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Dear Papa,

The first thing I wanna say is, English is not my first language, so I'm sorry if my grammar is uh, bad.

I'm a furry, we all are. and we've been making wonderful creativity things. I'm glad I found this fandom, and I wish I found it sooner, as well as my problem here.

Around 3-4 months ago, I found that r-21 things, such as gore, is appealing. not like I am into killing and be a murder. I love biochemistry, so that explains why I like to see dead bodies and every part of them. but I did not stop right there, I dug myself further into other fetishes. they are all extreme rated fetishes. and yet amputee is my favorite one, and still is. I’ve shown my friends those pics I found interesting; of course, they said I’m sick and judge me. That's okay I didn't care about it, we're still friend. but after that I questioned myself, why am I into it, but they don't. I did some personal research about why people have different ones. I asked many people, and I got myself the answer. which just makes me started liking some fetishes I totally wouldn't dare to try even once. if you wondered how, people explained why they love it in a logical way. 

Once, a friend of mine asked, why would I love amputee that much. I just simply told him how I felt about them: the feeling when you hug a much smaller guy, how they have to rely on me, making me feel great to have the honor to take care of them. I can carry him around and travel together, and when it comes to sexual fun, like it or not, he just has to deal with everything I do.

The idea of that obsessed me. I’m still in control of it, but I know some day I would not anymore. Yes, by that I mean a psycho sadist who chops off people's arms and legs and make them my love forcefully. don't worry I am and will not do anything like that. but in case there is a micro percent that I would, that's why I’m here. 

Am I okay, Papa? Is this a serious mental problem or anything, or just some extreme fetishes that other furs are into it too? I’d love to hear your word soon.

Rexz

* * *
 
Dear Rexz,
 
Having an amputee fetish is technically known as K. Parker Syndrome or acrotomophilia. The opposite of acrotomophilia (just FYI) is apotemnophilia, or the desire to be the amputee in a sexual relationship (acrotomophilia and apotemnophilia can also involve other disabilities, but usually it involves leg and sometimes arm amputation; interestingly, it is more common in males than in females).
 
You have already surmised the reason for this particular fetish: the desire to have complete control over one’s sexual partner. This can be, as in your case, coupled with a desire to be the loving caretaker of one’s partner.
 
Having this syndrome in no way indicates that you’re going to be inclined to wander the streets looking for victims to forcefully amputate. Based on what you’ve written, I see no reason for you to think you would do that sort of thing. Further, it is entirely possible that your interest in “gore” is completely clinical, as you stated. Perhaps, even, you might consider a career as a surgeon or other type of doctor. I’ve known some doctors and nurses who have told me things I would find creepy but, in their cases, it is an advantage. For instance, a nurse acquaintance spoke to me once about being completely fascinated by pus and other, well, gross wound leakages. Hey, I found it disgusting, but in her profession, it was great she wasn’t squeamish.
 
Having sexual fantasies does not mean we will necessarily indulge in them. In fact, that is one reason why furporn is popular and can, indeed, be a healthy form of sexual expression. One example is the vore fetish. People who find this interesting are not actually going to swallow someone whole, but looking at depictions of vore provides a form of safe sexual release.
 
Likewise, you can indulge, if you like, in amputee fantasies involving willing participants (those with apotemnophilia) who pretend to have been amputated (perhaps by binding legs or walking on their knees, for example). This is called being a “disability pretender.”
 
All that said, it is important to note that acrotomophilia can be a problem if it becomes obsessive and interferes with the rest of your life. This includes relationships. If you get into a personal relationship only because the other person satisfies your sexual needs, that is a problem. But, truthfully, there are many amputee admirers out there who lead normal lives; indeed, many have college degrees and important jobs. When the syndrome becomes detrimental to your ability to function in society, that is when you need to seek help in the form of psychotherapy.
 
The short answer for you, Rexz, is yes, you’re okay as long as you don’t allow your fetish to take control of your life.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

Another item we somehow passed over — and it’s been around a while! According to Wikipedia, The Jungle Bunch is a French / American / British animated TV series developed by David Alaux and Eric Tosti in 2013. It’s been airing in North America on the Universal Kids network. More recently a selection of episodes were edited together into a DVD release: The Jungle Bunch — The Movie, featuring the voice of John Lithgow. “The Jungle Bunch is the exciting tale of Maurice, a penguin who was raised in the jungle and thinks he’s a tiger! When two penguins from his Antarctic homeland come in search of ‘The Great Tiger Warrior’ to defend their colony from an invading herd of walruses, Maurice assembles a misfit team of jungle friends to save the day!” It’s available now at Amazon, and the trailer is up on YouTube.

image c. 2017 Universal

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Lots of new news!

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Fantastic video essay covers Bojack Horseman’s relationship psychology
• Reply All podcast confronts tech support scammer in real life
• Fursuit heads at Target
• Telegram official Twitter has a furry moment
  • Link 2
  • Link 3
• Twitter Battle of Science Museums
• Apple Creepy New Emoji

News:

• Funday Pawpet Show announces cancellation
• Snow leopards no longer endangered, upgraded to “vulnerable.”
• After-school Satan club tests the limits of church and state
• Could Hackers Program Sex Robots To Kill?
• Scientists Have Invented A Fourth Type Of Chocolate
• Snake People are killing the Snake Person-Killing industry
• God sick of shutting all these doors and opening all these fucking windows
• California grandpa throws man off roof to end hours-long police standoff

FC-278 Good Boy Club - Lots of new news!

Lots of new news!

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Fantastic video essay covers Bojack Horseman’s relationship psychology
• Reply All podcast confronts tech support scammer in real life
• Fursuit heads at Target
• Telegram official Twitter has a furry moment
  • Link 2
  • Link 3
• Twitter Battle of Science Museums
• Apple Creepy New Emoji

News:

• Funday Pawpet Show announces cancellation
• Snow leopards no longer endangered, upgraded to “vulnerable.”
• After-school Satan club tests the limits of church and state
• Could Hackers Program Sex Robots To Kill?
• Scientists Have Invented A Fourth Type Of Chocolate
• Snake People are killing the Snake Person-Killing industry
• God sick of shutting all these doors and opening all these fucking windows
• California grandpa throws man off roof to end hours-long police standoff

FC-278 Good Boy Club - Lots of new news!

Lots of new news!

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Fantastic video essay covers Bojack Horseman’s relationship psychology
• Reply All podcast confronts tech support scammer in real life
• Fursuit heads at Target
• Telegram official Twitter has a furry moment
  • Link 2
  • Link 3
• Twitter Battle of Science Museums
• Apple Creepy New Emoji

News:

• Funday Pawpet Show announces cancellation
• Snow leopards no longer endangered, upgraded to “vulnerable.”
• After-school Satan club tests the limits of church and state
• Could Hackers Program Sex Robots To Kill?
• Scientists Have Invented A Fourth Type Of Chocolate
• Snake People are killing the Snake Person-Killing industry
• God sick of shutting all these doors and opening all these fucking windows
• California grandpa throws man off roof to end hours-long police standoff

[Live] Good Boy Club

Hello, Papa Bear!

I am a new follower of your website and of course I had to follow because you seem so lovely and kind while being a bear I could just for sure hug on! But anyway, I have a concern.

A few months ago I decided to quit the fandom because I was both spending too much money on art for my old character and I just felt like I was too attached to it. My parents were very proud and so was my mate.

I lasted for a while, too. Only checking in to talk to the person who is buying my sona and the art. However, I felt kinda lonely without it. Most of my friends stayed, but I felt like it was hard to relate to them anymore. And not to mention I missed playing as a sweet cute little character who just wants to bring sunshine and happiness to the world.

So now I have a new sona. I've gotten art of her but not on the addiction level like I once was. I'm worried about my folks finding out and being disappointed, but my mate understands and is back in with me too. I'm quite happy again because lots of people wish to talk to me so I'm not as lonely as before.

But did I do the right thing? Am I just going to fall back into my problems again even though I'm aware and in a better place now? Should I have stayed away? Or was it the right idea to begin again with a more original looking fursona and have a fresh start since I'm happy?

Thank you for your time,
Cyandi 

* * *
 
Dear Cyandi,
 
Thank you for reading my column, dear. I’m happy to help.
 
Okay, so, sounds like you might have gotten a little carried away at first with the fandom. I guess we all do when we discover that there are others out there who like the same things we do. I went quite gah-gay over the fandom in my early days, including spending entire nights on SecondLife hanging with furries.

After a while, I calmed down a bit. I still love the fandom and am still a furry, but it doesn’t consume my life.
​
You’re doing the same thing. You got a bit too spendy, realized it, and backed off. Good for you! I know furries who can’t pay their bills because they spend all their cash on art and going to cons. You got smart and stopped yourself from doing that. Bravo.
 
But being in the fandom clearly makes you happy. So, why stop? I think you have your spending control, so there is no reason why you cannot enjoy your new sona and the camaraderie of your furiends.
 
I think you did the right thing, and I think you’re grown up enough to correct past mistakes and continue in the community.
 
Be Happy.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

Growing up on a diet of sci-fi and fantasy, transformation stories were the ones I loved and could always rely on the writers of most shows to fall back on one of it’s most loved tropes. For me they were always the most frustrating though, as characters spent their time trying either freaking or trying to change back, usually both. Frustratingly they almost never explored a person staying that way, gaining a new perspective on the world. It’s something I’d find renewed interest in when encountering the Furry Fandom and finally found quite literally in the works of Lobst, a furry comics artist who uses their anthropomorphic characters and an individual take on magical realism to express their unique experiences as a trans person.

As with the bulk of their work two of my favourites, both adult comics, prominently feature transgender characters and story lines. A Slightly Different Role follows the exploits of two huskies, Connor and Alex, the latter of which with the aid of a suitably gothic book of curses, magically endows the other with a vagina. The second, more science-fiction orientated That Curious Sensation takes the subject in an entirely different, rarely explored direction. Distracted from work by unwanted erections red panda Clover strikes upon the idea of nullification, quickly achieving his goal with an easily obtainable injection. In both instances the initial transformation is dealt with quickly and often humorously, instead shifting the focus onto how characters react and adapt to the changes, rather than the change itself as a way to explore other parts of a trans individuals experiences and struggles beyond the post surgery aspects that a lot of mainstream representations fixate upon.

Lobst tells stories and presents her trans and gender fluid characters in an interesting and entertaining manner without the fetishization often present in a lot furry comics staring trans characters. Their artwork explores them in entirely different ways ,and using the fantasy elements as a springboard to ask more intimate and rarely asked questions about individuals in the trans community through anthropomorphic characters. Despite the ears, tails and fur, her extended cast appear on the page fully rounded and human. Ultimately what sets Lobst’s work apart is the warmth and tenderness it exudes in both the ways their characters interact and the playful way they write about a complicated and multifaceted subject, tackled both playfully and honestly.

Has art always been a part of you life or something picked up later? How did your art change after coming into contact with the furry fandom?

I’ve always drawn artwork, although it took quite a while for me to start developing original ideas that spread out into stories.  I was a furry-in-denial for a very long time, since the “mainstream” of it — at the time, comics like Sabrina Online and Jack — either seemed too cloying or edgy for my tastes. It took a long time for me to realise that like any other fandom, furries comprise a wide spectrum of interests, so there was a gradual shift from anthro-animal comics like Cigarro & Cerveja/Living In Greytown to Gene Catlow/Kit & Kay Boodle to Associated Student Bodies, Circles, and the webcomics by my friend Moult, after which I spent yet another very-long-time producing furry media “ironically” in groan worthy “extreme” ways. And I think it was only around 2007 or so (yes, seriously) when I started actually looking at furry art, that I learned how to successfully draw furry snouts; until that point a besnouted face was seriously just a box in front of the standard comic-artist human face shield.

When you first started out making comics did you feel there was a lack of them out there for, or about trans and non-binary genders? Do you feel there are more online webcomics than in mainstream comics?

Oh, one of my first inspirations was about the wealth of gender swap story arcs in webcomics, and how I felt they handled the subject inappropriately. Not that I considered them trans-phobic (even though many if them, in retrospect, probably were); it’s just that I was baffled at why none of the characters, at all, wanted to stay in their altered state. So I made my own story, which ended up being a total mess, but it also ended up inspiring my real-life transition in the first place, so.

When I first started my transition in 2004, I remember being severely disheartened at the apparent lack of trans voices in webcomics, considering how accessible the storytelling format is to anyone with pencil, paper, and a scanner. Thankfully, these days there are trans-assembled webcomics everywhere you look, due in no small part to how gender is discussed today compared to back then.

There are more trans-focused stories in webcomics today than there ever have been in mainstream comics. I don’t follow comics very closely, but you just have to look at the rest of media to see where depictions of trans people are at in the public consciousness. Netflix, the only major studio I’m aware of which hires trans actors to play trans people, focuses exclusively on the post-surgery experience of trans women who pass, when — compared to the rest of the trans experience — not only is it just one small part of a trans woman’s overall journey, but it’s also a situation most often occupied by trans women who can afford surgery, voice lessons, facial feminization, laser hair removal, and so on. And this isn’t to trivialise the struggles those women face, of course; it’s just one of the few pieces of transness that holds appeal for cis people. Compared to the proliferation of stories by and about trans/nonbinary people (like Drop-Out, Crossed Wires, Electricopolis, and Go Ye Dogs!), there’s really no contest.

What reaction do you get to your own comics either within the furry fandom or from readers in general?

I’d call it generally positive, with the caveat that I’ve long since stopped seeking approval from non-furry spaces, and even from furry spaces where trans-phobic language isn’t frowned upon; I essentially only post my art to my website and a few Twitter/Tumblr accounts: some private, some not. I’ve never been a popular artist, but I’ve gotten comfortable enough with occupying my specific niche that I’m fairly sure at this point I’d reject popularity if it was thrust upon me. (My chronic anxiety is a pretty big factor in this, too.)

My self-promotion skills are virtually nonexistent, but through sheer word-of-mouth I’ve gotten a couple of diehard fans, which — considering it’s been multiple years since I’ve committed to an ongoing webcomic project — is baffling to me. I was approached for the first time by one at BLFC this year; they requested an autograph, much to my surprise. I was so taken aback I responded by writing my name alongside “thanks for the company!”, which, in retrospect, is ludicrously depressing — but we laughed it off immediately afterwards, thankfully.

A few of your more recent comics, definitely “Adjustment to an Emulated Brain” have felt very personal. Do you find making these kinds of stories to be cathartic for yourself?

Oh, catharsis is the main reason I produce media these days. The inspiration for the main character of that comic — my main fursona, these days — was my persistent desire, as a heavily dysphoric genderless trans person, to find some practical way out of the ill-proportioned body I’ve been stuck occupying for my entire life. Not that I consider myself a diehard transhumanist or anything; this fantasy has also been explored (in other media I’ve privately written and not fully developed yet, all starring different self-inserts) in the forms of virtual reality, magic bodyswapping rituals, reincarnation, and good old-fashioned TF.

An aside: Since Moments From My Adjustment is one of my most viral comics to date, I think I should note what I consider one of the most important rules of storytelling: If an idea resonates with you, as a creator, there’s absolutely an audience for it. Everything I’ve written and drawn since 2010 (and there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make it out) has been for one reason: “This is a neat concept, and I want to draw it.”

Although your work has strong fantasy elements such as magic and TF triggers etc, the reactions and situations your characters find themselves in are often very grounded, what appeals to you about this when you are writing?

Magical realism has always appealed to me far more than fantasy or sci-fi settings, mostly because as fictional worlds get further removed from modern society, they start feeling smaller to me. There’s also a believably factor: setting a supernatural story in a realistic world begs all sorts of questions about why/how the supernatural elements are able to remain hidden, especially in the modern world where information is so easily spread. This sounds like a drawback, but if you’re able to pull off a convincing explanation, presto: the possibilities within your fictional world have suddenly expanded dramatically!

Settings like these also allow for your characters to undergo realistic struggles. The Persona series of videogames, for instance, make it a point to keep their protagonists as ordinary as possible, in the process incorporating fantasy-scary story elements like angry gods, shadow dimensions, and arcane magic (all of which are too heavily-caricatured to take seriously), side-by-side with actually-scary situations like family drama, academic success, and financial trouble. Even non-magical sci-fi benefits heavily if it takes place in the very near future, I think.

A lot of your characters come into contact with each other in various comics or pictures, how important is world building to you in this way and how do you go about it?

It’s important for me that internal crossovers remain plausible, by which I mean that there can’t be more than one connection between previously-separate groups of people, and multiple separate connections (e.g. people getting married) cannot form between those groups afterward — otherwise you run into the small-world situation I described earlier; where everyone’s related to each other and meaningful character change is impossible.

An example: I don’t think this has been formally revealed yet, but Grace (from FoRC) lives in the house That Curious Sensation takes place in. Supernatural stuff briefly happens in what little of FoRC I produced, and TCS hinges on the existence of a unique machine which, setting aside that it’s in a silly sex-comic, harbors significant implications for the fate of gender and physical sex in human society. For Grace to be present during both events, those two situations have to be connected for a narratively consistent reason, related to her in some way; otherwise, it’d be just too much of a coincidence to take seriously.

What would be your fave TF trigger? Do you have a preference for technology or magic or does it all depend on the story and characters?

As far as TF triggers go, a couple of favorites come to mind: first, the idea of being surrounded by people with body shapes that you either explicitly or implicitly desire for yourself, having them overwhelm you, and when they pull back, you’ve somehow become one of them. Another comes from a novel I read last year, “The Showroom: Relationships and Robotics”, where no physical shapeshifting takes place; rather, the person realizes they experience life more vividly with their consciousness processed through a robotic shell, which casts doubt on their own identity as a person. That kind of character dynamic and the internal identity struggle is what I love most about TF as a concept; without it (and there’s more than plenty of TF art that assumes watching the TF sequence itself is enough), TF isn’t nearly as interesting to me.

As for my own work, I definitely prefer technology to magic or spirituality, if only because sci-fi pop culture is in the DNA of actual scientific advancement. Not that I expect my work to play any kind of role in the development of real medical techniques, but well, it couldn’t hurt for an amateur like me to put the ideas out there in a format people might want to read, could it?

A few of your comics have characters only expressing themselves in pictographs, did you find it challenging to convey a story and characters reactions using only them? Were there any first draft ideas that you decided would be too difficult to express in this way?

Pictographs are a great way to set your storytelling apart from others, and a fun challenge; primarily in how it encourages you to tell your story economically/with as few word-balloons as possible. I have an awful habit of getting wordy with my dialogue, so it’s refreshing every now and then to pull away from a panel and see a critical concept expressed in a word balloon people can process in half a second.

I will say, however, that reader feedback is essential for this. That Curious Sensation features a moment where Clover is rejecting being touched; apparently a pictograph of a stop sign comes across as more playful (which is what I was going for) than a hand miming the “stop” signal.

  Beyond your Patreon comic, are there any ideas you have for the future in terms of comics? Are there any subjects or ideas you’d like to explore in the future?

Oh, plenty! The most important thing I want to do in the future, however, is give people the tools and vocabulary to deal with various kinds of dysphoria; to let people, if they feel out-of-place in uncommon ways, know that it’s OK to explore, soak into, and even publicly express those feelings; that if this world feels like it wasn’t built for you, you’re not alone; you can find friendship and comfort in the company of others who feel the same.

Lobst’s art can be found at lobstworks.com

Due to a suggestion by @staghorne I decided to have a classic furry music video friday! https://youtu.be/_yWU0lFghxU https://youtu.be/xweiQukBM_k https://youtu.be/gh4zvQfDhi0 https://youtu.be/nAkMTu6q2pY https://youtu.be/yvgVsxaqYgA https://youtu.be/DhaRkWfaq10 https://youtu.be/YeawPUpTHJA
View Video

Thanks to Summercat for this guest post.

Intimate Little Secrets by Rechan
March 2017, Furplanet and Bad Dog Books

Intimate Little Secrets is a collection of 9 short stories by Rechan. After randomly encountering him in a non-Furry location I promised to review his latest work. I went into reading this book expecting a collection of erotica and was blind-sided by well written stories that I connected with emotionally, if not erotically.

Fanservice – Robin, frustrated with her coworker Dean’s missing of her signals, decides to seduce him by cosplaying as a character from a show he likes. The quick pace from flirting to office sex raised an eyebrow. One issue I noticed is that while Robin’s species is put in early enough, Dean’s is not mentioned until after he is first mentioned and we are brought down Robin’s memory lane. However, even when one character is indistinct, I was still able to get a sense of the action playing out. The emotions and reactions of the characters are fairly real and relatable, alternating between awkward inexperience and passionate confidence when they forget to be worried.

Strange on a Train – Marjani, a serval, reads some erotic fiction on a train and enlists another passenger to assist with her arousal. This story is very well written, we’re given imagery exactly where we need it and when we need it. Marjani’s actions are not out of character for her established personality. We’re given only information about the other passenger, a skunk, that Marjani notices on her own; the name used for him is a nickname she mentally calls him. The sex itself has multiple stages; the skill with which Rechan shows rather than tells is apparent throughout. Setting aside the smut, this is a well constructed story with good progression and even a Chekov’s Gun. Despite the lack of time to develop the skunk character, he’s still given enough personality that he’s more than a two-dimensional cardboard extra. This was a fun and engaging read that I’ll be thinking back to in the future.

Missed – Janine Pendigrass is a collie school librarian in a BDSM relationship with teacher Beth, a mink. While in a lunch-break session, a complication in their relationship arises when Beth asks permission to date a man. Though BDSM is not my cup of tea, I’m still able to mentally see how the scene is playing out. Both characters are displayed with emotion. Despite my initial dislike for Pendigrass, the end of the story has me sympathetic towards her.

Fireworks – A first person story told from the viewpoint of a gazelle, Desiree, an escort hired by Jacob, a deer, to pretend to be his girlfriend for a family gathering. This isn’t exactly ‘guy gains confidence after night with a hooker’ because these characters come across as people and not tropes. The sex scene was well constructed and showed rather than told how the movements went. It also easily explained some items that would have tripped my suspension of disbelief. However, I feel it was overshadowed by the rest of the story. As a piece of erotica, Fireworks does not do well; as a story with an erotic scene, it does.

Teeth – Another first person story, this one is a sex scene between the lioness Carli and an unnamed female wolf. This story is very short, and has some structural issues that give it some flaws. We’re not told what species the POV character is for almost the first third, and we don’t get a clear answer for what gender she is until halfway through. This makes the mental imagery hard to form. Though the action is still well put together, the details and context clues needed are buried too deep in the text. Of course, this is a 750-word story, so “too deep” isn’t that far in page-wise.

When The Paint Dries – Luis the cacomistle gets a surprise call from his remarried ex-wife asking for a major favor. This is not erotica. But it is a good story, and I cannot give an explanation as to why without spoiling it.

Rickety V – A follow-up to Missed, where Conner, a golden retriever, is a spanner in the works in Beth and Janine’s relationship. There is a sex scene that fits and works with the story, driving the plot forward, but a majority of the story covers the relationship between the three characters. Conner’s character is delightfully wholesome and innocent, forcing the issues at hand to be confronted. Rickety V resolves a lot of my concerns with Beth and Janine’s relationship as shown in Missed. I am glad that a follow-up was written.

Three to Tango – A follow-up to Strange on a Train, featuring Marjani’s husband Amadi. Still at her family’s house, the serval woman wants to make up to her husband about bending their rules on the train by hiring chipmunk Kahlua to entertain Amadi while Marjani is on the phone. There’s not much character development here, but there doesn’t need to be. There’s also no real plot or story; the text is nearly all erotic action. While not nearly as engaging as “Train”, Three to Tango has a decent pacing and evokes a good mental image of the action.

TLC – Margaret and Henry, an elderly fox couple, deal with how Henry’s illness has impacted their lives and lovemaking. This is a heavy story, and I found it difficult to read it the multiple times needed for the review. It is a good story, and we feel a strong connection with the two characters, both in their despair and pain, and in the mutual joy they feel. It ends on a somewhat happy note.

I have to say I enjoyed Intimate Little Secrets. “Fanservice” and “Strange on a Train” mislead my assumption of what to expect but I guess you could say that I “Missed” the mark. This is not a collection of erotica so much a collection of stories about people and relationships, with erotica in them. In that sense I feel that “Strange on a Train” and “Three to Tango” don’t quite fit with the others, as they are pure sexual romps rather than stories with plot development. Thematically speaking, I would have preferred to see a follow-up to “Fanservice” and “Fireworks” in this volume, but I don’t feel this disqualifies the book as a whole (especially as I was engaged by “Strange on a Train”).

This anthology is a slice-of-life selection of stories, giving the reader an intimate glimpse into the lives of characters that feel real. The plot flows nicely, and Rechan has a mastery of imagery, giving a clear picture of the action going on, be it sitting in a Chinese restaurant or having raunchy sex in the living room. What weaknesses he has is often not putting important descriptors before said imagery, but this is only an issue in two of the stories and may be me being picky.

If slice of life stories that contain erotic M/F or F/F sex scenes something you enjoy, I would recommend giving Intimate Little Secrets a read.

– Summercat

• Buy on FurPlanet
• Buy on BadDogBooks
• Another video review:

Have you ever hung up the phone on a jerk? Frozen out a bully who acted like a wasp in your hair?  Rejected a stalker who can’t stop asking to sniff your socks?  Shut the door on a creep who wants to get you into a crackpot religion, or to sign a petition to legalize hunting at zoos? Blocked spam to sell you a miracle cure for crotch rot, made from the powdered toenails of a peruvian jungle sloth?

Good. You stood up for yourself like an adult and moderated a nuisance. And now the power is yours to do it better than before. At least with one hate group.

The Altfurry Twitter blocklist (updated 9/24/2017 – now on Blocktogether)

 

• Download the file. Go to Twitter: Settings > Blocked Accounts > Advanced > Import.
• Preview allows screening by eye.  It’s your choice to verify each block.
• The blocklist is often updated. Check this page for fresh info or subscribe to Blocktogether.

Oh no, blocklist sounds like “blacklist.” At least if you don’t think too hard about simply separating signal from noise. But blocking is a self-defense against nuisance.  A list empowers you with crowdsourced support to moderate your boundaries.  And if you’ve been ganged up on, it can handle aggression like jiu-jitsu, especially the more widely it’s used.

Right off the bat, expect predictable complaints.  It’s as if standards which everyone uses (like spam filtering, or SFW limits for a group) are somehow antithetical to a free-floating ideal of universal “free speech.” It’s as if there’s no community attached, everyone is for themselves, and consequences don’t exist.  Supposed enemies of free speech might point to the National Communication Association and the difference between censorship and moderation. (Paraphrasing added):

Moderation is the practice of prohibiting speech in a particular virtual community by authorities within that community. (Crowdsourced in this case, the authority is you.) A topic that is moderated on one virtual community can be communicated elsewhere, so those who wish to discuss it can migrate.

When there is no moderation, the effect of a large number of irrelevant or hurtful messages can be the same as censorship; that is, a group’s ability to discuss a particular topic is curtailed and members leave.

There is one circumstance where community migration is not feasible- when the community is opposed by an adversarial group. An adversarial group defines itself as the opponent of another group. Nazis and creationists, for example, are opposed to Jews and evolutionists. And any group that exists online must communicate its beliefs, as there is no online presence without communication. To assert their identity as an adversarial group, the adversarial group argues with the opposed group. The relationship between the adversarial and opposed group is inherently parasitical.

Conversely, the opposed group does not necessarily define itself in relationship to the adversarial group. Jews and evolutionists would generally prefer that Nazis and creationists leave them alone.

Without moderation, when a member of the adversarial group communicates belief to the opposed group, the value of the virtual community decreases for every member of the opposed group.  For opposed groups, adversarial group messages have properties identical to censorship.

So “free speech” isn’t a consequence-free ideal. Freedom can be self-negating without a sense of community. What does this say about the altfurry blocklist?

• Alt-furry (alt-right or “alternative furry”) behaves like an adversarial, parasitical group to furry fandom. Notice there’s no “fandom” in altfurry.  They act like the only thing in common is selfish media consumption.  But there is a community.  Moderation supports it.
• This applies to Twitter, not between government and public.  And online filtering and moderation goes back to the days of Usenet. However this kind of social media eliminates the cost of it to benefit the company. Moderation is left to your personal work.
• When you have free speech, that doesn’t mean a right to scream in someone’s ear when they walk away. Blocking is freedom of association. Don’t let anyone tell you not to use your freedom or expect you to be a pushover about it.

What are the sources for the list? The team that assembled it (which doesn’t include me, I’m a messenger) used this criteria:

• Much of the list is Altfurry Discord users, seen in the logs where you can verify why they are listed.
• Several lists were merged that include observed supporters for altfurry.
• Hundreds of accounts were checked individually.

Communication makes a better solution:

• To make a case for not being on the list, comment here. (Again, I don’t add anyone and will pass messages.)
• @AltFurryBlocker on Twitter is a more direct method to reach the team.

We are proud to introduce Version 1.0 of the AltFurryBlocker block list, available via BlockTogether! https://t.co/QU7cT7HeXt

— AltFurryBlocker (@AltFurryBlocker) September 24, 2017

Have you released any information on what your criteria is for inclusion on the block list? I'm seeing some questionable names on the list.

— King of Sheps (@TheSteelShep) September 24, 2017

Broadly speaking, deep dives of certain hashtags, Twitter account post history, cross referencing Twitter accounts with FA and Discord..

— AltFurryBlocker (@AltFurryBlocker) September 24, 2017

How to use it actively and why it matters:

• No tool is perfect. It calls for being part of an active solution and being informed (it’s better than complaining but doing nothing, right?)
• Altfurry is a tiny splinter group so the list isn’t an unmanageable mass of thousands without transparency. You can judge it by eye.
• There will always be way more members needing this than wanting it gone. Each supporter makes it stronger for everyone.
• Nazism has nothing to say. It was killed and discredited generations ago and isn’t up for debate.  But some would welcome it back if they could.
• Forgiving is easy and requires honest change. Instead Altfurry chose to obscure their most racist elements from public view but not repudiate it internally.  They work to provoke reaction to falsely depict opponents as aggressors and milk it for attention.  Being on the list is avoidable by not wedging open a door for nazism, and just owning their shit. When that doesn’t happen the community has a right to moderate itself.
• If they want to use this to find others to follow, they can out themselves and make the list easier to manage.
• Honestly changing is how people who landed on the list can make it unnecessary. Until then nothing is stopping them from enjoying an alt-fandom without trashing this one.

Coming soon: FurAffinity blocklist and Do Not Commission list.

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And speaking of crossovers (when will they stop?), Dynamite Entertainment and Boom! Studios’ Kaboom! imprint have joined forces to join up a classic well-known sassy cat with a currently well-known sassy cat. Yes, it’s the Grumpy Cat / Garfield 3-issue miniseries. There’s a preview over at Previews: “It’s the inevitable meeting of the sourpusses! Garfield, the reigning cynical cat of newspapers and TV crosses paths with Grumpy Cat, the internet sensation whose scowl endeared herself to the world. Who’s the most sarcastic? Well, he likes lasagna and not much else… and she doesn’t even like lasagna. Can these two inhabit the same comic book mini-series, let alone the same planet? You’ll find out in a trio of issues written by Mark Evanier and illustrated by Steve Uy. We’d say it’s the cat’s meow but neither of these cats meow.” The second issue of this full-color series is already out in stores.

image c. 2017 Dynamite

Here is a short piece made for the international banking group BNP Paribas to promote Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. I admit I have no idea what is going on here but it is a bit disturbing. Yes, it is French ... I guess this is turning into French week.
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monsterparty.cafe

It’s fun to go to themed places that make you feel like you’re in a movie. There’s Speakeasy and Tiki bars, or even Horror and Clown themed bars. For a spooky time, try The Jeckyl and Hyde Club in NYC, Donnie Dirk’s Zombie Den in Minneapolis, or Lovecraft Bar in Portland, Oregon. How about a visit to Toontown?

For some people, it’s more than fun. Night life is real life. Some places support subculture or identity like Gay and Leather bars.

Why not a furry bar? It’s a half-joke/half-suggestion I’ve been making for years. One night a month, you can do dances like Frolic in San Francisco, Foxtrot in Denver, Tail! Party in Long Beach, or Howl Toronto.  But what if there was a place to be your furry self almost any night?

There have been a lot of “fandom firsts” in a short while – some good, some bad. There was the first mainstream-accessible furry movie and the first Furry political scandal.  Now, new ground has been broken by a permanent establishment with a furry theme. It’s an idea that could go much farther, but take a look.

Sometimes I joke "there should be a Furry Bar." Then I heard about a furry-themed cafe opening in Japan. Open now: https://t.co/o4nb83h9Dr

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) September 12, 2017

Hello! We are now open for business! Please come when you can. We're on the 8th floor opposite Gachapon Kaikan, Akihabara. Last order is 6PM pic.twitter.com/OgFpa8QBlo

— MONSTER PARTY (@MonsterPartyJP) September 12, 2017

ENGLISH VERSION
Tsukiyo here! In anticipation of the new Monster Party cafe opening soon in Akihabara, we want to hold a furry themed party! pic.twitter.com/ULLVT3WzPR

— Tsukiyo@MonsterParty (@tsukiyo_fur) September 7, 2017

Group Photo from @MonsterPartyJP opening! I had fun! #monsterparty pic.twitter.com/xQKDYPDRd0

— クルーン (@clunandseesaw) September 10, 2017

Thank you everyone for a wonderful evening! It made all the hard work worthwhile! すばらしい夕方に皆さんありがとう！それはすべての勤勉を価値あるものにしました！ pic.twitter.com/TCQP9uyj5j

— Tsukiyo@MonsterParty (@tsukiyo_fur) September 10, 2017

I asked Tsukiyo to help with questions about the cafe and furry stuff in Japan, but they were busy. Maybe someone else can help?

This reminds me of what FuzzWolf of Furplanet says he’ll do if he wins the lottery – open a permanent furry book store. Germany’s Fusselschwarm is an LGBT bookstore with a furry curator and furry section (or was, may be all-online now).

I’d become an angel investor in the fandom. Funding artists, open a brick and mortar furry store. Who cares if it loses money.

— Uncle Fuzz️‍ (@FuzzWolf) June 30, 2017

How about a furry-themed community center, maybe powered by a cafe/gallery to host art shows, movie screenings, and fursuit dances and classes? Like the furry-themed Artsplosion event at an LGBT community center in San Jose CA, but all the time. At some point, I’ll follow up with a post about “What would a fantasy furry store look like?”

This kind of stuff inspired my “Furry Good Ideas” article. I can’t wait to see some of these come true one day. Be ambitious, you loveable animals.

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Crossovers are all the rage these days, of course — so why not combine two cult favorite cartoon shows? That’s the thought behind the Adventure Time / Regular Show comic mini-series, recently unleashed by Boom! Studios. Here’s what they said: “It’s a crossover for the ages in this mash-up of two of our favorite Cartoon Network shows! When a powerful new villain threatens to conquer Adventure Time’s Ooo, Princess Bubblegum sends Finn and Jake on a desperate quest to find The Power that can save the land – a power that Skips from Regular Show just happens to be hiding! Finn and Jake’s arrival only exacerbates an existing tension between Mordecai and Rigby, and the trip back to Ooo threatens to tear two sets of bros apart … forever.” Written by Conor McCreery and illustrated by Mattia Di Meo, the first issue is out now.

image c. 2017 Boom! Studios

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"A woman discovers her animal nature when a wolf grows out of her own body and ravages her." This has got me be one of the oldest metaphorical journeys into furry ... but then it's french.
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Hello Everyone!

On this week's show we open with a discussion on Mobile Phones and relationships. In recent years, studies show that the higher the level of technoference (technological interference) in your relationship, the less fulfilled and happy you are in it. We talk about why this is and ways you can prevent phubbing (phone snubbing) your lover when you want to check your Twitter DMs.

Our main topic this week is all questions-- it's our seventh all questions show! We answer questions on topics of Fictiophilia, Expectations, Entitlement, Relationship Goals, and Potential Abusive Behavior. It's a wild ride as we tackle some of the more difficult questions we have in our queue.

We close out the show with some feedback from an individual who, in past years, was in a relationship with a Pick Up Artist. She offers her insight and advice on the community.

For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 085 All Questions Show Vol 7 - Phubbing! Technoference! Questions! MORE QUESTIONS! INCREASE THE QUESTIONS! All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

The Pride of Parahumans, by Joel Kreissman
Knoxville, TN, Thurston Howl Publications, December 2016, trade paperback $11.99 (161 pages), Kindle $2.99.

The Pride of Parahumans starts with a small, cramped prospecting spaceship in the Asteroid Belt in the late 2100s or early 2200s, crewed by four parahumans (bioengineered anthro animals); Argentum, the black fox mineral analyst (and narrator); Cole, the raven pilot, Denal, the red panda mechanic, and Aniya, a human-wolf-possum mix taur rescue/medic. They’re exploring asteroids, looking for a big strike. They may have just discovered one when they’re attacked by an unknown pirate spaceship. They shoot back and destroy it, killing its one-parahuman crew.

Unfortunately, they (and probably the pirate) are from the Ceres Directorate, the major Asteroid Belt and parahuman government. And the Ceres Directorate has a draconian law against killing. Self-defense is no excuse. Anyone (and in this case the whole crew) who kills has all assets seized and is sentenced to fifty years at hard labor. They agree to keep everything secret and return to Ceres.

“Naturally, we got the first indication that things on Ceres were about to go wrong just as we were leaving the cavern.” (p. 24)

The Pride of Parahumans begins as an okay space opera, full of action and suspense. Unfortunately, it seems very similar to Kismet by Watts Martin, which is also about an anthro space pilot involved in action and suspense in an asteroid belt full of furry characters and space governments, published at almost the same time. And Kismet is MUCH better written.

There are differences. Argentum is a bioengineered experiment, designed to be without genitals and androgynous. (The pronoun zie is used.) The other furries have genitals but they were made sterile (they reproduce by cloning), so they can indulge in lots of sex without worrying about getting pregnant. (Argen qveches that zie’s missing out on the fun.) The Asteroid Belt governments are more chaotic and dictatorial – they all seem like wretched hives of scum and villainy — which increases the suspense, but are less logical.

In almost every respect in which The Pride of Parahumans can be compared with Kismet, it comes off second. Pride begins with huge expository lumps to describe the parahumans and their Asteroid Belt culture:

“Anyways, that brief history of Ceres does not do justice to the wonder that is the market caverns. As the corps mined out the dwarf planet they dug huge holes miles beneath the surface in order to get to the largest concentrations of mass in the asteroid. These tunnels were a minimum of two meters tall to accommodate the miners and their equipment, but the caves that had held the most valuable minerals often reached five meters in height and a football field or two in length or width. Since there was plenty of pre-existing living space in the worker barracks and tunnels, many of these caverns had been reinforced with long titanium columns and filled with multiple levels of storefronts. The .028 gravities made it easy for most people to simply jump from one level to another through holes in the rickety paneling placed in front of shops so the customers had something to window browse from. It’s rather incredible, in a ramshackle slum kind of way.” (p. 21)

Kismet blends the setting into the action smoothly. Kismet’s third-person narration is more natural to a novel, while Pride is narrated by Argen in a conversational style that makes you constantly wonder who zie’s supposed to be talking to.

In Pride, the parahumans were bioengineered by human corporations to explore and mine the Asteroid Belt. They successfully revolted and set up their own Asteroid Belt nations. Kismet also has furry nations in the Asteroid Belt, but the animal types seem more reasonable for space exploration and exploitation. Rats, wolves, foxes, large dogs, the big felines. In Pride there are those, but also enlarged ravens and others such as “a heavy set spider monkey”, parrots, and octopi, that do not seem to be logical for space mining. The ravens have sort-of hands:

“His [Cole’s] wings were also modified with small claws at the ends, apparently a small atavism the bioengineers found that dated back to the earliest birds from the time of the dinosaurs. They enabled him to hang onto an overhead handlebar while his feet manipulated the flight controls. Apparently there was a prevailing theory among some of the corps that created us that creatures that evolved in a three dimensional environment would be better suited to navigating the depths of space than us terrestrials. So rather than adding some animal genes to a human baseline genome like most did for their deep space workforce, they took the genomes of dolphins, parrots, octopi, corvids, and seals – basically any aquatic or flying animal that showed a decent level of intelligence – and boosted their brainpower until they could operate a spaceship. I don’t know how well it worked but I do know that for all his annoying quirks, Cole was a great pilot.” (pgs. 4-5)

This is imaginative and more colorful – birds or octopi piloting spaceships? — but is less plausible than the big mammals of Kismet.

Another imaginative bit is the culture of cloning. Parahumans buy their “children”. Here the four protagonists have moved from Ceres to Vesta. They find that the manufacture of clones there is controlled by the Society for the Preservation of Parahuman Species.

“Then he [Denal] paused as if in contemplation. ‘Hey, maybe we should all get clones. We can be like one of those human families. Me and Cole can be the dads, Aniya can be the mom, but what would that make you?’

I snorted derisively. ‘Save it until we have enough money to actually buy clones. I doubt they would charge a bunch of prospectors fresh from Ceres anything less than full price. And last I checked, clones were expensive.’” (p. 53)

And then, slightly less than halfway through, The Pride of Parahumans swings in a completely new direction! The quality of the writing improves (the expository lump is over), and the plot becomes entirely original – not just in comparison to Kismet but to other s-f. What had seemed like a pale imitation of Kismet becomes impossible to guess at – and very worth reading.

The Pride of Parahumans (cover by Donryu) is still not as good as Kismet, but you wouldn’t believe how two novels that begin so similarly can become so different. Read both, and if the beginning of Pride seems too similar to Kismet at first, stick with it. You’ll be glad that you did.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

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Getting in on the ground floor here… At Long Beach Comic Con we came across Not Teddy Bears, a new art project created by Robert Ly. Is it a line of toys? A new on-line comic? A graphic novel? We don’t know! And the official web site isn’t very clear about that. But still, there is a story to be told here: It seems that teddy bears as we know them are not just cuddly little fuzzy friends for children, but physical representations we have created from our memory of small bear-like creatures who defend us from monsters. When our world is invaded by violent, evil forces, those creatures suddenly become very, very important once again.

image c. 2017 8vs8 Entertainment

The Animation Workshop recently did a few spots for the Danish NGO Plastic Change International. Aquatic furs don't get a lot of love so here is at least something.
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm, by Greg Keyes. Based on the screenplay written by Mark Bomback and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver.
London, Titan Books, May 2014, paperback $ and £7.99 (304 pages), Kindle $7.99 and £3.99.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: The Official Movie Novelization, by Alex Irvine.
London, Titan Books, July 2014, paperback $ and £7.99 (313 pages), Kindle $7.99 and £3.79.

La Planète des Singes, the original novel, was written by Pierre Boule in France and published in January 1963. Forget about it. It has almost nothing to do with the movies except inspiring the first of them.

Planet of the Apes, the first movie, was produced by 20th Century Fox and released in April 1968. Boulle’s novel was so extensively rewritten by numerous hands as to create an original plot. It was mega-popular, launching numerous theatrical sequels, TV spinoffs, novels and novelizations, and comic books. The comic books have arguably birthed the most bizarre variations in the form of authorized teamups. Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes. Green Lantern on the Planet of the Apes.

But we digress. All (with one exception) of the movies and TV series have had paperback novelizations and authorized prequels or sequels. Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the first movie sequel, was novelized by Michael Avallone. Most of the other books have been by different authors. Here are the two written for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the next to last movie.

The Planet of the Apes movies can be roughly divided into two groups. The first includes the first movie in 1968 and its four sequels through 1973, plus two TV series. They are set in 3978 A.D. and the next few years, when time-traveling American astronauts find that intelligent chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas have replaced humanity. The first movie was remade in 2001. Not only did that have a novelization by William T. Quick, he wrote two paperback sequels. The second group, telling how the apes replaced humanity, began in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the only movie that did not have a book, only a six-issue comic book prequel. In the near future Will Rodman is a scientist at Gen Sys, a San Francisco biotech company testing ALZ112, a viral-based drug designed to cure Alzheimer’s disease. The drug is tested on chimpanzees and unexpectedly greatly increases their intelligence. Rodman’s superior has the chimps killed, but Will and his assistant discover that a female had just had a baby. Will names the infant chimp Caesar and raises him as his own son. Events result in Caesar being taken from Will and imprisoned in the San Bruno Primate Shelter, where he learns to distrust humanity except Will. Gen Sys experiments with ALZ113, a more powerful aerosol drug. Caesar escapes, steals the ALZ113 from Will’s house, and returns to the shelter to raise the intelligence of all the apes there. They all escape under Caesar’s leadership, add apes from Gen Sys and the San Francisco Zoo, and form an army to battle the humans as they cross the Golden Gate Bridge into nearby Muir Woods. Will goes after them and begs Caesar to surrender since the apes cannot defeat all humanity, but Caesar’s loyalty is now with the other apes. However, mixed with a few earlier scenes and the movie’s closing credits is a foretelling that while the ALZ113 increases apes’ intelligence, it creates an Ebola-like lightning fatal pandemic in humans.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm is “The Official PREQUEL to the Dramatic New Film from 20th Century Fox”. It was “The all-new bridge between Rise of the Planet of the Apes [released August 5, 2011] and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” published two months before Dawn was released on July 11, 2014.

Firestorm tells several stories simultaneously. It begins less than a week after Rise. San Francisco is calming down after “Monkeygate”, the strange simian escape across the Golden Gate Bridge, and focusing on the coming mayoral election between incumbent Mayor House and ex-police chief Dreyfus. The news is claiming that only ten or twenty apes have escaped, not hundreds. And the first deaths come from the new disease.

The interlocked stories, all sympathetic, are those of the apes under Caesar to reach a place of safety; a team sent to catch them, including primatologist Clancy Stoppard and a Congo expert ape tracker, Malakai Youmans; Dr. Natalia Kosar of one of San Francisco’s major hospitals, who is the first to get patients of the new plague; Dreyfus, the mayoral challenger; and the biography of the chimpanzee Koba, one of Caesar’s lieutenants.

Clancy and the older Malakai, who become friends, become aware that all the others on the team sent after the apes are not police or animal experts but professional hunters employed by Anvil, a private paramilitary contractor. Anvil’s team leader, Corbin, is impatient with the two “civilians”, and there are doubts that their rifles are only tranquilizer-dart guns. Caesar and his closest newly-intelligent lieutenants, the chimpanzees Koba and Rocket and Maurice, an orangutan, try to escape without harming any humans, but as they become increasingly desperate, the risk of deadly violence increases. The apes cannot talk in speech; they use sign language. Talia Kosar, an ER doctor, sees her accident and crime patients replaced by the new plague patients, who quickly overwhelm the hospital. In less than two weeks, San Francisco has over ten thousand fatalities, and there is widespread panicking. Dreyfus, the mayoral candidate, uses the plague in his campaign but he is genuinely concerned for the city’s welfare, and he provides the leadership that the incumbent mayor doesn’t. Koba’s life story before Caesar frees the apes and they become intelligent is full of human mistreatment and brutality. This justifies the apes’ escape, and also explains Koba’s hatred of all humans.

The apes’ stories are outnumbered by the multiple human’s stories, but they are all fast-moving and dramatic:

“Then she [Talia] turned toward him. ‘What’s up?’

‘You went to that symposium on respiratory infection last month.’

‘Mm-hmm,’ she said. ‘Sexiest symposium ever. Better than that rectal bleeding thing, even.’

‘I’ve got a woman I’d like you to take a look at.’

‘What are her symptoms?’

‘She’s sneezing up blood,’ he said.

‘Allergic rhinitis?’

‘She says she never has trouble with allergies – I had a look, and didn’t see anything,’ he said. ‘I’ve ordered a CT scan, but they’re backed up. Plus, she has a temperature of a hundred and four. She’s also showing some signs of subcutaneous bleeding.’

Talia was about to take another grudging drink, but stopped with the coffee cup halfway to her mouth.

‘How old is she?’ she asked.

‘Thirty-two.’

‘Let me see her,’ she said.” (p. 20)

They are well blended so the reader does not know what is coming next.

The scenes with the apes will be of most interest. They do not have human vocal chords, but Caesar has learned human sign language from Will Rodman and he teaches it to what he thinks are the brightest of the apes that he gives “Will’s mist” to:

“Rocket spotted the helicopter first, and a moment’s observation showed the machine coming straight for them.

Find this many, he [Caesar] signed to Rocket, holding up six fingers. Go, and be quick. Then he raced back down, leaping from tree to tree, toward the main body of his troop. Most were in the middle canopy, and he searched through them, making low calming noises, until he found one [of] the orangutans, Maurice. Maurice knew the hand language that Caesar had been taught.

Calm them, he told Maurice. Make them quiet, and lead them in that direction. He pointed off toward a thicker region of the woods, away from the approaching helicopter.” (p. 30)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm is both suspenseful and fatalistic. The reader knows that whatever happens in the story, the Simian Flu will ultimately kill almost all humans and destroy civilization. Greg Keyes is a New York Times bestselling author of both original s-f/fantasy novels and many novels set in movie & TV s-f franchises.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: The Official Movie Novelization is set ten years later. It is quickly obvious that Alex Irvine’s writing style is much wordier and more leisurely than Greg Keyes; filled with more description than dialogue.

The first chapters establish the apes’ village, in a rainy forest near San Francisco:

“Their home, which lay behind a wall of timbers and a heavy gate, spiraled around the flanks of the mountain. It was a place made for them.

Apes looked over the walls and hung from the timbers higher up the mountain, hooting out excited welcomes as they watched the troop approach. The noise increased as news of the hunting party’s return spread.

[…] There was a central open area anchored by a large fire pit. Around it scattered clusters of huts and lean-tos followed the natural shape of the mountain’s slopes, continuing along the edge of a steep canyon bridged by fallen trees. The sound of the river rushing through the bottom of the canyon rose and fell with the seasons. […]

The village was united by a network of paths along the ground and timbers in the air, running from higher slopes to the branches of larger trees that grew within the walls. These trees, which served as lookout posts and homes, were connected to each other by woven grass ropes and swinging bridges.” (pgs. 16-17)

The apes are still led by Caesar and his lieutenants, Koba and Rocket, and their almost-adolescent sons, Caesar’s Blue Eyes and Rocket’s Ash. The apes ride horses, and hunt the elk and bears that have multiplied since man’s disappearance. Maurice has become a teacher in their village. It is close enough to San Francisco that the human city can be seen in the distance:

“Caesar had gotten them off to a good start. He would lead the apes until he was no longer able, and then his children and their children would spread over the world.

Perhaps someday they would return to the city where they had come from. He looked over it now from the upper part of his house, the side that faced away from the canyon and toward the jumbled hills and the ocean, far away, gleaming orange under the setting sun. Caesar remembered the first time he climbed one of the great redwoods and looked at the city, back when Will was alive. There had been so much motion then […]

Now he saw the city from much farther away. The air was clear and nothing moved. In the shadows among the buildings, no lights came on as the sun sank into the ocean.” (pgs. 29-30)

“I wonder if they really are all gone, he signed.

Ten winters now, Maurice signed. And for the last two, no sign of them. He shrugged. They must be.

Caesar wasn’t so sure. Humans had been strong enough and smart enough to create great cities. They had made roads across the world. They had built machines that could fly. Will had told him once that humans had even walked on the moon. If they could do that, what could kill all of them off? He knew some of them had been sick when the apes had escaped after becoming smarter, but apes got sick sometimes, too.

Yet no sickness killed them all.” (p. 31)

The humans are not all dead, of course, but they don’t appear until page 39, in Chapter 9 that establishes that Blue Eyes and Ash are best friends, but Blue Eyes resents that Ash is allowed more freedom than Caesar gives him.

The few human survivors have coalesced in San Francisco and are just beginning, with their children, to spread out again. Their group consists of five adult men led by Malcolm, his wife Ellie, and his son Alex. Malcolm is a reasonable man, but one of the others, Carver, is trigger-happy. He wounds Ash and almost starts a new ape-human war. Caesar lets the human leave, but everything is new from there. The apes, with spears and clubs, have to prepare for a new confrontation with humans with guns and worse.

Caesar sends Koba and his lieutenants, Grey and Stone, to follow the humans and report back. In this movie and novelization, Koba’s hatred of humans is intensified to fanatacism. Koba at first considers himself a loyal follower of Caesar, but that Caesar is too peaceful and the humans too aggressive. Koba is determined to kill all the humans this time, if he has to kill Carsar, blame it on the humans, and take over leadership of the apes.

The human Colony, in an unfinished skyscraper in downtown San Francisco, is led by Dreyfus.

“The lower twenty floors or so had flooring, and had been turned into housing for the few thousand people who, for all they knew, were the last surviving humans on earth. The bottom six floors occupied the entire block, and enclosed what had been envisioned as an upscale mall and luxury office complex.

Dreyfus had chosen the location carefully. The triple arch of the building’s main gateway was easily defended, and other entrances had been blocked for years. At first they had built defenses against gangs and loose militias that had ravaged the city during the plague’s first years. As time went on and more and more people died, however, many of those marauders ‘came in from the cold,’ as it were, joining what came to be called the Colony.” (p. 62)

Under other circumstances Dreyfus would have been happy to ignore the apes, but the apes’ village is near a dam that the Colony needs for hydroelectric power. Also, if the apes have spears and clubs, now that they know there are human survivors, will they attack? Dreyfus and Malcolm want to prepare for defense of the human Colony if necessary, while Carver and his followers want to take warfare to the apes.

Malcolm gets Dreyfus to put him in charge of a peaceful mission to get the apes to let them restart the hydroelectric dam. Carver sabotages that, which is what Koba needs to shoot Caesar with a stolen human gun and lead the apes to attack the Colony. Read the novelization or see the movie for the details of what happens; but to summarize, Malcolm and his family nurse Caesar back to health, Caesar realizes that apes can be as corrupt and untrustworthy as humans, Caesar takes back leadership of the apes after a fight to the death with Koba, and the apes prepare to defend themselves against another group of humans from a military base with advanced weapons.

See War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) for the sequel. Its book prequel and movie novelization will be reviewed in the future. These two Dawn books are well-written and worth reading, especially Firestorm. The movie novelization, which is a bit slow, may be skippable for those who are familiar with the movie.

– Fred Patten

• Buy Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm on Amazon
• Buy the Novelization of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Amazon

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