Furry: The Best Anthropomorphic Fiction Ever

by Fred Patten (Editor)

Over 24 of the best furry fiction stories of the past 15 years. Winner of Furry Fandoms' Ursus Award. Furry fiction revolves around sentient animals or characters who have animal aspects, ranging from genetically engineered creatures to aliens to werewolves. Although related to science fiction, fantasy, and horror, this branch of speculative fiction has a style all its own. This volume, in addition to the wide-variety of entertaining stories, contains non-fiction material explaining the origin and development of furry fiction.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies

445 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Fred Patten was an American writer and historian known for his work in the science fiction, fantasy, anime, manga, and furry fandoms through both print and online books, magazines, and other media.

Reviews

[Geo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely didn't expect to like this because, lets fact it, both the title and the cover hint otherwise (actually...they more like howl otherwise).

But despite any of my inhibitions, I actually enjoyed the vast majority of the short stories in this collection. Had a lot of nifty ideas and situations and characters to sample from anthro fiction. Slight Odd at points but generally awesome. Most fun I've had reading a short story collection a long while.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had not read "furry" literature before and found it to be an enjoyable experience. "Furry" is an umbrella term for intelligent beings are not human. While most of the stories had mammals the genre includes reptiles as one of the stories featured dragons.

I discovered that the furry genre is a vehicle for talking about issues such as slavery, caste systems, gender equality, sexual identity, sexual harassment, and relationships with different or marginalized folks, in ways that would not make the average human reader feel uncomfortable. For example, one of the stories was about some of the consequences of an illness that disfigures people. Most who are stricken are still human mentally but they look like rabbits, pigs, bats, woodchucks, etc. Can a family still care for and love their daughter though she's now an elephant?

The anthology is divided into three sections. 1) Stories where furries and humans co-exist, furry-only worlds, and 3) human/furry transformations with three of the four stories in this section being werewolf themed.

Fred Patten, the editor, also included sizable introduction and afterword essays covering the history of furry literature, fandom, and wraps up with lists of furry print magazines and Internet resources. As they were written in 2003 the latter lists are now dated but will still be useful for historical research projects.

[Sean Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm gonna leave my review for “Best in Show” here, since this is the same anthology, just done through a different publisher. Originally published as "Best in Show" from Sofawolf press, "Furry!: The Best Anthropomorphic Fiction Ever!" features 26 stories from well over 15 years of furry fiction writing. The collection, divided up into three sections that consist of transformation, anthro/human worlds, and anthro only worlds, is said to be the “best” the fandom has to offer. Personally, I would call this more of a mixed bag. Mostly because the quality of writing over the last several years has vastly improved, but there are still a few gems in this collection. The true stand out here is “Wings”, an emotional story about a sick child and his anthropomorphic caretaker. This piece alone would make most people’s anthro fiction top 10 list, and it really is worth the price of admission. A few other notable mentions being “Foxy Lady”, a tale of a man who wins an anthropomorphic fox slave in a game show, and “The Boar Goes North”, a suspenseful action story with a porcine antihero (and yes, I read this well before I claimed an animal identity within the fandom). Again, it is a hit and miss collection that definitely has a few memorable pieces.

[Matt Posner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Technically this was my first book publication -- I have a story in it called "The Boar Goes North." I don't have this book though -- I have the original, which is called Best in Show, and was issued by Sofawolf Press. This edition went out of print because its publisher, Ibooks, went bankrupt.

Lots of very skilled and intelligent writers took on the task of writing furry fiction, an interesting genre. I send my best wishes to Fred Patten and to the other authors who participated. Look me up, guys.

Best,

Matt Posner

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantasy short stories at their best. My personal favorite being the story Wings by Todd G. Sutherland. In this collection you'll find something you'll love. Great for animal lovers and those who secretly have wanted to be an animal.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars. This took me a lot of time to get through to the end. I'm not sure if it was the vast array of short stories or stress going on in my life that were the reasons why I was just not interested in this book.

[Nyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE IT

Wish I had it as part of my main collection of books, but its on my to get list, for the moment we just have to contend with getting it out form the lib as much as possible