The Mount (novel)
LC Class | PS3555.M54 M68 2002 |
The Mount is a 2002 science fantasy novel by Carol Emshwiller. It won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2003.
The author was inspired to write The Mount after she took a class in the
Plot summary
The
When Charley (mount name Smiley) meets his father for the first time (Heron and Merry Mary were mated and separated by the Hoots soon after Charley was born), he resists betraying either his Master, the Hoot heir apparent, or anything that might help the resisting humans because his life as a mount is the only one he's ever known.
The Hoots
The Hoots are a race that have evolved from
Reception
Peter Cannon praised the novel in his review for the magazine Publishers Weekly, saying that it was "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."[2] Kirkus Reviews said that "with patience and enormous affection for her four-legged characters, Emshwiller has fashioned an affecting, plausible story that manages to sidestep a heavy-handed symbolism. A deceptively simple, clear-eyed story that should find its sympathetic Gullivers."[3] Michael Hemmingson reviewing for Review of Contemporary Fiction said "it took me about thirty pages to figure out who was narrating the narrative--my one complaint--but the title should have given it away sooner. While a quirky novel, it is very easy to fall into the rhythm of Emshwiller's poetic and smooth sentences and run with the flow."[4]
Notes
- ^ Robert Freeman Wexler interviews Carol Emshwiller, "Emshwiller Interview" Laconic Writer, posted: Jan 19th 2010, accessed: Jun 6th, 2010
- ISSN 0000-0019.
- ISSN 0042-6598.
- )