Mort(e) by Robert Repino

• Title:  Mort(e)
  
• Author:  Robert Repino
  
• Borrowed from DC Public (AudioBook)
  
• Started: 4/27/2016
  
• Finished: 5/4/2016
  

Apocalyptic novel, talking animals, love between cat & dog, quasi-detective story.  This novel, by that description, should be the perfect novel for me.

And it started off strong.  Told mostly from the point of view of Mort(e)/Sebastian, a house cat in love with the neighbors dog Sheba (neighbor human is banging married owner of Sebastian), who through the magic of ants becomes a walking/talking/fighting machine.  

Actually all animals do, they also walk on two legs (most, anyway), as do the ants, and they've grown to human size (or greater).  This all sounds asinine, but it makes good sense in the world of the book.  And the the opening telling the story of the apocalypse and changes to animals is very well done.

But about 1/3rd of the way through the book it falls apart a bit.  Mort(e) is a killing machine (killing humans), banding together with the ants.  But things aren't as they seem to be, and the religion rears its head among the resistance, and somehow Mort(e) is believed to be the messiah.

It's just too much, but the last 1/4 of the book once again focuses on Mort(e) and his long-lost love Sheba (still a normal dog, not transformed), and for any animal lovers out there -- all is right in the world once again.

Glad I read it, would have made a better short story or even serialized work, but I can't fault a first-time author for getting this published.  

I will fault the reader of the audiobook -- he was terrible.  This could have been an amazing audiobook (essentially serializing the work), but instead the guy reading detracted from the overall enjoyment.