Orlion reviewed Beasts (SF Alternatives) by John Crowley
Review of 'Beasts (SF Alternatives)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It appears as if I am one of those rare people who is capable of enjoying all of John Crowley's novels. This is shown by how much I enjoyed the extremely imaginative and ultimately jarring novel, Beasts.
Beasts is divided up in what can amount to a few story strands that eventually come together in the end. It takes place after a civil war has caused the United States to split up into several districts. The Federal still exists and is trying to reunite these districts together under its tyrannical rule through the operations and morals of USE (Union for Social Engineering). As the Fed attempts to coerce the largest of the districts to reunite under a Union, a mysterious leo enters the scene as a sort of messiah, inspiring people to live in a more anarchistic lifestyle.
A leo, by the way, is the result of earlier genetic experimentation …
It appears as if I am one of those rare people who is capable of enjoying all of John Crowley's novels. This is shown by how much I enjoyed the extremely imaginative and ultimately jarring novel, Beasts.
Beasts is divided up in what can amount to a few story strands that eventually come together in the end. It takes place after a civil war has caused the United States to split up into several districts. The Federal still exists and is trying to reunite these districts together under its tyrannical rule through the operations and morals of USE (Union for Social Engineering). As the Fed attempts to coerce the largest of the districts to reunite under a Union, a mysterious leo enters the scene as a sort of messiah, inspiring people to live in a more anarchistic lifestyle.
A leo, by the way, is the result of earlier genetic experimentation crossing the genes of humans with lions. This results in a creature that is neither and acts and has its own mindset. Crowley is able to convey this otherness to his genetically created characters, and though a lot of focus is given on the leo, the real monstrosity that steals the show is a human-fox hybrid who is always delightful to have on screen... even if you start dreading it, because that damn fox is always.....
But I'm giving too much away. Suffice it to say, this was a terrific ride... but do not expect a traditional resolution. Yeah, when I said it was 'jarring' I meant the novel just kinda stops suddenly. It almost seems like Crowley may have, at one time, been toying with the idea of having this book be the first in a series and never got around to writing a sequel. Then again, with the exception of the Aegypt Cycle, Crowley writes nothing but solo novels. It is actually just as likely that Beasts is about the journey of several of its characters and not about the bigger conflict they have had the misfortune to be born into.
A fantastic glance into an alternate future, Beasts is full of insights to the nature of human interaction as it looks at the various doings of both human, partly human, and none human characters. Its creative setting and moral dilemmas will not be soon forgotten.