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The Mount: A Novel Paperback – August 1, 2002
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* Philip K. Dick Award Winner
* Best of the Year: Locus, Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, Book Magazine
* Nominated for the Impac Award
Charley is an athlete. He wants to grow up to be the fastest runner in the world, like his father. He wants to be painted crossing the finishing line, in his racing silks, with a medal around his neck. Charley lives in a stable. He isn't a runner, he's a mount. He belongs to a Hoot: The Hoots are alien invaders. Charley hasn't seen his mother for years, and his father is hiding out in the mountains somewhere, with the other Free Humans. The Hoots own the world, but the humans want it back. Charley knows how to be a good mount, but now he's going to have to learn how to be a human being.
- Print length200 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSmall Beer Press
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2002
- Reading age14 years and up
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
- ISBN-101931520038
- ISBN-13978-1931520034
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"I've been a fan of Carol Emshwiller's since the wonderful Carmen Dog. The Mount is a terrific novel, at once an adventure story and a meditation on the psychology of freedom and slavery. It's literally haunting (days after finishing it, I still think about all the terrible poetry of the Hoot/Sam relationship) and hypnotic. I'm honored to have gotten an early look at it."
—Glen David Gold
"Carol Emshwiller's The Mount is a wicked book. Like Harlan Ellison's darkest visions, Emshwiller writes in a voice that reminds us of the golden season when speculative fiction was daring and unsettling. Dystopian, weird, comedic as if the Marquis de Sade had joined Monty Python, and ultimately scary, The Mount takes us deep into another reality. Our world suddenly seems wrought with terrible ironies and a severe kind of beauty. When we are the mounts, who—or what—is riding us?
—Luis Alberto Urrea
"We are all Mounts and so should read this book like an instruction manual that could help save our lives. That it is also a beautiful funny novel is the usual bonus you get by reading Carol Emshwiller. She always writes them that way."
—Kim Stanley Robinson
"This novel is like a tesseract, I started it and thought, ah, I see what she's doing. But then the dimensions unfolded and somehow it ended up being about so much more."
—Maureen F. McHugh
"The Mount is so extraordinary as to be unpraiseable by a mortal such as I. I had to keep putting it down because it was so disturbing then picking it up because it was so amazing. A postmodernist would call it The Eros of Hegemony, but I'm no postmodernist. Nearly every sentence is simultaneously hilarious, prophetic, and disturbing. This person needs to be really, really famous."
—Paul Ingram, Prairie Lights Bookstore
"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."
—Publishers Weekly
"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."
—School Library Journal
"Emshwiller's prose is beautiful"
—Laura Miller, Salon
"The Mount is a brilliant book. But be warned: It takes root in the mind and unleashes aftershocks at inopportune moments."
—The Women's Review of Books
"Carol Emshwiller has been writing fantasy, speculative and science fiction for many years; she has a dedicated cult following and has been an influence on a number of today's top writers.... it is very easy to fall into the rhythm of Emshwiller's poetic and smooth sentences."
—Review of Contemporary Fiction
"Emshwiller's themes—the allure of submission, the temptations of complicity, the perverse nature of compassion—are not usual fare in novels of resistance and revolt, and her strikingly imaginative novel continues to surpass our expectations to the very last page."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Both fantastical and unnerving in its familiarity. And like her work in romance and westerns, its genre-twisting plot resists easy classification."
—The Village Voice
"Emshwiller uses a deceptively simple narrative voice that gives The Mount the style of a young-adult novel. But there's much going on beneath the surface of this narrative, including oblique flashes of humor and artfully articulated moments of psychological insight. The Mount emerges as one of the season's unexpected small pleasures."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"A memorable alien-invasion scenario, a wild adventure, and a reflection on the dynamics of freedom and slavery."
—Booklist
"A brilliant piece of work."
—Bookslut
"...a beautifully written allegorical tale full of hope that even the most unenlightened souls can shrug off the bonds of internalized oppression and finally see the light."
—BookPage
"A fable/fantasy/cautionary tale along the lines of, say, Animal Farm. It's the story of Charlie, a preadolescent human who's being used as a horse by shoulder-riding alien invaders known as Hoots. Charlie wants nothing more than to become a great Mount, a loyal slave and servant, until his father, a renegade Mount who has fled from the Hoots and now lives in the mountains, comes to take him away. Like so much of Emshwiller's work, The Mount asks difficult questions—in this case, What is freedom? The issue is particularly appropriate at a time when "freedom" in America is increasingly defined as "security"—freedom from uncertainty, freedom from fear, freedom from want. All of which is, in the end, not really freedom at all."—Time Out New York
"In a recent interview with Science Fiction Weekly, Ursula Le Guin called Emshwiller "the most unappreciated great writer we've got." The Mount proves Le Guin right.... If Emshwiller is not already on your top bookshelf, The Mount will put her there."
—Rambles
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Small Beer Press; First Edition (August 1, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 200 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1931520038
- ISBN-13 : 978-1931520034
- Reading age : 14 years and up
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,471,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8,029 in Alien Invasion Science Fiction
- #12,345 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)
- #18,711 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books)
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I was a bit worried in the first third that there would be no explanation for how such a seemingly weak species could overcome billions of humans. I began to assume we had done it to ourselves and the Hoots really did find us as feral animals. That wasn't quite the truth, which still ended up being one of my suspected scenarios. It was deeply satisfying that the author kept in mind to fill in just the right amount of these details. No attempt is made to explain the details of Hoot technology, leaving it wonderfully to the imagination. And there was some terribly mysterious reveals about the Hoots that beg for a continuation, though in that contain what I felt to be nods to other science fiction tales.
This quickly rocketed into my top-5 list of all time favorite science fiction.
The story stands out in its quirky telling, well-written off-kilter logic and behavior of the Hoots, and the bond that forms between Charley and his would-be master. It falters a bit in the sometimes unrecognizable behavior of the humans. I couldn't tell if this was done intentionally by the author, or whether it was a series of plot holes. Anyway, that question alone prevented a 5-star rating from me. That said, this novel is unique enough and thought-provoking enough to merit a read. You won't soon forget it!
But the key thing for me is the masterful way - no other way to describe it - the author describes Charley's participation in his own subjection; how he internalises the values imposed on him by the Hoot masters and sees value in being a 'good slave' when the Hoots themselves generally - but not always, as in the case of his rider - see those values in cynical terms as a method of control. The way Charley then manages to reconcile his slave morality with the values of true freedom is dealt with marvellously.
For this alone, brilliant. But also a fascinating sf concept (rare in sf these days, and well-enough executed. A very engaging read.
I am giving this book 4 stars, even though it might be a five star book. This is because the ending of the book felt too happy. I was expecting a depressing ending that would force me to examine my life even more than I had. Instead I was treated to a fairy-tale happy ending. I also grew weary of the author's use of incomplete sentences, which drove me nuts. Despite all this, I still highly recommend the book, especially for science-fiction aficionados.
Top reviews from other countries
How does one have a fair and free relationship? With our families our friends and our critters? I'm thinking it through and thanks to Carol have a new set of criteria to work with. I know this book, and it's themes will surface again and again in my future.
Don't miss it.