The Mount

Starred review from July 8, 2002
Like Emshwiller's startlingly perceptive short fiction and her previous novel, Carmen Dog
(1990),
where women begin to degenerate into animals and animals start evolving upward into womanhood, this novel turns our supposed certainties into beautiful and terrible insights. Writing in skeletal prose from the adolescent point of view of Charley, a boy who dreams of becoming a famous racer (ridden by his alien Little Master, the reptilian? avian? marsupial? Future-Ruler-of-Us-All), Emshwiller picks up human history several generations after a successful Hoot invasion has turned most of humanity into "mounts," bred for speed and beauty and trained with whips and savage bits to do their masters' will. In the mountains, though, a few wild humans lurk, led by Charley's father, plotting to rise up against the Hoots and take back the world they lost. Glimpses of arresting sorrow meld here with teenage dreams and hopes and anguish, shaped subtly with a poet's sure touch into finely crafted characterizations of human-as-not-quite-animal, Hoot-as-not-quite-monster, coming together through heartbreak and abandonment of previously hard-held prejudices. Brilliantly conceived and painfully acute in its delineation of the complex relationships between masters and slaves, pets and owners, the served and the serving, this poetic, funny and above all humane novel deserves to be read and cherished as a fundamental fable for our material-minded times. Agent, Wendy Weil. (Aug. 1)Forecast:Blurbs from Glen David Gold, Kim Stanley Robinson, Maureen McHugh and Connie Willis, among other big names, will ensure lots of attention for this small press item, which should go quickly into reprint. It's a natural for classroom adoption at the high school or college level.

June 1, 2003
Adult/High School-This veteran science-fiction writer is known for original plots and characters, and her latest novel does not disappoint, offering an extraordinary, utterly alien, and thoroughly convincing culture set in the not-too-distant future. Emshwiller brings readers immediately into the action, gradually revealing the takeover of Earth by the Hoots, otherworldly beings with superior intelligence and technology. Humans have become the Hoots' "mounts," and, in the case of the superior Seattle bloodline, valuable racing stock. Most mounts are well off, as the Hoots constantly remind them, and treated kindly by affectionate owners who use punishment poles as rarely as possible. No one agrees more than principal narrator Charley, a privileged young Seattle whose rider-in-training will someday rule the world. The adolescent mount's dream is of bringing honor to his beloved Little Master by becoming a great champion like Beauty, his sire, whose portrait decorates many Hoot walls. When Charley learns that his father now leads the renegade bands called Wilds, he and Little Master flee. This complex and compelling blend of tantalizing themes offers numerous possibilities for speculation and discussion, whether among friends or in the classroom.-Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2002
A rider is talking to its mount, a human. The rider (the one who gives a ride) belongs to an alien race, the hoots, that landed human generations ago. Now the hoots keep humans as mounts, breeding them much as humans once bred horses. The very best mounts are imprinted as infants and train with their riders from childhood. Charley, one of the best, is destined to be the mount of The-future-supreme-ruler-of-us-all. When he is about 12, Wilds--renegade humans-- come from the mountains on a raid and kill the hoots. Charley saves his Little Master, though, and becomes the only Wild with a hoot. Mount and rider learn a lot about freedom from the Wilds, and when the humans are ready to fight the rest of the hoots, the solution to a crisis is the unexpected result of Charley and the Little Master's relationship and their understanding of the truth about hoots and their mounts. A memorable alien-invasion scenario, a wild adventure, and a reflection on the dynamics of freedom and slavery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)