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A review by jadelaporte
Mort(e) by Robert Repino
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
An incredibly bleak post-apocalyptic novel exploring the concept of anthropomorphism as both a literary technique and a plot device. There's a lot going on here that is interesting -- a race of hyperintelligent ants bent on destroying humanity, newly sentient animals exploring concepts of identity and community amidst the backdrop of the aftermath of war, a human engineered bioweapon named EMSAH that is threatening all of animal-kind, and a lone housecat turned war hero searching for his lost friend -- a dog named Sheba, from a time before the Change. Despite featuring a cast of anthropomorphized cats, dogs, pigs and ants, *Mort(e)* doesn't shy away from brutal and graphic depictions of violence and death. There's a sort of aloof and detatched tone to the book, something that I at least in part attribute to the story being told from the point of view of animals who still retain memories and instincts from their former lives as pets and farm animals and beasts.
The prose is very plain and unornamented in a way that feels economical at best and amateurish at worst. Often I felt like the world was missing detail. I had to fill in the blanks a lot, and not in the good way where the author gives you enough detail to get your imagination working -- but in the bad way, where I felt like I couldn't *quite* come to a sense of place and verisimilitude.
One thing that bothered me in this book is just how bad Repino is at dialog. He struggles with it so much, in fact, that he will do this thing where anytime a character has something complex to say, he'll have them tell it in narration instead of dialog. Instead of the characters talking to each other naturally, every time there are sentences more than a handful of words long, it's written as exposition. It reminds me a lot of how some players at a D&D table may not be comfortable with acting out roleplaying so they just speak out of character. Works fine for TTRPGs...not so much in a novel.
While *Mort(e)* does a good job of instilling empathy for its animal characters, the same can not be said for its human characters who are, almost without exception, depicted as evil, manipulative, fanatical, selfish, savage, barbaric, naive or pathetic (or some combination of all of these). There's a very overt condemnation of humanity in this book and no noticeable nuance in how it approaches their actions or beliefs. *Mort(e)* especially seems hell bent (pun intended) on depicting religion in the most cartoonishly fanatical way possible every chance it gets, to the point where it feels like religious people are nothing but caricatures. In one particularly gross scene, a religious overseer tells a new convert not only to forgive and love those who abused her, but to be thankful for what they did to her because it lead her to where she is now. But if that's not enough to turn you off, there's also child sacrifice.
This lack of nuance is found not only in *Mort(e)*'s depiction of religion, but also in its depiction of "humanity" in general. There's a philosophical conflict at the heart of *Mort(e)* between the nobler aspects of humanity that the newly sentient animal characters seem to admire and want to pursure -- the capacity for love and community being at the forefront -- and the aspects of humanity they despise -- selfishness, domination, faith. However with very few exceptions, humans themselves almost *never* exibit the nobler aspects. It seems that universally animals turned on their masters and fought against them because they didn't want to be slaves anymore -- but you never really see any examples of pets that were genuinely loved and cared for and recognized that their masters adored them, pampered them, loved them as friends and companions. In that way, *Mort(e)* comes across as a very preachy, condemnative book that isn't interested in exploring the more nuanced relationships between man and animal so much as it is interested in making you feel terrible for being a human being.
The prose is very plain and unornamented in a way that feels economical at best and amateurish at worst. Often I felt like the world was missing detail. I had to fill in the blanks a lot, and not in the good way where the author gives you enough detail to get your imagination working -- but in the bad way, where I felt like I couldn't *quite* come to a sense of place and verisimilitude.
One thing that bothered me in this book is just how bad Repino is at dialog. He struggles with it so much, in fact, that he will do this thing where anytime a character has something complex to say, he'll have them tell it in narration instead of dialog. Instead of the characters talking to each other naturally, every time there are sentences more than a handful of words long, it's written as exposition. It reminds me a lot of how some players at a D&D table may not be comfortable with acting out roleplaying so they just speak out of character. Works fine for TTRPGs...not so much in a novel.
While *Mort(e)* does a good job of instilling empathy for its animal characters, the same can not be said for its human characters who are, almost without exception, depicted as evil, manipulative, fanatical, selfish, savage, barbaric, naive or pathetic (or some combination of all of these). There's a very overt condemnation of humanity in this book and no noticeable nuance in how it approaches their actions or beliefs. *Mort(e)* especially seems hell bent (pun intended) on depicting religion in the most cartoonishly fanatical way possible every chance it gets, to the point where it feels like religious people are nothing but caricatures. In one particularly gross scene, a religious overseer tells a new convert not only to forgive and love those who abused her, but to be thankful for what they did to her because it lead her to where she is now. But if that's not enough to turn you off, there's also child sacrifice.
This lack of nuance is found not only in *Mort(e)*'s depiction of religion, but also in its depiction of "humanity" in general. There's a philosophical conflict at the heart of *Mort(e)* between the nobler aspects of humanity that the newly sentient animal characters seem to admire and want to pursure -- the capacity for love and community being at the forefront -- and the aspects of humanity they despise -- selfishness, domination, faith. However with very few exceptions, humans themselves almost *never* exibit the nobler aspects. It seems that universally animals turned on their masters and fought against them because they didn't want to be slaves anymore -- but you never really see any examples of pets that were genuinely loved and cared for and recognized that their masters adored them, pampered them, loved them as friends and companions. In that way, *Mort(e)* comes across as a very preachy, condemnative book that isn't interested in exploring the more nuanced relationships between man and animal so much as it is interested in making you feel terrible for being a human being.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Religious bigotry