a. Uraniel. They find an apparently pristine world full of abandoned cities with all their people in deep underground bunkers, thousands of raptor-like killer robots that attack all people on the surface every day at dawn and dusk, and a fleet of Lith Dae warships filled with space marines circling Uraniel.
Captain Renalta and Commander Tunar-Roz claim Uraniel is Lith Dae’s colony planet, and the robot drones are their technology gone wrong. They offer to hire the Persephone to help them correct the robots’ programming. Adam and the women learn that Lith Dae is trying to enslave Uraniel’s people, and plans to seize Persephone as soon as Adam & crew reprogram the drones. More importantly is why they were summoned to Uraniel:
“By the stars, Adam, the crust of this planet is filled with unearthed technology of an ancient and powerful race of humanoids. The wasps the people of Uraniel accidentally unleashed are just the tip of the iceberg. Lith Dae was able to recover a tiny portion of the technology, and they are using it to develop biological weapons they think will give them control over this part of the galaxy, maybe even the entire Milky Way.” (Binary Pair, p. 199)
Adam and the four women must outwit/defeat the entire Lith Dae fleet, and solve the problem of the ancient bird-drones to free Uraniel’s millions of true settlers. Binary Pair reveals Z’s real name.
Burning Bright, Book 5 (cover by Alejandro Gonzalez Agudelo again), begins:
“‘So, to summarize: there is a group of god-like vampire creatures that created the universe as some sort of galactic farm so that they can feed off of all life. Then they ate everything they could, planted new seeds of life in the universe, and went to sleep for a few billion years. Now they are waking up and are going to be hungry again?’” (Burning Bright, p. 7)
What more do you need to know?
A lot, because SURPRISE: Adam and his four women – yes, I know that’s a sexist phrase, but read this book and you’ll see how accurate it is – get immediately sidetracked on new adventures before they can begin to prepare a defense against the returning SAVOs (Superpowered Asshole Vampire Overlords). Burning Bright ends on a cliffhanger and a To Be Continued in Book 6, Prime Valkyrie. That’s a major spoiler, because as of this writing, Amazon is advertising Star Justice as a “5 Book Series”. But this is a review, and you deserve to know that you won’t get a clean conclusion from just these five books. They have been published one per month from April through August 2017, so presumably Book 6 will be out before this review is posted. (Postscript: It is; Book 6, Prime Valkyrie, in September.) (Postpostscript: So is Book 7, King Killer, out in October. Its blurb starts “Adam and his crew of beautiful women are together at last, but now they must circumnavigate the rite of passage that will most likely kill the weretiger captain.” It sounds like they’ve practically forgotten about the SAVOs that are coming to destroy the whole universe.)
I had better end this review here, or it will never get posted. Should you get into the series? Sure; for the first four books, at least. The Star Justice novels are space opera, not furry fiction, but Adam is a character who, when he is an anthro tiger, you will want to see in plenty of action. There is at least one scene of feral fury per book, not counting the times when Adam struggles with his tiger nature to keep from shifting. There are frankly more tiger scenes in the first books, because later on Adam becomes afraid of losing control of himself:
“It was getting harder to hold back my shifts, and I didn’t like the realization. I’d noticed a bit of it in Queen’s Hat. It had been too easy to shift, and it had been too hard to change back. I’d also stayed in my weretiger form for longer than I ever had, and the beast almost changed me into a full tiger.” (Binary Pair, p. 449)
Star Justice is superior space opera for the first four books. The plot details are well justified, and the action scenes are long and well choreographed. The sequence in Zeta Hack where Adam transforms into a tiger-warrior to singly take out a squad of thirty fully-armored riot police is over ten pages long. If you like “band of misfits in space” action-adventure, you can’t do any better than this.
However, by Burning Bright Earle has clearly begun padding the series, keeping it going past its natural conclusion; reaching for ever-more desperate battle action and hairbreadth escapes for Adam. Eve, Z, Paula, and Kasta devolve from strong individual characters into Adam’s Women, females who must be rescued; and a new, even more bad-ass Space Valkyrie is introduced to submit to Adam. Will Book 6 and Book 7 be the final volumes? Not if Earle can keep spinning Star Justice out for more.
- Buy Eye of the Tiger (Book 1) on Amazon
- Buy Space Witch (Book 2) on Amazon
- Buy Zeta Hack (Book 3) on Amazon
- Buy Binary Pair (Book 4) on Amazon
- Buy Burning Bright (Book 5) on Amazon
- Buy Prime Valkyrie (Book 6) on Amazon
- Buy King Killer (Book 7) on Amazon
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Awww. Weird, but Awww.
Every year we visit several comic book conventions, and every time we run across artists who specialize in cute. One of the latest is Rizzo Michelle. If you visit the official web site you’ll see artwork of little bunnies, little kittens, and sad little sharks (believe us, it works…), often in rather odd but fun settings. The art is available not only as prints but magnets, tote bags, and even plush toys.
image c. 2017 by Rizzo Michelle