For the first time in eleven years, Bad Dog Books has added a new anthology title to its popular FANG and ROAR book series. FANG was started in 2005 for adult M/M homosexual erotic short stories, and ROAR appeared two years later as its non-erotic counterpart. Now we're getting CLAW, for adult F/F lesbian erotic short stories. Along with many other titles, CLAW will be released at the FurPlanet table at Anthrocon 2018.

Exploring New Places, a new anthology edited by Fred Patten, is launching at Anthrocon 2018 this coming week (July 5-8), and can be pre-ordered from FurPlanet! They should be at tables A13-A15 at Anthrocon.

This is an all-original collection of 19 short stories and novelettes of anthropomorphic animals venturing into unfamiliar places - in their own city, on their own world, in space, or in a different dimension entirely.

Whether by the power of music to send you right out of this world; or a rabbit spaceship captain who's searching for the creators of her species; a galactic police agent called to a new planet to solve murders; aliens entering a human university; a gorilla student wandering off in a museum; or two-tailed squirrels confronting interstellar explorers - these are stories for your imagination and entertainment, designed to appeal to fans of both science-fiction and fantasy.

Intimate Little Secrets (US$9.95 from FurPlanet) is an anthology of short stories written by Rechan with a cover illustration by Teagan Gavet. Originally I expected the stories to be short, erotic pieces, but this is not the case and approaching it in that way will not lead to a proper appreciation of the work. Sex plays a role in all the stories but they are more, as the title suggests, intimate secrets where we see how different characters interact and react.

The writing is excellent, particularly with regard to the characters themselves. Each one, even characters that only appear briefly, feel real and whole. In each story, we see situations where the characters lusts, needs, and vulnerabilities are all laid bare and you can't help but find yourself caring about the characters and wanting to know what their reasons for acting a certain way are.

Dogs of War II: Aftermath, edited by Fred Patten, is launching at Midwest FurFest 2017 in Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois over the November 30-December 3 four-day weekend. You can pre-order it from FurPlanet, and after the con you can find it for sale through their online catalogue.

Dogs of War II: Aftermath is an all-original anthology of 20 short stories and novelettes of anthropomorphic animals (not just dogs) in military scenarios, from battle action to boot camps, from the past to the future, on land, at sea, and in space. This is designed to appeal to both s-f & fantasy fans, and fans of military s-f.

From bioengineered military dogs with Artificial Intelligence to a fawn trying to prove he's a stag, a horse sailor on a warship, a canid/ape space war, a self-aware robot bird, a fox soldier passed over for a deserved promotion, reindeer Vikings, animal Sea Bees constructing an island airstrip, and more; these are stories for your imagination and enjoyment.

Cover by Teagan Gavet

Fred Patten’s newest anthology, Gods with Fur, goes on sale this week at Anthrocon 2016. Published by FurPlanet Productions, the 453-page trade paperback contains 23 original stories by Kyell Gold, Mary E. Lowd, Michael H. Payne, and many more – featuring gods of anthropomorphic worlds, and our anthropomorphic gods.

You may know of Egyptian mythology’s jackal-headed Anubis, but have you heard of wolf-headed Wepwawet? We're familiar with China’s Monkey King and the native North Americans’ Coyote (who say they’re gods), but what of the Aztecs’ 400 drunken rabbits?

Here are historic gods, the gods of their authors’ series (Kyell Gold’s Forrester Universe; Heidi Vlach’s Aligare, Kris Schnee’s Talespace), and totally original gods.

In an uplifted universe, where the humans sneaked away when no one was looking, Earth is largely cats and dogs.

The dogs rule, at least in North America, and two sisters are trying to get more feline representation in what is supposedly a democracy. Events conspire to separate the sisters, and the level headed sister, Kipper, is forced into a wild adventure to find her sister, or at least solve the mystery that seems to threaten them both.

This is book one of three, with the third coming out soon.

See also: Reviews by Fred and dronon.

FurPlanet Publications, January 2012, 2nd Ed.; trade paperback $9.95 (176 pages); ebook $5.99.

Mary E. Lowd takes over the editing helm of the ROAR series from Bad Dog Books, taking on the theme of "Scoundrels" for this year. The 28 stories in ROAR volume 6 explore scoundrels from the light-hearted to the most dire.

Ms. Lowd went out of her way to look for writers who hadn't written for the furry fandom before and quite successfully brought back gold (along with fan favorites like Kyell Gold).

By the way, the table of contents is slightly off. There's a story out of order and the page numbers get a bit off. Considering the wayward story is about a dog being chased by his future father in law, you might say that he's trying to do this.

FurPlanet Productions, July, 2015, trade paperback $19.95 (294 pgs.). Edited by Mary E. Lowd.

An Anthropomorphic Century; Stories from 1909 to 2008, edited by Fred Patten and published by FurPlanet Productions, is scheduled for release at the RainFurrest 2015 convention, in Seattle, Washington, on September 24-27, 2015. It will be on sale through the online FurPlanet catalog thereafter.

An Anthropomorphic Century contains 20 short stories and novelettes published from 1909 to 2008, mostly in the s-f magazines and books of the latter 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

Taboo is a work of anthropomorphic fiction for adult readers only. (publisher’s advisory)

It is rated NC-17.

Every society has taboos, from sacred vows which must never be broken to the limitations of sexual expression. These [fourteen stories answer] the question, "Which line would you cross?" (blurb)

This is a longer book review than usual, since it covers 14 individual short stories. If you don’t want to read a review this long, my critiques are all at the end.

Since this is a furry NC-17 anthology, you can guess that all fourteen stories feature explicit sex. Whether it fits the story or not.

"That Red Panda Girl" by Tarl "Voice" Hoch"

Raven, the almost-40 panther, is a high school teacher happily married to the beautiful nympho Holly the jaguar, who sets up some kinky sex activity for him almost every night. But that doesn’t keep him from lusting after one of his students, the red panda Leah. She’s gorgeous, she’s over 18, and she’s already unmarried-but-pregnant. Raven knows that a sexual liaison between a teacher and his student is taboo, and jeopardizing his relationship with his wife is really foolish. But Leah is also a nympho lolita, and she desperately wants him …

Illustrated by Kadath’s cover.

Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Publications, March 2014, trade paperback $19.95 (318 pages), eBook $9.95.

The Mysterious Affair of Giles is an Agatha Christie-styled murder-mystery and is best read with a cup of tea nearby. (publisher’s blurb)

Kyell Gold already has the reputation of being the preeminent author of high-quality erotica in Furry fandom. Now it seems that he is trying to establish a similar reputation as furry fandom’s number one mystery author, at least of what is usually called the British “cozy” mysteries, or the country-house murder mysteries of which Agatha Christie was the acknowledged mistress.

The Mysterious Affair of Giles makes no secret of this. It is advertised as an Agatha Christie-styled murder-mystery. It is dedicated “To Dame Agatha for all the inspiration.”

An acknowledgement thanks London furry fan Alice "Huskyteer" Dryden for “Brit-picking” the manuscript, making sure that it, and especially the dialogue, are correctly British. The furry characters are all English animals except where they are noted as coming from British India. Most tellingly, the title The Mysterious Affair of Giles is an obvious pastiche of Christie’s first novel, the 1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced both her as a mystery author and her most famous private detective, Hercule Poirot.

Yet do not think that Gold’s novella is a point-by-point imitation. There is no Famous Detective in it. The year is 1951; not exactly the present, but not the old-fashioned past, either. Tremontaine is a large manor house a couple of hours’ drive from London. The cast is Mr. Giles St. Clair, an aristocrat but also an up-to-date industrialist, his wife, and their son and daughter in their early twenties, all red foxes, and Martin Trevayn, Giles’ business partner, a stoat, their guest at Tremontaine on a business visit, plus the manor staff, a deer senior housemaid, two weasel cooks, a rabbit and an Indian otter housemaid, an Indian brown rat butler and Mr. Giles’ dhole valet.

Twelve characters. One of them is murdered.

The principal investigators are a badger police Inspector and his wolf Sergeant. The mystery’s protagonist is Ellie Stone, the young weasel assistant cook, a reader of murder-mystery novels who has never wanted to live in a real one, but who can’t help comparing the actual police’s sleuthing with her fictional police’s detecting. Naturally, everyone has a secret, and during the course of the story they all come out. Some are pertinent; others are not.

Kyell Gold’s stories often come with “Adults Only” readers’ advisories. The Mysterious Affair of Giles does not need one – quite – but its cast are all adults, and some of the secrets revealed are adult ones. I do not recall Agatha Christie ever delving into this territory, but it feels natural here and it helps to keep the story from being a period-piece.

Illustrations by Sara "Caribou" Miles,Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Publications, February 2014, trade paperback $9.95 (107 [+2] pages), Kindle $6.99.

Fred Patten will have a new anthology, Anthropomorphic Aliens, on sale at Anthrocon 2014. The 301-page book, published by FurPlanet Productions, presents eleven short stories and novellas featuring “furry” aliens from 1950 to 2013:

• “Mask of the Ferret” by Ken Pick & C. Alan Loewen
• “The Inspector’s Teeth” by L. Sprague de Camp
• “Specialist” by Robert Sheckley
• “In Hoka Signo Vinces” by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson
• “Point of Focus” by Robert Silverberg
• “Novice” by James H. Schmitz
• “What Really Matters” by Elizabeth McCoy
• “Kings and Vagabonds” by Cairyn
• “The King’s Dogs” by Phyllis Gotlieb
• “A Touch of Blue: A Web Shifters Story” by Julie Czerneda
• “Fly the Friendly Skies” by Bryan Feir

The wraparound cover is by Roz Gibson.

Fred Patten will have a new anthology, Five Fortunes, on sale at Further Confusion 2014. The 415-page tome, published by FurPlanet, presents five brand-new novellas by fan-favorite Furry authors, four of them featuring their popular characters or settings:

• “Chosen People” by Phil Geusz, set in his Book of Lapism world.
• “Going Concerns” by Watts Martin, set in his Ranea world.
• “When a Cat Loves a Dog” by Mary E. Lowd, set in her Otters in Space world.
• “Piece of Mind” by Bernard Doove, set in his Chakat Universe.
• The fifth story is “Huntress” by Renee Carter Hall, in a new setting of tribal anthropomorphic African lions.

The wraparound cover is by Terrie Smith, illustrating Phil Geusz’s “Chosen People”.

Bad Dog Books' website has been repurposed as a store for FurPlanet's e-books and comics. 45 items are for sale, at prices from $2.95 to $9.99.

Two free e-books are on offer for those wishing to try before they buy: Kyell Gold's collection Gold Standard, and "Thou Shalt Not Kill" by FuzzWolf.

Promoted authors include Kevin Frane, Ben Goodridge, Cyanni, and Rechan; over 40 are represented in total, including anthologies. Art packs by Kadath are also available.

Buyers may download "DRM free" works in both epub (Nook, Sony Reader, iBooks) and mobi (Kindle-compatible) formats.

New products are to be announced via a dedicated blog and on @BadDogBooks.

Bad Dog Books, founded in 2005 by Alex Vance, became a FurPlanet imprint in 2011.

Early in July (at AnthroCon, in fact), FurPlanet will release a new full-color furry portfolio/magazine simply titled Women of Fur, edited by Marilyn Cole (also known as Sheppymomma). Here’s the idea: “Women of Fur is an collaboration between 12 different artists. Each artist chose to illustrate an empowering word that any woman can stand for. This collection of work is out to showcase the female form, anthro art as fine art, and the problem solving process involved in illustration.” Got that? Various of the artists involved have put up links to their pieces on their Fur Affinity pages, and the portfolio is available for pre-order at FurPlanet’s shop site.

image c. 2013 Fur Planet

Fred Patten, the editor of Best in Show: Fifteen Years of Outstanding Furry Fiction (Sofawolf Press, July 2003; republished as Furry!); Already Among Us: An Anthropomorphic Anthology (Legion Printing, June 2012); and The Ursa Major Awards Anthology: A Tenth Anniversary Celebration (FurPlanet Productions, June 2012), will have a new anthology published by FurPlanet go on sale at Anthrocon 2013.

What Happens Next: An Anthology of Sequels presents eleven new stories by fan-favorite Furry authors featuring their popular characters:

• M. C. A. Hogarth and her Alysha Forrest
• Brock Hoagland and his Perissa and Maelith
• Kevin Frane (Rikoshi) and his Iolite League
• Kristin Fontaine and the crew of the interstellar freighter Tai-Pan
• Michael Payne and Cluny, the sorceress squirrel with Crocker, her human familiar
• Jenner and Dr. Benjamin Rat, M.B., B.S. D.R.A.N.Z.C.O.G. F.R.A.C.G.P.
• Kyell Gold and a new tale of Argaea
• Elizabeth McCoy and her feline centauroid Kintarans
• Chas. P. A. Melville and his Felicia, the Vixen Sorceress
• Ken Pick and his Brigit Bunny on the planet of the foxlike Thalendri
• and Roz Gibson and her Jack Salem