What do you think?
Rate this book
Amygdala
It was never a Big Bang… it was progress beyond all frontiers…
The August Few is a story of animals, born to a world of swirling, fractal chaos, who learned the art of civilisation. Their government, forged in fire, ruled only by the objective truth of all things, with no room for incompetence, mercy, or even morality. Now, with subjective virtues cast aside, their city, The Underbirth, holds within it the greatest collection of animal intellects, born of mechanical systems designed to test everything: natural, cultural, industrial selection. Their art is beguiling, their science boundless, their bodies strong, and lean, and perfect. And yet, amidst the beauty of a culture ruled by absolute competence, some still feel afraid. And some wish for change… at any cost.
This is a story of animals.
The August Few is a story of animals, born to a world of swirling, fractal chaos, who learned the art of civilisation. Their government, forged in fire, ruled only by the objective truth of all things, with no room for incompetence, mercy, or even morality. Now, with subjective virtues cast aside, their city, The Underbirth, holds within it the greatest collection of animal intellects, born of mechanical systems designed to test everything: natural, cultural, industrial selection. Their art is beguiling, their science boundless, their bodies strong, and lean, and perfect. And yet, amidst the beauty of a culture ruled by absolute competence, some still feel afraid. And some wish for change… at any cost.
This is a story of animals.
900 pages, Hardcover
Published February 13, 2023
100 people are currently reading
404 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
November 25, 2023
The worldbuilding in "Amygdala" is truly something special, and easily one of its strongest points. The characters, both in behavior and appearance, are very unique, each standing out distinctly from the others. The cultural aspects are fascinating, if visceral. It's difficult to describe, but is best stated as vastly different from anything we've seen on Earth. Not exactly for the faint of heart, either.
However, my enjoyment of this alien world faded fast as it felt like nearly every page bombarded me with an excess of information. The frequent and lengthy exposition made it a challenge to fully grasp the complexity of the world. And while the characters' descriptions really were quite interesting, I started skipping them after a third of the book, as I struggled to invest in characters who ultimately had fleeting significance (and often ended up "dying" shortly after anyway).
I'll admit that this may be more of an issue to me than it would be to others. I've never loved long exposition describing the intricate workings of the world; there's a certain beauty in simplicity, in my opinion. But anyone who loves delving into the gritty details would love this aspect of the book, I think.
(Mild spoilers ahead).
The real stumbling block for me ended up being the plot and the characters' roles within it. After a prologue (wisely) dedicated to ensuring you understand the basics of the world, you are introduced to Lucy Lacemaker. I initially enjoyed Lucy due to her ambition, friendliness, and compelling underdog background in a Darwinistic society. In fact, if the book had focused only on Lucy making her way in this incredibly harsh world, I think I could have enjoyed this book a lot. It was easy to root for her success, especially in the face of the readily apparent consequences of failure.
Instead, however, it took a focus on a political and moral debate, discussing the nature of these animals' society as a whole. While I usually appreciate a good moral dilemma, (in this case, an argument between pushing for a merciful society, or remaining in pure Darwinistic logic), the arguments presented in the book left me vehemently disagreeing with both sides. I believe this must have been intentional, but it became problematic when the primary characters, including Lucy, aligned strongly with these extremes.
The characters' extreme stances left no room for compromise, and I found myself disagreeing strongly with both sides. But my frustration peaked during a major public debate in the last third of the book, when both sides of the argument were spearheaded by major political leaders. In particular, I felt the arguments presented in favor of a more merciful society felt surprisingly childish, considering that the one making it was supposedly an intelligent and capable leader; it felt like she was intentionally lobotomized, just so she would lose.
And, to seal this book's fate in my eyes, the main characters' expressiveness of these extremes— without ANY consideration for compromise whatsoever—made me start to despise them, including Lacemaker. While I noticed what might be setup for this compromise in a later book, I won't be continuing the series if/when that happens. The base concepts were intriguing, but they weren't enough to support the narrative flow, character behaviors, and plot—which felt disjointed and barely coherent, overall.
As a final note, I need to express that there were many elements in this book that were a little too... explicit in nature than was necessary, or even acceptable in some cases. I was able to understand that a lot of it was just the nature of the world. However, I was frequently made a little too uncomfortable by the descriptions of the characters—the females in particular, whose thighs, 'soft bellies' and breasts were mentioned far too frequently, particularly when compared similarly to the males' descriptions. And particularly when considering that those features seemed almost entirely irrelevant to these animals' actual methods of reproduction.
Amygdala was certainly an... interesting read, if nothing else. Between the strange, visceral nature of the world, conceptually, I felt like it held some promise. Ultimately, however, I can't recommend this book to anyone. The execution of the concept was very poorly done, from a storytelling standpoint, and not worth the slog.
However, my enjoyment of this alien world faded fast as it felt like nearly every page bombarded me with an excess of information. The frequent and lengthy exposition made it a challenge to fully grasp the complexity of the world. And while the characters' descriptions really were quite interesting, I started skipping them after a third of the book, as I struggled to invest in characters who ultimately had fleeting significance (and often ended up "dying" shortly after anyway).
I'll admit that this may be more of an issue to me than it would be to others. I've never loved long exposition describing the intricate workings of the world; there's a certain beauty in simplicity, in my opinion. But anyone who loves delving into the gritty details would love this aspect of the book, I think.
(Mild spoilers ahead).
The real stumbling block for me ended up being the plot and the characters' roles within it. After a prologue (wisely) dedicated to ensuring you understand the basics of the world, you are introduced to Lucy Lacemaker. I initially enjoyed Lucy due to her ambition, friendliness, and compelling underdog background in a Darwinistic society. In fact, if the book had focused only on Lucy making her way in this incredibly harsh world, I think I could have enjoyed this book a lot. It was easy to root for her success, especially in the face of the readily apparent consequences of failure.
Instead, however, it took a focus on a political and moral debate, discussing the nature of these animals' society as a whole. While I usually appreciate a good moral dilemma, (in this case, an argument between pushing for a merciful society, or remaining in pure Darwinistic logic), the arguments presented in the book left me vehemently disagreeing with both sides. I believe this must have been intentional, but it became problematic when the primary characters, including Lucy, aligned strongly with these extremes.
The characters' extreme stances left no room for compromise, and I found myself disagreeing strongly with both sides. But my frustration peaked during a major public debate in the last third of the book, when both sides of the argument were spearheaded by major political leaders. In particular, I felt the arguments presented in favor of a more merciful society felt surprisingly childish, considering that the one making it was supposedly an intelligent and capable leader; it felt like she was intentionally lobotomized, just so she would lose.
And, to seal this book's fate in my eyes, the main characters' expressiveness of these extremes— without ANY consideration for compromise whatsoever—made me start to despise them, including Lacemaker. While I noticed what might be setup for this compromise in a later book, I won't be continuing the series if/when that happens. The base concepts were intriguing, but they weren't enough to support the narrative flow, character behaviors, and plot—which felt disjointed and barely coherent, overall.
As a final note, I need to express that there were many elements in this book that were a little too... explicit in nature than was necessary, or even acceptable in some cases. I was able to understand that a lot of it was just the nature of the world. However, I was frequently made a little too uncomfortable by the descriptions of the characters—the females in particular, whose thighs, 'soft bellies' and breasts were mentioned far too frequently, particularly when compared similarly to the males' descriptions. And particularly when considering that those features seemed almost entirely irrelevant to these animals' actual methods of reproduction.
Amygdala was certainly an... interesting read, if nothing else. Between the strange, visceral nature of the world, conceptually, I felt like it held some promise. Ultimately, however, I can't recommend this book to anyone. The execution of the concept was very poorly done, from a storytelling standpoint, and not worth the slog.
March 7, 2023
Just finished reading this book, it's the first of a new series from a new author. The world building is extraordinary, with wide sweep and intricate depth. The characters are many, but all are given such attention to detail that you don't forget a single one. The main protagonist is the cover girl, Lucy Lacemaker, wonderfully flawed and inquisitive. Her journey takes the reader through the harsh yet beautiful culture of the Kivouack, its political intricacies, moral and ethical arguments. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a unique, monstrous tale of otherworldly creatures. It's got best seller written all over it. A new writing wizard is among us. Be one of the first on the scene.
August 2, 2024
4/10
I did not enjoy this. There were a few moments that I liked but overall this was a slog to get through. There are way too many issues. The plot is poorly thought out, the characters are quite bland, there are way too many characters to keep up with, it takes too long to get going, the worldbuilding, while interesting, is a bit too off-putting for my taste, and the themes are just terrible and poorly constructed.
I really hope Fennah learns from this and grows as an author. There is potential in this. He just needs to scrutinize his stories a bit harder next time to iron out all these problems.
For a full review go to my website
I did not enjoy this. There were a few moments that I liked but overall this was a slog to get through. There are way too many issues. The plot is poorly thought out, the characters are quite bland, there are way too many characters to keep up with, it takes too long to get going, the worldbuilding, while interesting, is a bit too off-putting for my taste, and the themes are just terrible and poorly constructed.
I really hope Fennah learns from this and grows as an author. There is potential in this. He just needs to scrutinize his stories a bit harder next time to iron out all these problems.
For a full review go to my website
June 27, 2023
So, this is now one of my all-time favorite books I've ever read. I love this book! It's political fantasy with a hint sci-fi elements, full of unforgettable characters of various colors, shapes, and sizes. Amygdala explores the workings of a society of civilized, monstrous beasts of teeth and claws that have human mannerisms but are still animals at heart. This is 900+ pages of curiosity and questions of morality. Please pick this up when you have the chance, but be mindful of the disturbing content. Such content involves, cannibalism, violence, headless displays of bodies, forms of prostitution/stripping, lots of death, and more.
February 1, 2025
This was... Definitely a book.
Alright, so despite it's large amount of pages to get through of world-building, characters, and politics, this was actually a pretty fast read. I probably would have finished it earlier if I didn't have like two other books I was reading at the same time.
Anyway, I'm not going to go into great detail on this review because there's A LOT of characters and B Plots that I'm just not gonna engage. It's too much, the book it too expensive, and I'm out of energy.
Instead we'll focus on the main conflict and our mascot/"central" character, Lucy Lacemaker and her relation to everything.
A.) This world consists solely of animal like beings known as the kivouack that predate the Big Bang. These animals base themselves on animalistic cultures where it's survival of the fittest, the young devour their parent upon birth, and the weakest of the children, called Fowlers, are hunted and killed.
B.) Lucy starts off as a fowler in this world and devotes every fiber of her being to this world and believes in every aspect of it, including the eating of Fowlers like her and the killing of the weak. This does not change through the course of the book. She's saved by nearly EVERY character that believes in a less sadistic and nicer world, primarily where they don't kill their children. The first was an adult who saw potential in her as a baby when she caught her reading one of her books. The second, another child who became her legitimate friend in all this and helped her get a job, a home, and genuinely cared about her. And the last, what, like five, again see her potential. She believes these were choices these people made out of their own selfish desires of not wanting to be blackmailed for murder, they wanted to use her, or because they just weren't hungry at the moment.
C.) Lucy starts off as a self-centered know-it-all who is holding a grudge over an old friend who abandoned her when he matured and found her too small for his prospects. Keep in mind she is rather small and is relatively younger than all the other characters. This, again, does not change. She ends up killing the friend, running away, and ends up doing exactly what the friend did to her to her own friends. Except this time, it's because they don't believe in the same politics she does. She legitimately almost kills her best friend just to prove a point.
D.) This world follows the arguments of two radical ideals for how this world should work, neither of which should as history has proven following any radical ideal to such a degree has led to many wars, which this book is heavily implying will be the case for the next book. Lucky believes hard on the one this world is currently following from the first page to her last appearance. Mind you, one character makes an excellent point, that both parties were far too radical and don't have a fully rational way of seeing things because of their own hubris. Lucy is nothing like this character and says, "nope, this world best and it works, so it's better, no change, let's kill!" I'd rather see how the other character came to the conclusion of why the leader of this world is also in the wrong.
All in all, I lost interest about half way when I realized I was reading a very static main character who doesn't question a single thing about the world that literally wanted her dead as a baby. I only kept reading because A. I liked the YouTube series this book is based on and B. I wanted to see exactly where the author was going with this. Then C. The YouTube series takes place after this world is destroyed, the Big Bang, and I was interested to see how they got to where they ended up. Honestly, was disappointed and the ending was so out of left field all my questions did not matter and I'm no longer interested.
I won't be getting the second book when it comes out. This one was too expensive and I ended up reading the Kindle version because it was cheaper, but still annoyingly expensive, and I just don't care anymore. Interesting world, interesting characters, but I like the YouTube version more and will probably just read/watch reviews to see what ends up happening.
Alright, so despite it's large amount of pages to get through of world-building, characters, and politics, this was actually a pretty fast read. I probably would have finished it earlier if I didn't have like two other books I was reading at the same time.
Anyway, I'm not going to go into great detail on this review because there's A LOT of characters and B Plots that I'm just not gonna engage. It's too much, the book it too expensive, and I'm out of energy.
Instead we'll focus on the main conflict and our mascot/"central" character, Lucy Lacemaker and her relation to everything.
A.) This world consists solely of animal like beings known as the kivouack that predate the Big Bang. These animals base themselves on animalistic cultures where it's survival of the fittest, the young devour their parent upon birth, and the weakest of the children, called Fowlers, are hunted and killed.
B.) Lucy starts off as a fowler in this world and devotes every fiber of her being to this world and believes in every aspect of it, including the eating of Fowlers like her and the killing of the weak. This does not change through the course of the book. She's saved by nearly EVERY character that believes in a less sadistic and nicer world, primarily where they don't kill their children. The first was an adult who saw potential in her as a baby when she caught her reading one of her books. The second, another child who became her legitimate friend in all this and helped her get a job, a home, and genuinely cared about her. And the last, what, like five, again see her potential. She believes these were choices these people made out of their own selfish desires of not wanting to be blackmailed for murder, they wanted to use her, or because they just weren't hungry at the moment.
C.) Lucy starts off as a self-centered know-it-all who is holding a grudge over an old friend who abandoned her when he matured and found her too small for his prospects. Keep in mind she is rather small and is relatively younger than all the other characters. This, again, does not change. She ends up killing the friend, running away, and ends up doing exactly what the friend did to her to her own friends. Except this time, it's because they don't believe in the same politics she does. She legitimately almost kills her best friend just to prove a point.
D.) This world follows the arguments of two radical ideals for how this world should work, neither of which should as history has proven following any radical ideal to such a degree has led to many wars, which this book is heavily implying will be the case for the next book. Lucky believes hard on the one this world is currently following from the first page to her last appearance. Mind you, one character makes an excellent point, that both parties were far too radical and don't have a fully rational way of seeing things because of their own hubris. Lucy is nothing like this character and says, "nope, this world best and it works, so it's better, no change, let's kill!" I'd rather see how the other character came to the conclusion of why the leader of this world is also in the wrong.
All in all, I lost interest about half way when I realized I was reading a very static main character who doesn't question a single thing about the world that literally wanted her dead as a baby. I only kept reading because A. I liked the YouTube series this book is based on and B. I wanted to see exactly where the author was going with this. Then C. The YouTube series takes place after this world is destroyed, the Big Bang, and I was interested to see how they got to where they ended up. Honestly, was disappointed and the ending was so out of left field all my questions did not matter and I'm no longer interested.
I won't be getting the second book when it comes out. This one was too expensive and I ended up reading the Kindle version because it was cheaper, but still annoyingly expensive, and I just don't care anymore. Interesting world, interesting characters, but I like the YouTube version more and will probably just read/watch reviews to see what ends up happening.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2025
(Wrote an updated version on Storygraph. The more I ruminated on this book the more I realized three stars was a bit generous. Amygdala is an interesting read, for sure, but not a well-constructed one, both on a plot and worldbuilding level. And as a worldbuilding nut, it started driving me crazier the longer I thought about it! I am leaving this original review up just so people know what my initial thoughts were, but I am knocking a star off my rating.)
TLDR
Given this book contains things like necrophilia and snuff fetishes, child death, cannibalism, and so on, it's odd that this book isn't at least labelled dark fantasy if not outright horror fantasy... The genres are kind of misleading, lul.
Anyway, I respect the hustle, but there's a reason common writing advice tells you NOT to write 1000 page long epics with a billion moving parts as your first novel and this book is a great example as to why. There are things to like about it, true, but many things to hate about it, too.
If you like Fennah's art style and you are willing to ignore the big flaws to find the good in here, such as the wild worldbuilding, elaborate scene setters, and a few fun character moments, go for it! But go for the digital version, or any physical version that wasn't printed off Amazon.
Amazon can't put together or safely ship a book to save their lives, it's not worth the money!!!
Also, all but two pieces of art are just characters posing against a white background, and sometimes the art didn't completely match the character descriptions... I would have liked to see them in scenes doing stuff sometimes. There are no full-page or two page splash artworks, or scenery pictures either. Show me the library, at least. :(
Plot
The plot needed more developmental edits. Fennah does not have a grasp of the politics he's writing about beyond very bare bones stuff. (That, or he actively chose not to have a more complex story. Which I think would be worse.)
The Locket Resistance is barely explored, it feels like we're at their commune thing for 2 seconds and get no insight into their beliefs that isn't purposefully or unintentionally dunking on them (for using medicine and not killing children for no reason), which makes no sense considering this story's plot.
Partway through the book, This mystery should've been saved for a later book where mire will matter.
Methusa's plan is also overly convoluted, lol.
The Politics
Fennah does not grasp that Locket's side is not a bastion of logic or objectivity. Spoiler alert: Locket does have a moral compass, isn't objective, and is also a hypocrite. (I would list off all the reasons but it'd take too long, so I'll leave you with: What the hell is with Locket's hatred of the concept of medicine, and why does it not extend to walking canes and glasses?) These things have yet to come up in any list of reasons why she's wrong, it usually defaults to her being mean (which is true, to be fair).
Similarly, he does not grasp that Methusa's side has perfectly logical reasons to be nice (like, "maybe constantly killing off the soldiers in your army instead of continuing to train them or kicking them out to work elsewhere isn't the most productive use of taxpayer trade material").
As a result, any political argument in this book is a SLOG.
It's just the bad side going "eugenics is cool and people should fear death for every mistake" and the good side going "oh no... I hadn't thought of that before" (exaggerated a bit for effect), which is insane considering some of them are/were politicians who are a thousand plus years old. They fail to come up with counterarguments for the simplest attacks! And worse still, Methusa's side is also usually stupider plot-wise, too. If someone has to do something dumb to advance the plot (), it's pretty much always Methusa's team who is responsible.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding is neat! I like it in theory and I'm glad Fennah was able to go full tilt with the gnarliness, but it feels like anything not directly related to how sexy necrophilia is tends to get shoved to the wayside, leaving a story that, given its subject matter, is weirdly... lacking in gore... Or maybe I'm too much of a gorehound, haha.
When the book does get graphic, it tends to be in a sexually charged "oh this is just snuff porn" way, not in a "ouch, what a gross gore / rape scene!" kind of way.
Seriously, the Underbirth as a society sucks. But Fennah never once ponders how much living in the Underbirth would shred your sanity, and the consequences of certain laws weren't thought through (cough cough, the Murder Is Legal law, cough). The two mentally ill people in this story (Celia, who is a schizophrenic, and Ludwig, who has anxiety) are treated as weirdos. Nobody is really impacted by the violence even though they can and should be.
In a place this violent, isn't it objectively advantageous to be anxious all the time and never truly let your guard down? Especially as a child? I mean that's how prey animals in real life get down, and everyone in the Underbirth save for powerful few is a prey animal whether they like it or not. :)
Yeah yeah, the kiv "aren't humans, they don't have our brains or morals"... but that feels like a lame excuse for reasons discussed below. (Also the kiv are pretty obviously intended to be allegorical to real human issues.)
The Horny
It's okay to be horny! But in this case the sticky white human fingerprints are distracting. This story is advertised as a political fantasy about violent animals or some such, but Fennah's incessant need to stick suspiciously human-shaped babes in here and hard focus on their suspiciously human-aligned sex appeal really detracts from the "inhuman" part of the equation.
Male kiv look like whatever, and can apparently have breasts (why do these alien animals have breasts?), but it's never seen outside of a single line explaining it can happen. Meanwhile, a lot of the females in this book are a humanoids with some combination of: Tallness, thick thighs, big muscles, a soft stomach, a humongous bush of pubes, and big boobs and/or areolas. (Why are they even male and female if they can all reproduce with corpses regardless of sex, anyways...) The kiv find this attractive across the board and even find stripping hot, despite nakedness not being a taboo in their society... which is what makes stripping hot, I assumed?
Usually if someone is gorgeous, they're humanoid, bonus points if they have enough tits or ass to jiggle enticingly as their lifeless corpse hits the floor (or is strung up, or whatever) and violently cums all over itself. Meanwhile, characters like Thallius the Centipede won't ever get ogled like that by the book (criminal, I know). Fennah just isn't into legitimately inhuman creatures and will likely not compromise on giving them some love even if it makes sense for the setting. Therefore we are forever robbed of the sensual myriapod decapitation scene. Alas...
Conclusion
Not great. Not the worst thing I've spent 10 bucks on, either, though.
They can't all be winners!
TLDR
Given this book contains things like necrophilia and snuff fetishes, child death, cannibalism, and so on, it's odd that this book isn't at least labelled dark fantasy if not outright horror fantasy... The genres are kind of misleading, lul.
Anyway, I respect the hustle, but there's a reason common writing advice tells you NOT to write 1000 page long epics with a billion moving parts as your first novel and this book is a great example as to why. There are things to like about it, true, but many things to hate about it, too.
If you like Fennah's art style and you are willing to ignore the big flaws to find the good in here, such as the wild worldbuilding, elaborate scene setters, and a few fun character moments, go for it! But go for the digital version, or any physical version that wasn't printed off Amazon.
Amazon can't put together or safely ship a book to save their lives, it's not worth the money!!!
Also, all but two pieces of art are just characters posing against a white background, and sometimes the art didn't completely match the character descriptions... I would have liked to see them in scenes doing stuff sometimes. There are no full-page or two page splash artworks, or scenery pictures either. Show me the library, at least. :(
Plot
The plot needed more developmental edits. Fennah does not have a grasp of the politics he's writing about beyond very bare bones stuff. (That, or he actively chose not to have a more complex story. Which I think would be worse.)
The Locket Resistance is barely explored, it feels like we're at their commune thing for 2 seconds and get no insight into their beliefs that isn't purposefully or unintentionally dunking on them (for using medicine and not killing children for no reason), which makes no sense considering this story's plot.
Partway through the book, This mystery should've been saved for a later book where mire will matter.
Methusa's plan is also overly convoluted, lol.
The Politics
Fennah does not grasp that Locket's side is not a bastion of logic or objectivity. Spoiler alert: Locket does have a moral compass, isn't objective, and is also a hypocrite. (I would list off all the reasons but it'd take too long, so I'll leave you with: What the hell is with Locket's hatred of the concept of medicine, and why does it not extend to walking canes and glasses?) These things have yet to come up in any list of reasons why she's wrong, it usually defaults to her being mean (which is true, to be fair).
Similarly, he does not grasp that Methusa's side has perfectly logical reasons to be nice (like, "maybe constantly killing off the soldiers in your army instead of continuing to train them or kicking them out to work elsewhere isn't the most productive use of taxpayer trade material").
As a result, any political argument in this book is a SLOG.
It's just the bad side going "eugenics is cool and people should fear death for every mistake" and the good side going "oh no... I hadn't thought of that before" (exaggerated a bit for effect), which is insane considering some of them are/were politicians who are a thousand plus years old. They fail to come up with counterarguments for the simplest attacks! And worse still, Methusa's side is also usually stupider plot-wise, too. If someone has to do something dumb to advance the plot (), it's pretty much always Methusa's team who is responsible.
Worldbuilding
The worldbuilding is neat! I like it in theory and I'm glad Fennah was able to go full tilt with the gnarliness, but it feels like anything not directly related to how sexy necrophilia is tends to get shoved to the wayside, leaving a story that, given its subject matter, is weirdly... lacking in gore... Or maybe I'm too much of a gorehound, haha.
When the book does get graphic, it tends to be in a sexually charged "oh this is just snuff porn" way, not in a "ouch, what a gross gore / rape scene!" kind of way.
Seriously, the Underbirth as a society sucks. But Fennah never once ponders how much living in the Underbirth would shred your sanity, and the consequences of certain laws weren't thought through (cough cough, the Murder Is Legal law, cough). The two mentally ill people in this story (Celia, who is a schizophrenic, and Ludwig, who has anxiety) are treated as weirdos. Nobody is really impacted by the violence even though they can and should be.
In a place this violent, isn't it objectively advantageous to be anxious all the time and never truly let your guard down? Especially as a child? I mean that's how prey animals in real life get down, and everyone in the Underbirth save for powerful few is a prey animal whether they like it or not. :)
Yeah yeah, the kiv "aren't humans, they don't have our brains or morals"... but that feels like a lame excuse for reasons discussed below. (Also the kiv are pretty obviously intended to be allegorical to real human issues.)
The Horny
It's okay to be horny! But in this case the sticky white human fingerprints are distracting. This story is advertised as a political fantasy about violent animals or some such, but Fennah's incessant need to stick suspiciously human-shaped babes in here and hard focus on their suspiciously human-aligned sex appeal really detracts from the "inhuman" part of the equation.
Male kiv look like whatever, and can apparently have breasts (why do these alien animals have breasts?), but it's never seen outside of a single line explaining it can happen. Meanwhile, a lot of the females in this book are a humanoids with some combination of: Tallness, thick thighs, big muscles, a soft stomach, a humongous bush of pubes, and big boobs and/or areolas. (Why are they even male and female if they can all reproduce with corpses regardless of sex, anyways...) The kiv find this attractive across the board and even find stripping hot, despite nakedness not being a taboo in their society... which is what makes stripping hot, I assumed?
Usually if someone is gorgeous, they're humanoid, bonus points if they have enough tits or ass to jiggle enticingly as their lifeless corpse hits the floor (or is strung up, or whatever) and violently cums all over itself. Meanwhile, characters like Thallius the Centipede won't ever get ogled like that by the book (criminal, I know). Fennah just isn't into legitimately inhuman creatures and will likely not compromise on giving them some love even if it makes sense for the setting. Therefore we are forever robbed of the sensual myriapod decapitation scene. Alas...
Conclusion
Not great. Not the worst thing I've spent 10 bucks on, either, though.
They can't all be winners!
April 1, 2023
Been around since the beginning
Having heard the many drafts and many changes this book has gone through in the past few years, seeing how far Sam and the world of the Kivouachians has grown has been a pleasant journey to watch and be a part of.
This book is an amazing work of love and dedication. It has everything you could ever want in a story, characters you love to love and love to hate, incredible world building down to the last detail and a complex plot that keeps you on your toes and doesn’t tell you which side is right or wrong, it lets you, the reader, decide on your own.
Overall the book is a masterpiece and those who love Sci-Fi, alien politics, and quite frankly, amazing alien designs, give Amygdala a chance, you won’t be disappointed ❤️
Having heard the many drafts and many changes this book has gone through in the past few years, seeing how far Sam and the world of the Kivouachians has grown has been a pleasant journey to watch and be a part of.
This book is an amazing work of love and dedication. It has everything you could ever want in a story, characters you love to love and love to hate, incredible world building down to the last detail and a complex plot that keeps you on your toes and doesn’t tell you which side is right or wrong, it lets you, the reader, decide on your own.
Overall the book is a masterpiece and those who love Sci-Fi, alien politics, and quite frankly, amazing alien designs, give Amygdala a chance, you won’t be disappointed ❤️
March 9, 2023
a brilliant read
I could not put this book down until I finished it. The characters, plots and world building are fascinating and thorough. I’ve read a few fantasy’s but very few capture the imagination like this, it’s well written and worth a look.
I could not put this book down until I finished it. The characters, plots and world building are fascinating and thorough. I’ve read a few fantasy’s but very few capture the imagination like this, it’s well written and worth a look.
December 4, 2024
I really enjoyed reading this book. But there were certain things that made me not enjoy it as much as I want to.
The world building is lovely and alien, though there seemed to be a few loose ends with how the world works and some questionable decisions made from some characters that makes it seem somewhat hypocritical and not in a good way.
Other than that, I did enjoy seeing how everything tied up together nicely.
And I'm in love with the designs of creepy and alien looking characters.
Edit: Though I'm also a bit disappointing that their were no kivoachians that were nonbinary and/or not just male or female. They're alien creatures, so it feels like a missed opportunity.
The world building is lovely and alien, though there seemed to be a few loose ends with how the world works and some questionable decisions made from some characters that makes it seem somewhat hypocritical and not in a good way.
Other than that, I did enjoy seeing how everything tied up together nicely.
And I'm in love with the designs of creepy and alien looking characters.
Edit: Though I'm also a bit disappointing that their were no kivoachians that were nonbinary and/or not just male or female. They're alien creatures, so it feels like a missed opportunity.
April 22, 2023
Pass the Tramadol
Sam tweaked all our interests with his fantastic fantasy animations before his book was released, worth the wait?
You bet, I am in awe of the talent he dispenses so easily, his world creations are varied and extensive. Oh for a film or series, outstanding work. I am tempted to say that even when I was on Tramadol after replacement knee surgery my dreams were not as colourful as these, looking forward to the next book.
Sam tweaked all our interests with his fantastic fantasy animations before his book was released, worth the wait?
You bet, I am in awe of the talent he dispenses so easily, his world creations are varied and extensive. Oh for a film or series, outstanding work. I am tempted to say that even when I was on Tramadol after replacement knee surgery my dreams were not as colourful as these, looking forward to the next book.
April 1, 2023
Interesting and alien designs
The world of this book is so alien and interesting but I the logic of it is solid. The characters are very well fleshed out and unique. The violence is also vaguely alien, the emphasis not being on blood and gore but other fluid sprays. I feel like some people might be offended by some of the politics but they'd be the sort to be offended anyway
The world of this book is so alien and interesting but I the logic of it is solid. The characters are very well fleshed out and unique. The violence is also vaguely alien, the emphasis not being on blood and gore but other fluid sprays. I feel like some people might be offended by some of the politics but they'd be the sort to be offended anyway
April 30, 2023
I've never been one for stories with politics, but I just couldn't put this one down!
June 18, 2025
It read like a textbook sometimes.
It felt kind of objectifying.
I couldn’t agree with either groups viewpoints and it felt like nothing was achieved or made any progress by the end.
It felt kind of objectifying.
I couldn’t agree with either groups viewpoints and it felt like nothing was achieved or made any progress by the end.
July 30, 2023
Lmao long ahh review.
Hands down my favorite book. I never thought I’d ever be interested in political fiction, but this book had me (almost) from the start. I say almost because for a bit I wasn’t completely sure what the book was about. Like I knew the plot was gonna have something to do with Mire, but I wasn’t quite sure about the necessity of so many different characters and perspectives. It started as a mild turn-off, BUT then I got 1/3 the way through and realized oh wait every single character perspective is important and connected in some way or interact at some point. I also started slowly putting the plot together. Half way through and I was completely drawn in 100% I spent every single break and lunch at work reading this. When I thought it couldn’t get any more intense and unexpected the last 200-300 pages had me going so hard I was doing nothing but sleeping, eating, working, and reading this book. I wasted the last week of Art Fight just because I NEEDED to know how it ended.
Spoilers ahead:
I’ve never struggled so hard to know who was in the right and wrong for so long too. Like I agreed with a lot of those in favor of Methusa’s ideas and laws (Wiley, Ludwig, Gatsby, Teazzer and Bazzil, Barnaby, and so on). Like it made so much sense they’d lived and lost for so long. Any moment somebody could swooping and take away those you care about. Of course a world of empathy and equity sounded like the right way to go. But on the other end I also agreed with those in favor of Locket’s ideas and laws (Lucy and basically everyone else lol). They all started with nothing and got to where they are because they were ambitious and free and capable of doing so. Yeshua talks about how he started as a lowly Fowler fighting tooth and nail to reach the spectacular beast he is now, and Locket stood by and let him rise, because he’s powerful, ambitious, and did everything within her law to get what he wanted. I feel like he’s a great example of the outcome of Lockets law.
Both sides had really great points, and I’ll be honest I was convinced Methusa was totally gonna win lol. I don’t know why I guess I was convinced by all those in favor of her that the city would see the truth in her ways. I also should’ve caught on when Helgan got involved at the end lol. That plot twist when Wexle called the emergency meeting or whatever was wild. I genuinely wasn’t expecting Methusa to be executed especially by Yeshua’s hand. I knew he had thoughts of humiliating all the Voices at some point, but I didn’t think he’d actually get his chance. Way to go, king. I honestly assumed she was gonna successfully run away to Blackenrend and show up in a later book.
OH I almost forgot. The illustrations are great. I like comparing what my mind conjured up from a characters description to the cannon illustration. The descriptions were enough that I was nearly spot on with a lot of the characters before even seeing them.
TLDR; I really liked this book. Twists, turns, bloody violence, and politics? What more could you ask for? 11 out of 10 if it gets an audiobook I’m buying it and listening to it annually once a year.
Shout out to mother Locket and her newly adopted children Patches and Hyzen. Sure hope nothing terrible happens to them in the real world :)
Hands down my favorite book. I never thought I’d ever be interested in political fiction, but this book had me (almost) from the start. I say almost because for a bit I wasn’t completely sure what the book was about. Like I knew the plot was gonna have something to do with Mire, but I wasn’t quite sure about the necessity of so many different characters and perspectives. It started as a mild turn-off, BUT then I got 1/3 the way through and realized oh wait every single character perspective is important and connected in some way or interact at some point. I also started slowly putting the plot together. Half way through and I was completely drawn in 100% I spent every single break and lunch at work reading this. When I thought it couldn’t get any more intense and unexpected the last 200-300 pages had me going so hard I was doing nothing but sleeping, eating, working, and reading this book. I wasted the last week of Art Fight just because I NEEDED to know how it ended.
Spoilers ahead:
I’ve never struggled so hard to know who was in the right and wrong for so long too. Like I agreed with a lot of those in favor of Methusa’s ideas and laws (Wiley, Ludwig, Gatsby, Teazzer and Bazzil, Barnaby, and so on). Like it made so much sense they’d lived and lost for so long. Any moment somebody could swooping and take away those you care about. Of course a world of empathy and equity sounded like the right way to go. But on the other end I also agreed with those in favor of Locket’s ideas and laws (Lucy and basically everyone else lol). They all started with nothing and got to where they are because they were ambitious and free and capable of doing so. Yeshua talks about how he started as a lowly Fowler fighting tooth and nail to reach the spectacular beast he is now, and Locket stood by and let him rise, because he’s powerful, ambitious, and did everything within her law to get what he wanted. I feel like he’s a great example of the outcome of Lockets law.
Both sides had really great points, and I’ll be honest I was convinced Methusa was totally gonna win lol. I don’t know why I guess I was convinced by all those in favor of her that the city would see the truth in her ways. I also should’ve caught on when Helgan got involved at the end lol. That plot twist when Wexle called the emergency meeting or whatever was wild. I genuinely wasn’t expecting Methusa to be executed especially by Yeshua’s hand. I knew he had thoughts of humiliating all the Voices at some point, but I didn’t think he’d actually get his chance. Way to go, king. I honestly assumed she was gonna successfully run away to Blackenrend and show up in a later book.
OH I almost forgot. The illustrations are great. I like comparing what my mind conjured up from a characters description to the cannon illustration. The descriptions were enough that I was nearly spot on with a lot of the characters before even seeing them.
TLDR; I really liked this book. Twists, turns, bloody violence, and politics? What more could you ask for? 11 out of 10 if it gets an audiobook I’m buying it and listening to it annually once a year.
Shout out to mother Locket and her newly adopted children Patches and Hyzen. Sure hope nothing terrible happens to them in the real world :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2025
I really wanted to like this, but it screams of an extremely arrogant writer who desperately needs a professional editor, but I suspect wouldn’t want one to “sully his work”. The cast is bloated and unlikeable, with overly sexualised women, lesbian characters being fetishised particularly, and an overly dramatic kind of edginess for the sake of having edginess that, for lack of a better phrase, feels like DeviantArt in 2014. There was potential here for something interesting, but without an editor to pick through the frequent typos and no emotional growth to be found anywhere (Lucy’s viewpoint remains static throughout the entire book even though it makes no sense for her to be so steadfast in her beliefs that the status quo is right), I can’t in good conscience recommend anyone tries to struggle through it. I can’t trust the number of 5 star reviews here. I can only speculate, but it seems sketchy and illegitimate to me.
February 17, 2025
I have a lot of thoughts about this book. I enjoyed it for the most part, the story and politics are intriguing and it brings up some interesting themes and lines of thought. The character dynamics can be interesting at times, and boring at worst. I particularly enjoyed the latter half of the book after things started to ramp up a bit. There were a lot of twists and turns that I rather enjoyed.
However, I have a few complaints. And I'll make a list of them. I'll also make a list of things I particularly enjoyed as well, to be fair.
Complaint 1: the exposition and pacing
The first few hundred pages were a drag. I understand that this book is an incredibly high concept and a lot needs to be explained to be understood, but I feel like there could have been a better way to go about it than info dumping for a chapter or two. It made the first few hundred pages, not the most enjoyable to read. I recall a time when the author explained the concept of gravomassa, since it applied at that moment in the story, and literally had to break the fourth wall to do so. It was very jarring as a reader to suddenly have the author speaking indirectly at the reader like that.
Complaint 2: overly long character descriptions
This book has illustrations, which is very handy with how complicated the character designs tend to be (which by the way I do personally enjoy most of them even if they're a bit over the top). But, at the same time - at least in the first edition - the written descriptions are way too long and unnecessary. The author will wax poetic about someone's facial features or something for an entire page. Not exaggerating much there either. After a while, I would give up reading the descriptions and flip to the end of the chapter to see the illustration before continuing to read.
Complaint 3: the number of characters
Listen. I love seeing someone's original characters. I have quite a few myself. But after a while, there comes a point where I will literally forget that a character exists because they are next to inconsequential in my mind. There are plenty of interesting characters in this book that I really enjoy, but then at the same time, there are a bunch of characters I have forgotten about. Or I might remember what they looked like or that one thing they did but couldn't tell you their names. When you add this on top of the complaint about the character descriptions, I assume you could understand why I forgot some of them.
Complaint 4: the book did not need to be this long
Amygdala is almost 1000 pages. I wouldn't mind this so much if there was a good reason for it to be so long. But to be honest, a lot of scenes you could cut out entirely or at the very least drastically shorten and virtually nothing would change. I feel confident that could condense a lot of the excess into a few pages.
Complaint 5: overly flowery prose
Okay look, I don't mind dramatic flair in one's writing. Hell, I write some over-the-top flowery stuff all the time. But damn. The writing in this book makes the author come across as trying so desperately hard to sound grand and dramatic. But it comes across as tacky, or at worst, eyebrow-furrowing. I'm no authority on writing though, so I know I don't have much gravity when I complain about that.
Now, I haven't read the second edition, and maybe my complaints have been addressed in that version. But as it stands from my read-through, these are my complaints. But now I wanna talk about things I liked!
Compliment 1: lucy is a good protagonist
this is my subjective opinion, of course. and I think it could be potentially debated who the main character is actually in the grand scheme of the story. But I like lucy as the main protagonist. She's incredibly flawed and makes a lot of mistakes. She's spontaneous and hot-headed. She's firm in what she believes even to a detriment. It makes her feel very believable. She's not entirely likable, but she doesn't need to be. Everyone in this world is in some moral grey zone anyway. I was rooting for her though, which I figure is a good sign you did something good with your protagonist.
Compliment 2: the politics are interesting
Even if the court scenes can feel a bit too long at times, I found myself really enjoying them. Every debate with Methusa and Locket or any time really when we get to see their differing views on society was a fascinating read. It made me think, and I liked that. Plus, while the cannibalism and general brutal nature of Locket's law are objectively horrible from humanity's perspective, I found it incredibly interesting in the context of the story. It's fucked up and gross, but it's just accepted as normal to the point that even as a reader it feels normal after a while. I find that fascinating.
Compliment 3: pretty art!!
Don't have much else to put for this one but the illustrations are gorgeous, well done :)
Compliment 4: the fantasy aspect/immersion
This sort of ties into what I mentioned earlier, but I really liked the worldbuilding. Granted I still wish it could have been handled better at times (see complaint 1) I did like experiencing the different areas of the kivouack society. There was a sense of scale at how fucking MASSIVE the world is, and seeing different regions of it and how commerce works etc, I wholeheartedly loved.
Compliment 5: differing morality
I also touched on this earlier but I love when a story has morally grey characters, or even just characters with different moral compasses. And boy oh boy does this book have that. I can't even begin to give examples because everyone has such vastly different takes on morality. I enjoy seeing different perspectives in a story like this. Having everyone have different views makes them clash beautifully, adding to the sheer chaos of a civilization of intelligent animals that prioritize strength above all else.
In conclusion: would I recommend this book? Maybe. Depends on who I was talking to. If I were to recommend it though, I'd give a warning attached with my few grievances on it. But at the end of the day, I'm not a monolith. Someone might not have any issues with he book at all. That's the great thing about human autonomy.
If you made it to the end of this really long review, thanks for reading my bullshit <3
However, I have a few complaints. And I'll make a list of them. I'll also make a list of things I particularly enjoyed as well, to be fair.
Complaint 1: the exposition and pacing
The first few hundred pages were a drag. I understand that this book is an incredibly high concept and a lot needs to be explained to be understood, but I feel like there could have been a better way to go about it than info dumping for a chapter or two. It made the first few hundred pages, not the most enjoyable to read. I recall a time when the author explained the concept of gravomassa, since it applied at that moment in the story, and literally had to break the fourth wall to do so. It was very jarring as a reader to suddenly have the author speaking indirectly at the reader like that.
Complaint 2: overly long character descriptions
This book has illustrations, which is very handy with how complicated the character designs tend to be (which by the way I do personally enjoy most of them even if they're a bit over the top). But, at the same time - at least in the first edition - the written descriptions are way too long and unnecessary. The author will wax poetic about someone's facial features or something for an entire page. Not exaggerating much there either. After a while, I would give up reading the descriptions and flip to the end of the chapter to see the illustration before continuing to read.
Complaint 3: the number of characters
Listen. I love seeing someone's original characters. I have quite a few myself. But after a while, there comes a point where I will literally forget that a character exists because they are next to inconsequential in my mind. There are plenty of interesting characters in this book that I really enjoy, but then at the same time, there are a bunch of characters I have forgotten about. Or I might remember what they looked like or that one thing they did but couldn't tell you their names. When you add this on top of the complaint about the character descriptions, I assume you could understand why I forgot some of them.
Complaint 4: the book did not need to be this long
Amygdala is almost 1000 pages. I wouldn't mind this so much if there was a good reason for it to be so long. But to be honest, a lot of scenes you could cut out entirely or at the very least drastically shorten and virtually nothing would change. I feel confident that could condense a lot of the excess into a few pages.
Complaint 5: overly flowery prose
Okay look, I don't mind dramatic flair in one's writing. Hell, I write some over-the-top flowery stuff all the time. But damn. The writing in this book makes the author come across as trying so desperately hard to sound grand and dramatic. But it comes across as tacky, or at worst, eyebrow-furrowing. I'm no authority on writing though, so I know I don't have much gravity when I complain about that.
Now, I haven't read the second edition, and maybe my complaints have been addressed in that version. But as it stands from my read-through, these are my complaints. But now I wanna talk about things I liked!
Compliment 1: lucy is a good protagonist
this is my subjective opinion, of course. and I think it could be potentially debated who the main character is actually in the grand scheme of the story. But I like lucy as the main protagonist. She's incredibly flawed and makes a lot of mistakes. She's spontaneous and hot-headed. She's firm in what she believes even to a detriment. It makes her feel very believable. She's not entirely likable, but she doesn't need to be. Everyone in this world is in some moral grey zone anyway. I was rooting for her though, which I figure is a good sign you did something good with your protagonist.
Compliment 2: the politics are interesting
Even if the court scenes can feel a bit too long at times, I found myself really enjoying them. Every debate with Methusa and Locket or any time really when we get to see their differing views on society was a fascinating read. It made me think, and I liked that. Plus, while the cannibalism and general brutal nature of Locket's law are objectively horrible from humanity's perspective, I found it incredibly interesting in the context of the story. It's fucked up and gross, but it's just accepted as normal to the point that even as a reader it feels normal after a while. I find that fascinating.
Compliment 3: pretty art!!
Don't have much else to put for this one but the illustrations are gorgeous, well done :)
Compliment 4: the fantasy aspect/immersion
This sort of ties into what I mentioned earlier, but I really liked the worldbuilding. Granted I still wish it could have been handled better at times (see complaint 1) I did like experiencing the different areas of the kivouack society. There was a sense of scale at how fucking MASSIVE the world is, and seeing different regions of it and how commerce works etc, I wholeheartedly loved.
Compliment 5: differing morality
I also touched on this earlier but I love when a story has morally grey characters, or even just characters with different moral compasses. And boy oh boy does this book have that. I can't even begin to give examples because everyone has such vastly different takes on morality. I enjoy seeing different perspectives in a story like this. Having everyone have different views makes them clash beautifully, adding to the sheer chaos of a civilization of intelligent animals that prioritize strength above all else.
In conclusion: would I recommend this book? Maybe. Depends on who I was talking to. If I were to recommend it though, I'd give a warning attached with my few grievances on it. But at the end of the day, I'm not a monolith. Someone might not have any issues with he book at all. That's the great thing about human autonomy.
If you made it to the end of this really long review, thanks for reading my bullshit <3
September 26, 2023
After following Fennah's earlier development of these characters in his 3D animations on YouTube over the years, back when it was Satellite City, I am thrilled to have read this new story of advanced lore/world building and much more developed characters. Perhaps this story is set to question our own perception of morality?
Amazing work for a first novel! The concept of the amount that has gone into the overall world building is mind-blowing! And I adore all the beautiful illustrations.
My only critique is that at times there are a fraction too many characters to follow the main plot of the story effectively, but I'm hoping this will come more together in book 2 as certain characters gain more focus.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and can't wait for more!
Amazing work for a first novel! The concept of the amount that has gone into the overall world building is mind-blowing! And I adore all the beautiful illustrations.
My only critique is that at times there are a fraction too many characters to follow the main plot of the story effectively, but I'm hoping this will come more together in book 2 as certain characters gain more focus.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and can't wait for more!
March 3, 2023
A remarkable story about politics and character
Never in my life have I finished a book so thoroughly and quickly just to see how the story ends! The characters are surprisingly thought-provoking and complex, with various ideas bring shared that open debate between each other. The insane detail given to the world and its characters are something I could only dream of. In a world so heavily influenced by the desire for progression and those of strong minds, it's a story of animals and their nature constantly being tested by their own reality. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this story and the characters!
Never in my life have I finished a book so thoroughly and quickly just to see how the story ends! The characters are surprisingly thought-provoking and complex, with various ideas bring shared that open debate between each other. The insane detail given to the world and its characters are something I could only dream of. In a world so heavily influenced by the desire for progression and those of strong minds, it's a story of animals and their nature constantly being tested by their own reality. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for this story and the characters!
June 4, 2025
Please God, Don't Let the Next One Take Too Long!
The only thing I hated about this book was that it was over, and, at the moment, I'm not sure when the next one will come out! It gives your mind something to chew on, the descriptions are fantastic, the characters relatable, all flawed in their own ways, but likeable. Everything is just so well-written. I cannot express the amount of thought and creativity that went into this book. You can tell it was a work of real passion.
The only thing I hated about this book was that it was over, and, at the moment, I'm not sure when the next one will come out! It gives your mind something to chew on, the descriptions are fantastic, the characters relatable, all flawed in their own ways, but likeable. Everything is just so well-written. I cannot express the amount of thought and creativity that went into this book. You can tell it was a work of real passion.
October 12, 2024
Gay furries live in a society
December 20, 2024
I’ve read a lot of books. Decided to get something different as nothing was keeping me interested. Finished this book in a couple days. It’s like nothing I’ve read, character design and the world building is so fascinating. Simply one of my favourite books. It’s harsh, alien and very thoughtful, the kind of book that gets your gears turning. I would highly recommend.
January 3, 2024
Wonderful worldbuilding and interesting perspectives when it comes to the primal world where the characters reside in. The only problem would be that it's hard to relate to any of the characters when they all have varying degrees of physical descriptions, even though they all belong to the species.
March 12, 2025
I liked this book, but I must admit that it could have been written better. And for some reason, it was such a slog. Every time you think you’ve reached the climax you realize that there are six chapters left.
November 9, 2023
Intense, visceral, as well as darkly poetic in their world. I can't wait for the next book!
September 26, 2025
There actually are some interesting ideas here, and the flowery writing style works most of the time. The description of Freyda in the beginning is biblical, Dantean. However, the author only imagines he can imagine an alien world and lacks the courage to realize one. Despite all the talk of growing light, and fractals, and Mandelbrot, and primeval savagery, it's just hyper-Dickensian London, complete with cartoonish Cockney accents, and figuring out what should be done with the poors.
The initial description of the protagonist, Lucy, is as tedious as the description of Freyda is immense and evocative. It's the difference between the description of a mythological beast and a character the author has been drawing in the margins of notebooks for years. That the author has also done illustrations seems to help some readers, but I don't think these kinds of chaotic forms and excessive descriptions are well served by literal translation.
Dante's Satan doesn't have three heads with bat wing goatees because it's fuckin' rad, and the point of describing him is not so that the reader pictures him perfectly. His visual elements are symbolic. Not every character should be described with such one to one symbolism, but thematic resonance is more important than making sure reader and author share a common vision of the character. I'll read a full page description of a character, but not if I feel like you're just making sure I'm really picturing your OC correctly.
This book opens with literal pleading that it describes alien creatures in an alien world with alien motivations. It attempts to use its language to further reinforce that. It would be lovely if that were true.
Despite some truly wild character descriptions and an attempt at various un-Earthly elements in the world, any alienness is drained away by the need to make these elements immediately understandable to the reader. This is what I mean by lack of courage. We are not allowed to inhabit this "alien" world without constant reference to our mundane world. Lucy is the size of a cat. A character is a ten-foot tall werewolf in a top hat. Musical tones are used to keep time somehow, but don't worry, they roughly equate to Earthly clock time and conform to Earthly musical scales. Seriously, in a pre-Big Bang universe with supposedly different physics, different life functions, and etc., the first time-keeping chime is in the key of D.
The setting is hyper-Dickensian London (don't forget the silly accents!), and despite all the pleading, the central political issues transparently map on to our own. In order to accommodate intelligent life that comes in a kaleidoscopic arrangement of animalistic features the architects of this world... put little doors inside the bigger doors. Flowery, imaginative description and dated steampunk aesthetics do not an alien world make, and they don't even scrape up against any kind of alien perspective.
The more alien, dark, kinky content doesn't sit well in this fairly basic political allegory, but would be more interesting to explore. Points where they're deserved, I can't think of another author besides William Burroughs who so closely melds the two. It turns out, however, that jerking off to DeviantArt does not confer the same insight as being a trust fund junkie on the run around the world, and YouTube fans do not contribute nearly as much as collaborators as Ginsberg and Kerouac.
Burroughs also didn't have the courage, or perhaps imagination, to do so in his first book. I'm sad to see the author has committed to an eight-book series because I fear he's going to be locked into this immature beginning for his entire writing career. This is a first book with some promise, but I don't think that that promise can be realized by continuing in this world and at this scope.
For more mature, better realized examples of some of what's happening here, I'd recommend "This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, "Dead Astronauts" by Jeff VanderMeer, or maybe "Dahlgren" by Samuel R. Delany. The Cronenberg adaptation of "Naked Lunch" is also not bad and a bit more palatable than the book.
The initial description of the protagonist, Lucy, is as tedious as the description of Freyda is immense and evocative. It's the difference between the description of a mythological beast and a character the author has been drawing in the margins of notebooks for years. That the author has also done illustrations seems to help some readers, but I don't think these kinds of chaotic forms and excessive descriptions are well served by literal translation.
Dante's Satan doesn't have three heads with bat wing goatees because it's fuckin' rad, and the point of describing him is not so that the reader pictures him perfectly. His visual elements are symbolic. Not every character should be described with such one to one symbolism, but thematic resonance is more important than making sure reader and author share a common vision of the character. I'll read a full page description of a character, but not if I feel like you're just making sure I'm really picturing your OC correctly.
This book opens with literal pleading that it describes alien creatures in an alien world with alien motivations. It attempts to use its language to further reinforce that. It would be lovely if that were true.
Despite some truly wild character descriptions and an attempt at various un-Earthly elements in the world, any alienness is drained away by the need to make these elements immediately understandable to the reader. This is what I mean by lack of courage. We are not allowed to inhabit this "alien" world without constant reference to our mundane world. Lucy is the size of a cat. A character is a ten-foot tall werewolf in a top hat. Musical tones are used to keep time somehow, but don't worry, they roughly equate to Earthly clock time and conform to Earthly musical scales. Seriously, in a pre-Big Bang universe with supposedly different physics, different life functions, and etc., the first time-keeping chime is in the key of D.
The setting is hyper-Dickensian London (don't forget the silly accents!), and despite all the pleading, the central political issues transparently map on to our own. In order to accommodate intelligent life that comes in a kaleidoscopic arrangement of animalistic features the architects of this world... put little doors inside the bigger doors. Flowery, imaginative description and dated steampunk aesthetics do not an alien world make, and they don't even scrape up against any kind of alien perspective.
The more alien, dark, kinky content doesn't sit well in this fairly basic political allegory, but would be more interesting to explore. Points where they're deserved, I can't think of another author besides William Burroughs who so closely melds the two. It turns out, however, that jerking off to DeviantArt does not confer the same insight as being a trust fund junkie on the run around the world, and YouTube fans do not contribute nearly as much as collaborators as Ginsberg and Kerouac.
Burroughs also didn't have the courage, or perhaps imagination, to do so in his first book. I'm sad to see the author has committed to an eight-book series because I fear he's going to be locked into this immature beginning for his entire writing career. This is a first book with some promise, but I don't think that that promise can be realized by continuing in this world and at this scope.
For more mature, better realized examples of some of what's happening here, I'd recommend "This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, "Dead Astronauts" by Jeff VanderMeer, or maybe "Dahlgren" by Samuel R. Delany. The Cronenberg adaptation of "Naked Lunch" is also not bad and a bit more palatable than the book.
April 11, 2023
As a full disclosure, I became interested in reading this book after viewing Sam Fennah's animations, particularly his Satellite City web series. Fennah is a talented visual artist and fans of his previous work will likely enjoy this elaboration on many of his preexisting concepts and characters. One of the highlights of this novel are the illustrations sandwiched between chapters, which helped convey the nature of some of the elaborately designed characters. Fennah has clearly put a great deal of thought into his worldbuilding and character design, and his work shows through.
That said, this book does not shine any particular light on Fennah's skill as a writer. The novel is overall choppily written and poorly edited (the word "mettle" is written as "metal" several times, and there are numerous typos- "is" instead of "his", and other errors that a spellcheck would not catch). At over 1000 pages, it's a formidable work, but much of the actual plot only happens in the last fifth or so of the book. The characters seem to lean drastically between characterizations between chapters- are they master manipulators or being outplayed by simple schemes? Are they stoic philosophers or succumbing to wild displays of emotion? Whenever it becomes relevant to the plot that a character be proven correct- particularly Lucy Lacemaker, one of the main characters- other characters in the book become impressed by very simple arguments and declare themselves to be convinced with little evident reason. Lacemaker is also repeatedly referred to as being skilled in "psychology", which in this setting appears to be a rather simplistic view of classical conditioning that is applied to other characters in a clumsy and unrealistic way- one character is coerced into a favorable opinion of Lacemaker by her wearing the same perfume that was.... waved around on a handkerchief near him every time he had appeared happy in the previous few weeks, apparently without him noticing?
Thematically, Amygdala does not seem to know what it wants to be. A great deal of energy is put into what is, for lack of any better description, a vehement defense of the setting's libertarian social structure. Fennah is careful to admit at the fore of the book his desire to explore conflicting ideologies, but too much weight is placed on one side of this argument for this to ring particularly true. At the same time as characters lovingly espouse the merits of quite literally eating children versus a rudimentary form of healthcare, Fennah lavishly describes in great detail how defeated creatures are beheaded and repeatedly ejaculated upon and how nearly every female character in the book has a soft stomach and large thighs (I lost count of how many times nearly the exact phrase "soft stomach" appeared). The author's own erotic appeal often overshadows what would otherwise be a genuine attempt at ethical debate. Quite a lot of words are spent describing the exact postures dead or subdued characters are contorted into, and how titillating the fictional society at large finds this to be, rather than any real exploration into the actual ramifications of this practice.
Frankly, I think anyone familiar with Fennah's previous work will know what they're getting into. There aren't too many surprises here for fans of his animations or illustrations. Overall I was impressed by the attempt at creating a world with vastly different laws of physics and behavior, but as a narrative novel Amygdala falls quite short.
That said, this book does not shine any particular light on Fennah's skill as a writer. The novel is overall choppily written and poorly edited (the word "mettle" is written as "metal" several times, and there are numerous typos- "is" instead of "his", and other errors that a spellcheck would not catch). At over 1000 pages, it's a formidable work, but much of the actual plot only happens in the last fifth or so of the book. The characters seem to lean drastically between characterizations between chapters- are they master manipulators or being outplayed by simple schemes? Are they stoic philosophers or succumbing to wild displays of emotion? Whenever it becomes relevant to the plot that a character be proven correct- particularly Lucy Lacemaker, one of the main characters- other characters in the book become impressed by very simple arguments and declare themselves to be convinced with little evident reason. Lacemaker is also repeatedly referred to as being skilled in "psychology", which in this setting appears to be a rather simplistic view of classical conditioning that is applied to other characters in a clumsy and unrealistic way- one character is coerced into a favorable opinion of Lacemaker by her wearing the same perfume that was.... waved around on a handkerchief near him every time he had appeared happy in the previous few weeks, apparently without him noticing?
Thematically, Amygdala does not seem to know what it wants to be. A great deal of energy is put into what is, for lack of any better description, a vehement defense of the setting's libertarian social structure. Fennah is careful to admit at the fore of the book his desire to explore conflicting ideologies, but too much weight is placed on one side of this argument for this to ring particularly true. At the same time as characters lovingly espouse the merits of quite literally eating children versus a rudimentary form of healthcare, Fennah lavishly describes in great detail how defeated creatures are beheaded and repeatedly ejaculated upon and how nearly every female character in the book has a soft stomach and large thighs (I lost count of how many times nearly the exact phrase "soft stomach" appeared). The author's own erotic appeal often overshadows what would otherwise be a genuine attempt at ethical debate. Quite a lot of words are spent describing the exact postures dead or subdued characters are contorted into, and how titillating the fictional society at large finds this to be, rather than any real exploration into the actual ramifications of this practice.
Frankly, I think anyone familiar with Fennah's previous work will know what they're getting into. There aren't too many surprises here for fans of his animations or illustrations. Overall I was impressed by the attempt at creating a world with vastly different laws of physics and behavior, but as a narrative novel Amygdala falls quite short.
March 1, 2025
Oh boy do i have thoughts...
I pre-ordered this book, and it's been sitting on my shelf for two whole years because I was intimidated to take on a book that could so easily bludgeon someone to death. I shouldn't have been. This was a surprisingly quick read and when I noticed I was getting to the end I actually felt a bit sad to have to put it down.
I feel like it's important to mention that I'm a long time fan of Fenneh and his characters. As such I came to this book with a pre-installed set of mental images of what most of them looked like and who they were. I worry that without this, this would have been a LOT for someone to keep track of. There are a lot of characters, and they are all deviant art OCs. (I say this with love, but it's still true.) For every character, even those who would be dead pages later, the story grinds to a halt to dedicate a full page to dryly describing their every feature. Its a bit much and I hope in future installments it can be included more organically and perhaps omitted entirely for bit parts where something like "he looked like a large dog" would suffice.
That said, the world is so refreshing in just how unique it is. I love how everything works. The light, the gravity, their life cycle, It's fascinating and I just wanted to learn more about it. I love that they don't decay or technically die so their bodies lay dormant and become parts of the scenery. Nothing dies, not even their building materials. Paper slowly regrows itself back into a plant, it's neat! I love their machiavellian politics.
It feels apparent that these were characters that existed first and a story was written around them. The names are often silly and incongruent. You'll have something like a massive werewolf with bat wings and hooves called "Phillip". (Just an example, not from the book.) And why would an extradimentional creature who predates existence speak with an accent from earth? I found it easy to suspend my irritation about small things like that because I love the story and world so much but I could see it bothering some readers.
Anyway, this review was mostly gripes but they're easily dismissed remembering that this is Fenneh's first novel, and this is a HELL of a debut. I can't wait for the next installment.
I pre-ordered this book, and it's been sitting on my shelf for two whole years because I was intimidated to take on a book that could so easily bludgeon someone to death. I shouldn't have been. This was a surprisingly quick read and when I noticed I was getting to the end I actually felt a bit sad to have to put it down.
I feel like it's important to mention that I'm a long time fan of Fenneh and his characters. As such I came to this book with a pre-installed set of mental images of what most of them looked like and who they were. I worry that without this, this would have been a LOT for someone to keep track of. There are a lot of characters, and they are all deviant art OCs. (I say this with love, but it's still true.) For every character, even those who would be dead pages later, the story grinds to a halt to dedicate a full page to dryly describing their every feature. Its a bit much and I hope in future installments it can be included more organically and perhaps omitted entirely for bit parts where something like "he looked like a large dog" would suffice.
That said, the world is so refreshing in just how unique it is. I love how everything works. The light, the gravity, their life cycle, It's fascinating and I just wanted to learn more about it. I love that they don't decay or technically die so their bodies lay dormant and become parts of the scenery. Nothing dies, not even their building materials. Paper slowly regrows itself back into a plant, it's neat! I love their machiavellian politics.
It feels apparent that these were characters that existed first and a story was written around them. The names are often silly and incongruent. You'll have something like a massive werewolf with bat wings and hooves called "Phillip". (Just an example, not from the book.) And why would an extradimentional creature who predates existence speak with an accent from earth? I found it easy to suspend my irritation about small things like that because I love the story and world so much but I could see it bothering some readers.
Anyway, this review was mostly gripes but they're easily dismissed remembering that this is Fenneh's first novel, and this is a HELL of a debut. I can't wait for the next installment.
June 23, 2025
The worldbuilding and illustrations is easily the best thing about this book. Everything else is a hit or miss.
But my main issue are 3 things.
1.) Despite the difference in ideologies being the biggest plot and driving factor of the story, it felt very one sided. You have Locket's side arguing about how you would measure morals and losing individuality while you have Methusa's side whose whole counter argument is basically "but that's mean". It also doesn't help that its revealed way later that Methusa was using mire on test subjects. It felt like a cop out of actually having you think about morality and ends up being "HA HA! SEE? LOCKET WAS RIGHT!".
2) Lucy has the biggest plot armor I have ever seen in a book protagonist. Everytime she rebels against an antagonist or fucks up she either gets a simple slap on the wrist or is outright rewarded for it. This is a world where people get killed and mutilated over the slightest mistake. Not even the children (fowlers) are safe. Yet, despite her being one of the biggest pawns in overthrowing the government and the villians REPEATEDLY stating that she's untrustful, they never do anything to her and she is given her own Inkhouse in the end. Such bullshit.
3) Now this could just be me but I felt this book was blantly oversexualizing it's female characters. Yes I know they're animals but it's stated in the book (by Quin) that organs aren't whats important in terms of love/mating and yet almost all the female characters have breasts and are without clothes. In fact, alot of the illustrations were just that. Naked women with their breasts out. There's even been moments of almost like sexual tension between them (Example being the chapter of Locket and Methusa being naked in a bathhouse together followed by an illustration of a naked Locket). It doesn't help that when compared to the male characters their features are often described with mentions of their "soft bellies", thighs, and breasts. Gross.
I genuinely did enjoy this book and loved reading about this world but those issues were what kept it back from being 4 stars for me.
But my main issue are 3 things.
1.) Despite the difference in ideologies being the biggest plot and driving factor of the story, it felt very one sided. You have Locket's side arguing about how you would measure morals and losing individuality while you have Methusa's side whose whole counter argument is basically "but that's mean". It also doesn't help that its revealed way later that Methusa was using mire on test subjects. It felt like a cop out of actually having you think about morality and ends up being "HA HA! SEE? LOCKET WAS RIGHT!".
2) Lucy has the biggest plot armor I have ever seen in a book protagonist. Everytime she rebels against an antagonist or fucks up she either gets a simple slap on the wrist or is outright rewarded for it. This is a world where people get killed and mutilated over the slightest mistake. Not even the children (fowlers) are safe. Yet, despite her being one of the biggest pawns in overthrowing the government and the villians REPEATEDLY stating that she's untrustful, they never do anything to her and she is given her own Inkhouse in the end. Such bullshit.
3) Now this could just be me but I felt this book was blantly oversexualizing it's female characters. Yes I know they're animals but it's stated in the book (by Quin) that organs aren't whats important in terms of love/mating and yet almost all the female characters have breasts and are without clothes. In fact, alot of the illustrations were just that. Naked women with their breasts out. There's even been moments of almost like sexual tension between them (Example being the chapter of Locket and Methusa being naked in a bathhouse together followed by an illustration of a naked Locket). It doesn't help that when compared to the male characters their features are often described with mentions of their "soft bellies", thighs, and breasts. Gross.
I genuinely did enjoy this book and loved reading about this world but those issues were what kept it back from being 4 stars for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2024
The Little Things...
"Little things, Lucy, little things. They shape the world..."
A little thing such as a YouTube video recommendation changed my world. Through this recommendation, I was introduced to Lucy Lacemaker and the rabbit hole that is Sam Fennah. The video was: Lucy Lacemaker - The Return (Animation Test). It was through this video that I discovered the wonderful world that was Satellite City and all of its beautiful characters. Unfortunately discontinued, Sam instead decided to write a book about these characters.
What a fantastic book it was! I knew that I was going to thoroughly enjoy this read, but even then, it exceeded my expectations! I have read and don't understand, or don't agree with, some of the complaints against this story. This is high urban fantasy and speculative fiction on steroids! It is a beautiful work of art!
These are the kinds of stories that I have desperately been looking for! The most attractive feature was that there were no humans in this at all. Something that goes against the mold and formula and puts a mirror up to humanity. There is a ton to learn from such a story as long as you have an open mind to do so.
The characters, plot, and descriptions reign supreme! I especially related mostly with Lucy Lacemaker and her character development. Such a wonderful little thing she is.
Chef's kiss to it all!
I highly recommend it as long as you can handle it, if not, then your loss.
"Little things, Lucy, little things. They shape the world..."
A little thing such as a YouTube video recommendation changed my world. Through this recommendation, I was introduced to Lucy Lacemaker and the rabbit hole that is Sam Fennah. The video was: Lucy Lacemaker - The Return (Animation Test). It was through this video that I discovered the wonderful world that was Satellite City and all of its beautiful characters. Unfortunately discontinued, Sam instead decided to write a book about these characters.
What a fantastic book it was! I knew that I was going to thoroughly enjoy this read, but even then, it exceeded my expectations! I have read and don't understand, or don't agree with, some of the complaints against this story. This is high urban fantasy and speculative fiction on steroids! It is a beautiful work of art!
These are the kinds of stories that I have desperately been looking for! The most attractive feature was that there were no humans in this at all. Something that goes against the mold and formula and puts a mirror up to humanity. There is a ton to learn from such a story as long as you have an open mind to do so.
The characters, plot, and descriptions reign supreme! I especially related mostly with Lucy Lacemaker and her character development. Such a wonderful little thing she is.
Chef's kiss to it all!
I highly recommend it as long as you can handle it, if not, then your loss.
June 28, 2023
I've been waiting for this book for 2 years and it did not disappoint.
The illustrations were beautiful and really added life to the characters. Though it would have been nice to have a greater variety of the cast added.
Fennah's world building skills are also stellar. Each detail I wondered about was mentioned throughout the story with excellent pacing and I know a reread will reveal even more. One of my biggest pet peeves is a massive info dump in the first chapter, which isn't a problem in Amygdala.
It's a massive book, but never boring with frequent prospective shifts and multiple plot lines driven by the wonderful (if slightly devious and deranged) characters.
Probably the most unique story I've read and I'll be eagerly waiting another eternity for the next installment.
The illustrations were beautiful and really added life to the characters. Though it would have been nice to have a greater variety of the cast added.
Fennah's world building skills are also stellar. Each detail I wondered about was mentioned throughout the story with excellent pacing and I know a reread will reveal even more. One of my biggest pet peeves is a massive info dump in the first chapter, which isn't a problem in Amygdala.
It's a massive book, but never boring with frequent prospective shifts and multiple plot lines driven by the wonderful (if slightly devious and deranged) characters.
Probably the most unique story I've read and I'll be eagerly waiting another eternity for the next installment.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews