Smart Kat: A very nice kitty!

by J. Paige Straley

The Smart Kat project is more engineering than science. The technology is out there, as is a huge kitty gene pool from which to select useful fragments. A big silver fellow, willing to work with you, and very dangerous to enemies in a dark place, is only twenty generations away. An interesting friend. But why? Few people are interested in such a friend, and a strong young cat is still a thing of beauty. They say writing a first novel teaches you to write a novel….and moving to the level of Smart Kat creates a group well equipped to look at many, many genetic challenges. Daily come advances in New Biology, one upon the other. Ethicists earnestly formulate proper uses for the technology—but its very power will defeat them. Government, always jealous of true freedom, will attempt to control it but its portability will frustrate the bureaucrat. For people who know who they are, and know also that history is both in front of them as well as in the past, New Biology is a broad path across coming troubles. There are strains showing in the fabric of western culture, and some people understand the near future maybe a critical time. When the thin fabric of society tears under the stress, the tribe once again will come to the fore. We-They distinctions will escape the constraints of law, becoming inexorably a matter of culture and family. Those who choose an individualistic life in the new context won’t be survivors. Smart Kat takes you to the starting point.

539 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 24, 2020

About the author

Interesting career as an environmental engineer, mostly in manufacturing. Fairly decent chemist! I a history buff and so enjoy (and write) historical fiction, of which "The Good Harvest" is best...see it on Amazon. I am also a futurist, and I think the must disruptive technology in the next five decades will be biology...this makes a good stew in which to brew SF stories. See Smart Kat or Good Insurance for two good long books, both on Amazon.