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Published Jan 2015
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The "war with no name" has begun, with human extinction as its goal. The instigator of this war is the Colony, a race of intelligent ants who, for thousands of years, have been silently building an army that would forever eradicate the destructive, oppressive humans. Under the Colony's watchful eye, this utopia will be free of the humans' penchant for violence, exploitation and religious superstition. The final step in the Colony's war effort is transforming the surface animals into high-functioning two-legged beings who rise up to kill their masters.
Former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is famous for taking on the most dangerous missions and fighting the dreaded human bio-weapon EMSAH. But the true motivation behind his recklessness is his ongoing search for a pre-transformation friend—a dog named Sheba. When he receives a mysterious message from the dwindling human resistance claiming Sheba is alive, he begins a journey that will take him from the remaining human strongholds to the heart of the Colony, where he will discover the source of EMSAH and the ultimate fate of all of earth's creatures.
"Starred Review. This ambitious debut falters a bit at first, but quickly becomes an engrossing morality tale with unexpected depths. " - Publishers Weekly
"A wild riff on interspecies warfare sure to make pet owners think twice the next time their tabby cats dart by." - Kirkus
"After a fantastical leap into an apocalypse of sentient animals, Mort(e) never looks back. Read this novel and you will never look at your pet the same way again." - Daniel H. Wilson, author of Robopocalypse and Robogenesis
"A beast of a novel that exposes just how beastly we humans really are. Robert Repino's Mort(e) is smart, engaging, and kick-ass." - Ismet Prcic, author of Shards
"That a novel about the war between ants and humans with house pets as warriors would be so stunningly believable and, above all, affecting, is a testament to what a wonderful book Robert Repino has written. Mort(e) is one of the craziest, most inventive novels I've read in a long time." - James Scott, author of The Kept
"In our age of first person diary-like-entry novels, Mort(e) is both stunningly original and wonderfully heartfelt. It's a wild ride of a book from a skilled writer I will now be following." - Shane Jones, author of Light Boxes and Crystal Eaters
"Mort(e) is wonderful and weird, never saccharine and always startling." - Cat Rambo, author of Near + Far
"Combining elements of Orwellian parable and sci-fi/action thriller, Mort(e) is a tautly constructed indictment of much that is wrong with society, and a celebration of much that is right." - Matthew Gallaway, author of The Metropolis Case
This information about Mort(e) was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Robert Repino grew up in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. After serving in the Peace Corps, he earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. His fiction has has appeared in The Literary Review, Night Train, Hobart, The Coachella Review, and more. He lives in New York and works as an editor for a scholarly publisher. See all Editorial Reviews
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