Carol Emshwiller, on the evidence of these dazzlingly odd, wise stories, has access to great secrets, secrets that in their telling force language off its habitual tracks, flush fresh imagery out of its hiding places in the most private corners of memory and dream, and pump great quantities of purest oxygen into the reader's atmosphere, rendering things giddy and grave at once. Really, Emshwiller is a treasure, unlike and better than almost anything else out there (I recommend Steven Millhauser to folks who like this book, incidentally), and these stories rank among her very best work.

A prolific writer of short stories, until recently it has been hard for Emshwiller to receive the recognition she richly deserves. With the publication of this new collection, she now has three books simultaneously in print, including her fascinating novel, Carmen Dog, and another collection, Verging on the Pertinent. The Start Of The End Of It All (1991) gives us 18 short stories, including the every popular "Sex And/or Mr. Morrison" and "Chicken Icarus" Reviewers have mentioned the cat-loathing aliens of the title story, but equally delightful are the creatures of "Draculalucard" and "Moon Song", to mention only a few. One delightful feature of Emshwiller's fiction is its allusive and often allegorical characterizations. Her people are often confused and misguided, not villains really as much as victims of ignorance or custom. And yet her fiction is extremely humorous as a result of their bumbling. One recognizes the absurdity of day-to-day situations as she infuses the mundane with the fantastic. "Eclipse" finds a bemused woman at a party that she didn't really want to attend. One of those obligations of the academic that can't be ignored but is vaguely distasteful. When she arrives, she is greeted as a performer not a guest - she is given a piano then a flute and finally performs just to get a reaction. Present, like a nagging itch, throughout her fiction is the understanding that we repress many distasteful truths about the relationships between men and women as well as between humans and those creatures who share the earth with us. Because she often narrates in the first person, from the female perspective, one can assume she is speaking for women and against men. However, she often satirizes women's expectations along with men's. This is very apparent in "Fledged" which confronts an aging, manipulative man with a larger-than human, dirty and clumsy bird. One gets the idea that Emshwiller is not fond of parties as the first-person narrator in this story struggles to have a party around his unexpected guest who leaves wet, dirty marks on the walls, ceilings and furniture and makes nonsense sounds to his guests. He gradually discovers that she is probably his first wife.(He has just divorced the second) and decides that, since he is lonely and she has been a hit at the party, he will let her stay - if she gets rid of those ugly wings (and he will even pay for it). Her response is predictable, for an Emshwiller story, anyway. It is possible to misunderstand Emshwiller. If one reads a single purpose into the multilayered allusions, one can be taken aback by the bald, almost gallows humor which cuts to the core of ambiguities that make up women's attitudes towards themselves and the cultures which encase them. Emshwiller's grace, technical virtuosity, insight, humor, rest in the narrators who never settle on a single or simple political position and therefore reflect this ambiguity of intent. You owe it to yourself to read this collection.

Jan Bogstad, Reviewer

These stories are brilliantly written, with an effortless- seeming artistry which disappears behind the pictures it paints and the alien viewpoints it conjures. Harlan Ellison was moved to say "No-one writes like Carol Emshwiller..." when he introduced her story in the classic "Dangerous Visions" collection (you haven't read "Dangerous Visions"? now there's something else to do a search on...) Hey, he had to plug his book - but he's not exaggerating about this author. The stories are strange, sometimes troubling, and they take some trouble to read. Not much time - they slip down easily - but they need thinking about. Quiet genius. Don't miss it.

"Women are turning into animals, and animals are turning into women..." What a way to start off a book. Pooch, a dog-girl who longs to play the title role in "Carmen," absconds with a baby whose mother is becoming a turtle. Along the way, she meets many other intriguing characters, among them a snake-woman and a vicious socialite who is quickly becoming what her personality most resembles (namely, a wolverine). And in the meanwhile, the world as we know it is turnig upside-down.

This book was funny; however, the way that it poked fun at gender roles and modern-day society went much deeper than mere humor.

The Mount is easily one of the best novels IÕve read this year. Charley, the novel's narrator, is a fascinating and wonderfully realized character who continues to deepen and grow more complex as his understanding of the world changes. The heart of the novel is in CharleyÕs changing relationships: with his father, with his host, Little Master, with Lily, his first love, and finally, with his own sense of self. This is a heartfelt, warm, and very funny book, and I found it leaving an unexpected impression long after I had finished it. Like Charley, we all face a world with competing allegiancesÑone in which we all struggle to understand the ways in which weÕre bound, and the ways in which weÕre free.

This is a science fiction/young adult novel told from the point of view of 11 year old Charlie.

The story is set in a society where Earth has been colonized by Hoots, who breed, ride and race tame humans. Charlie, a well-conformed Seattle, the strongest and best looking of the human breeds, is chosen as the mount for Little Master, The-Future-Ruler-Of-Us-All.

The story -- a good coming-of-age story on its own fictional merits -- also explores the nature of slavery without pomposity, without simplistic proclamation as Charlie sheds slavery as he also sheds childhood -- both with some regret. The coming-of-age elements (coming to terms with his father, searching for a missing mother, finding a young-adolescent place for himself in terms of family and in terms of a role in society) are beautifully plotted. The fantasy element is imaginative.

A recommendation. Especially if you have a smart 12 year old to read it with.

Rather than write another synopsis of the novel, I would instead comment on the number of different themes which present themselves in this incredibly imaginative tale. I see themes of Whites and Black slavery, the relationships between parents and children, the universal process of coming to adulthood, the idea of dominance and submission in relationships, and our treatment of the other creatures on this earth which we call "animals." If we were not the "dominant" species on this planet, would we be treated like the mounts in this story? I believe that we would. And I wonder about something else: If horses could speak, what would they tell us? This is a disturbing story which does what all great literature does. It changes us forever.

Besides the fact that the main character's mind chatter is like my own worst paranoia-worry-mind manifested, this book is beautifuly written. The author gives us a visual cacophony presented as characters and landscape, a symphony of sounds in the hills of the old west and heartache thick enough to swallow the reader up. This novel is a sensory delight. Just enough joy and just enough pain to make it a human experience worth relating to.

It's sad that no one has reviewed this book yet! It is a very affecting, sweet look at an old west family, mostly from the point of view of the extremely feisty daughter. It is very funny, very humanistic, and very heartrending. It's a great book to read while on vacation.