Fairy Tale Spotlight: Otters in Space [Book Review]

Don't judge a story by its cover... or its first few chapters.

"Otters in Space" or "Otters in Space: The Search for Cat Havana" is a book written by Mary E. Lowd. It was published in 2012. I bought it quite some time ago, and it just sort of sat in a cardboard box for ages. When I was going through my old unread books to try and whittle down what I had, I ran into this. My roommate told me I should read it because it looked stupid, and so I did. (It wasn't stupid.)

I went into it not knowing much about it, but the title of the book did look like it was going to be a fun and silly ride. Much to my surprise, it actually has a really solid iron-clad narrative for a furry science fiction story.

The story's setup is that the humans have left the planet, leaving the animals in a state of sentience. They aren't fully anthro like the humans were, but they are fully sentient and are running the planet in the human's absence. The dogs have most of the rule and are not getting along with the cats, oppressing them. The cats are constantly trying to get power in the government so that they have more rights.

Now by the second chapter, this is really all you get. It looks like a politics thing, but if you keep on going, the story evolves into other things, and the politics of the beginning get less and less preachy. In fact, it begins to look less black and white. For one, the cats have their own problems that aren't directly addressed in the beginning. Dogs may be overbearing and mean, but they aren't all bad. And cats have a serious ego and laziness problem which keeps them down as a people anyways. So the story really isn't as politically polarized as it seems when the story begins.

The book follows the path of Kipper, a cat, who is trying to find this place she personally refers to as Cat Havana, a place where cats can live away from the rule of the dogs. Along the way, she runs into the otters who have heavily colonized space, and she ends up making friends with them in order to find out where this place is. And beyond this, I don't really wanna spoil anymore because this book is extremely good.

The main thing that blew my mind about this story was that the author did such a wonderful job in capturing the personalities of each species. Cats are prideful and prudish. Dogs are overbearing and severe, but extremely loyal and obedient when under command. Otters are playful and have a love for life and liberty... and water. All these things together form an extremely entertaining story that perfectly bring out who these people are in context to their species.

As fun as the story is, it never seems to get to the point of just outright silly. The author took great care with every aspect of the narrative and the worldbuilding. Everything seems real and plausible. It's not at all what I expected from a book with this title. But the title is still relevant because the otters themselves, their culture and life, are so much fun! I'd love to live with them up in "otter space."

"Otters in Space" is a perfect blend of serious and fun. It's always taken seriously while still giving room to breathe and enjoy yourself. Although it may seem, in the beginning, like the story is moving into a forced political narrative, the story balances itself out flawlessly as it moves forward. I totally recommend it!

This blog was written on June 3, 2022.

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