Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tasty slab of biopunk, July 10, 2007
If you like Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Vernor Vinge, Neal Stephenson and/or Paul Di Filippo, then this is a must-read. Hard boiled and well done. 14 alarms, but it sneaks up on you. Grandmother Spider, meet Sherkaner Underhill and Vicky Smith. Mia Sangre, meet Molly Millions and Ellen Ripley. Dr. Wan, meet Thomas Nau and Eldon Tyrell. Ratcatcher MacKay, meet Max Rockatansky and Korben Dallas. For the movie version (in my dreams), I'd cast Keira Knightly as Mia, Eddie Murphy as the voice of Miko D., Ethan Handler as the voice(s) of Nihilo, Terry O'Quinn as the leader of ACTS, and Tommy Lee Jones as our (anti-)hero, Batton.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More like American Hamburger , June 13, 2007
PLOT:
American Meat is a dark future story with a sci-fi feeling. It follows the story of ex-zoo keeper Batton McKay who specializes in killing animals as humanely as possible. He runs afoul of a vegetarian biker gang on what should be a routine assignment and gets swept into a world of cartoons come alive, talking animals, vast corporations, and an impossible mission to save himself and discover the riddle of the American meat supply. But what he uncovers is disturbing, disgusting, and terrifying.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Stuart Moore develops a good pace in this book and creates some very interesting characters. Not only is Batton engaging to read about, his pet robot monkey `dog' steals the spotlight more than once. The Mad Cows, a vegetarian biker gang provides a bit of comic relief and their leader Mia's journey throughout the book is as riveting as Batton's own. The brightest point in the whole book is Miko D, a cartoon come to life that looks like a 1940's Mickey Mouse, with a mouth and attitude of a hardcore rapper. Also, much of the imagery is stunning, but it would have been nice to see it in graphic novel form.
LOWLIGHTS:
Though the fast pacing of the book makes for a quick read, it leaves the plot riddled with holes. The most gaping wound occurred when Professor Wan, a promising Lex Luthoresque villain is completely underdeveloped. I also found the nearly condescending tone toward the vegetarian biker gang annoying. There are far too few representations of responsible vegetarians/animal rights activists to countenance such derogatory tones. After all the main message seemed to be that they just needed to eat some meat and they'd be fine. The sinister plot undertones seem less than sinister in the end, and the book ends not with a bang but with an unsatisfied sigh.
OVERALL:
This book is less than `filling' to use an eating analogy. At the end I had equally good and bad feelings towards my reading experience. I thought it tied too hard to be edgy, like a preteen in leather trying to look punk while hanging out at the mall. I can't recommend it in good conscience.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best I've read to date., December 24, 2005
Sanctioned Operative Batton MacKay's partner and only friend is Dog. Dog is a cyber monkey, with a live monkey brain. As the story opens MacKay and Dog are in Florida doing some mercy killing on genetically mutated pigs. The partners have a run-in with a gangcult called The Mad Cows.
The Mad Cows are militant vegetarians and THE nastiest gangcult in the south-eastern US. The leader is Mia Sangre, as beautiful as she is deadly. When MacKay leaves Florida, Mad Cows follow. MacKay and Dog are heading north on a job that pays enough for them to retire if they so wish. Fuzzies, Inc. (affiliated with GenTech) is the leader in DNA-Based Faunic Manipulation "DFM". Recently they have created a strain with far greater intelligence and range of emotional responses than before. These are called Intelligent DNA-Based Faunic Manipulation "i-DFM". Thus far, there are three: a dog, a cat, and a large mouse. These three have been kidnapped by ACTS, a survivalist military-stroke-religious group. MacKay's mission is to locate and recover the three i-DFM. Sounds easy. That should have been warning enough.
***** This is the best "Dark Future" novel I have read to date. Author Stuart Moore makes characters that the readers can actually sympathize with. He also used a topic that is big in today's time, animal rights. The two combine into a futuristic sci-fi story that will capture your interest on the first page and hold you tighter than Super Glue. Highly recommended! *****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
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