The Engineer of Beasts

by Scott Russell Sanders

Thirteen-year-old Mooch runs afoul of the repressive authorities controlling her floating domed city, by helping an old engineer build realistic robot animals and by seeking her spiritual roots with the wild animals left on the outside.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Scott Russell Sanders is the award-winning author of A Private History of Awe, Hunting for Hope, A Conservationist Manifesto, Dancing in Dreamtime, and two dozen other books of fiction, personal narrative, and essays. His father came from a family of cotton farmers in Mississippi, his mother from an immigrant doctor’s family in Chicago. He spent his early childhood in Tennessee and his school years in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Cambridge, England.

In his writing he is concerned with our place in nature, the practice of community, and the search for a spiritual path. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington, in the hardwood hill country of southern Indiana. You can visit Scott at www.scottrussellsanders.com.

In August 2020, Counterpoint Press will publish his new collection of essays, The Way of Imagination, a reflection on healing and renewal in a time of climate disruption. He is currently at work on a collection of short stories inspired by photographs.

Reviews

[Amanda Carreiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this young adult book, humanity lives in floating, sterile, corporate cities because the earth is uninhabitable for humans. Now imagine being a child growing up without wildlife or even pets. Children have never seen animals beyond textbooks or stories from older folks, have never experienced the sound of crickets, the feel of dirt beneath their feet, swimming in a lake, or the sight of insects on flowers or ravens on snow.

At odds with her strange background, orphan and engineer prodigy "Mooch" has an intense longing to connect with wildlife which is satisfied somewhat as she works as an apprentice to an old engineer named Orlando at an amusement park, but when things get too wild and out of hand, she navigates a youth detention center that tries to tame her, but Mooch has a plan to stay true to herself while her friends do what they can to support her.

[Melody [not just some girl you can sway] · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a dystopia, but with a hopeful ending. It starts out weakly, and I almost didn't finish it, but I'm glad I did it now.

[Akshat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book!

A girl named Mooch and the curator of a disney (Orlando Spinks) have adventures and in turn both end up in jail and then out with the same morive to move on that got them in jail.

[Sandy Runions]

Set in the future where zoos contain robot copies of wild animals. Because all information about animals come from books mythical animals, such as unicorns, are included.