Animals by Geoff Ryman (book review)
‘Animals’ by Geoff Ryman is a horror novel and a family story with a large degree of anthropomorphism in it. The latter isn’t cute, like Disney, but has a pseudo-scientific rationale. Ryman is an experienced author who has won several awards for his fiction, so you know you’re in good hands when you set off on this roller-coaster ride.
The story is told in the first person by a fellow named Teddy Spaulding, remembering incidents that happened when he was ten years-old. He’s an excellent writer because he grew up with vegans who listen to BBC Radio 4 instead of watching ‘Love Island’ like ordinary folk. An imaginative child, he was homeschooled by his mother. Teddy admits that one reason he didn’t fit in at school was that he didn’t talk like other children. If he ever watched television, it was old films where the people’s manner and the language spoken is more formal. Throughout the narrative, written when he’s an older man, Teddy makes wry comments about how we lived in his past, namel,y now. He has sensible things to say about television, social media, junk food and shopping.
The supporting cast are Teddy’s family and some neighbours. His mother is referred to as Mom because she’s an American who came to England to work as an actress but then got married. She is helped at home by Faith, a neighbour who does the cleaning. Faith is a superbly competent woman with tons of commonsense and plays a key role. All the major characters are well-rounded, believable human beings and the minor ones are often the kind of eccentrics you will find in a typical English village. Ted’s father, Mike, is a veterinary researcher for the Well Being Institute but deserted his wife and child for a man named Ken in London. He comes back to visit on weekends, tolerating Ted’s aloofness and stays with them when they both fall ill with a strange fever over one long hot, dry summer. Mike is the first to notice that something is killing animals. He’s the first to notice that something is bringing them back.
The antagonists are the animals, though they start off as friendly. Teddy lives in a cottage in Oxfordshire with a big garden and many pets, including a cat called Little One, greyhounds, a huge pig and a duck. There is also plenty of wildlife in the surrounding countryside: cattle, sheep, deer and foxes. The local hunt has a pack of hounds. It’s not the best place to be when animals become killers.
As with any good horror story, this builds slowly with odd incidents no one can quite believe and develops into a full-blown national emergency. Teddy is on the front line because his father is researching the new pathogen that seems to be emerging which is neither a virus nor a bacterium. Mike is in contact with the Well Being Institute and even appears by video link on the news when startling developments occur. Like any public figure, he gets attacked on social media by idiots.
The premise of the animal kingdom suddenly turning on humanity has been done before, classically in ‘The Birds’ by Daphne Du Maurier and more recently in ‘Zoo’ by bestseller James Patterson with Michael Ledwidge. Geoff Ryman has a sort of scientific rationale for his story and takes the scenario in a different direction than you might expect, an original twist on the theme.
It’s a pleasant, interesting and amusing read in the opening sections, a real page-turner when the crises mount. Even then, there are funny characters, like a dedicated AA breakdown mechanic trying to help everyone. I did wonder if award-winning literary author Geoff Ryman tried to write a best seller with film potential here to garner some loot for his old age. If so, he did a great job and I wish him every success.
Eamonn Murphy
June 2025
(pub: Newcon Press, 2025. 242 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £13.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-914953-95-8)
check out website: www.newconpress.co.uk
