SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I thought the animal dialogue was very well matched to each familiar. It goes far beyond the Owl saying, "Who?" Cheeter's introduction of himself sounded just like a squirrel to me.

Do you agree? Do you have a favorite bit of animal dialogue?

I've never been a fan of anthropomorphism and although I found the animals "cute" how can we say they sounded like their species? None of them speak English. It's like saying a rose sounds like a flower. Behaviorally, though, I thought Zelazny did a good job with each of the creatures.

@M.d.

Not really ... it is more like saying a piece of prose sounds like a waterfall or a tree or ice ... etc. It is all about the how the words are put together to create an empression beyond the simple meaning of the words themselves.

Yes, but it's still the human impression of what a snake or a bat or a squirrel would sound like. It's our interpretation (not doubt fed by all the Walt Disney characters we've seen over the years) of what the animals sound like. It's the same with the animals' emotions. They are human emotions. Unless you transmogrify into a squirrel and lives in its skin, there's no way to know how it thinks, communicates, feels, etc. And considering the size of its brain, well...

An excellent example of this dilemma, even human-to-human, is the other book in this month's selection, Stranger in a Strange Land. The Man from Mars has no signposts to understand Earth's culture and his interpretation of what it is is based on his own and vice-versa. Bottom line? They can't communicate.

While it was unrealistic, to say the least, I think it worked well & gave the story a unique perspective. What Snuff knew, communication problems & his concerns all worked to give the story a sense of suspense that a narrative wouldn't have conveyed.

I don't think it would have been carried off as well by one of the human players, either. Using Snuff gave some needed distance. We were allowed to divorce our morals from the players. Cheering for Jack when he 'does bad things so that worse don't happen' is pretty tough, but I found myself rooting for him.

I agree that Snuff as a narrator "made" the book. In fact, I'd say that the main characters in the book are not the humans but the animals.

I love the animal dialog. Like the bat Needle seems to me to be a nervous wreck (I am on page 100) and bats always seem to be nervous creatures to me. I love reading it from Snuff's point of view, like when he is trying to map out the area and talks about how easy it is for some of the other animals (like ones who can take flight). And I wonder if the animals have more human emotions because they are magical animals? I remember when Snuff found a squirrel stuck to a tree he called it a civilian so I wonder if these certain animals have more human feelings because they are minions?