Beasts (Crowley novel)

1976 novel by John Crowley

Beasts

First ed. cover

Author| John Crowley
Cover artist| John Cayea[1]
Language| English
Genre| Science fiction
Publisher| Doubleday

Publication date

| 1976 (first edition)
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print
ISBN| 0385112602
OCLC| 731182754

Beasts is a novel by American writer John Crowley, published in 1976 by Doubleday.

## Plot summary

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Beasts describes a world in which genetically engineered animals are given a variety of human characteristics. Painter is a leo, a combination of man and lion. Reynard, a character derived from medieval European fable, is part fox.

Political forces result in the leos being deemed an experimental failure, first resigned to reservations, and later to be hunted down and eliminated. A central element of the story is the relationship between Painter and Reynard, who acts as a kingmaker behind the scenes.

## Reception

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The New York Times reviewer Gerald Jonas praised Crowley's "prodigious inventiveness", describing the novel as "a memorable tale that ends too soon."[2]

Dave Langford reviewed Beasts for White Dwarf #60, and stated that "a strange story of genetically engineered man/beast hybrids who are greater than the sum of their genes. This one's a bit young for canonization [1976], but it's a fine book."[3]

Brian W. Aldiss and David Wingrove reported that "for all the poetry in Crowley's writing, Beasts treats its subject matter in a realistic mode that gives the book a resonance and a relevance it might otherwise have lacked."[4]

Dave Langford reviewed Beasts for White Dwarf #99, and stated that "The slightest of Crowley's works? I recant: anything by him demands to be read and reread."[5]

## References

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1. ^ drsleep. "John Crowley: The Books". Webpages.charter.net. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
2. ^ "Of Things to Come", The New York Times, November 21, 1976
3. ^ Langford, Dave (December 1984). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf (60). Games Workshop: 11.
4. ^ Aldiss & Wingrove, Trillion Year Spree, Victor Gollancz, 1986, pp. 456–57
5. ^ Langford, Dave (March 1988). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf. No. 99\. Games Workshop. p. 11.

## External links

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* Beasts title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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Works by John Crowley

Novels|

* The Deep (1975)
* Beasts (1976)
* Engine Summer (1979)
* Little, Big (1981)
* The Translator (2002)
* Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land (2005)
* Four Freedoms (2009)
* The Chemical Wedding: by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae in a New Version (2016)
* Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (2017)
* Flint and Mirror: A Novel of History and Magic (2022)

Ægypt Cycle|

* The Solitudes (1987)
* Love & Sleep (1994)
* Dæmonomania (2000)
* Endless Things (2007)

Short fiction|

* "Antiquities" (1977)
* "Where Spirits Gat Them Home" (1978)
* "The Single Excursion of Caspar Last" (1979)
* "The Reason for the Visit" (1980)
* "The Green Child" (1981)
* "Novelty" (1983)
* "Snow" (1985)
* "The Nightingale Sings at Night" (1989)
* "Great Work of Time" (novella, originally published in Novelty, 1989)
* "In Blue" (1989)
* "Missolonghi 1824" (1990)
* "Exogamy" (1993)
* "Gone" (1996)
* "Lost and Abandoned" (1997)
* "An Earthly Mother Sits and Sings" (2000)
* "The War Between the Objects and the Subjects" (2002)
* "The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines" (2002)
* "Little Yeses, Little Nos" (2005)
* "Conversation Hearts" (2008)
* "And Go Like This" (2011)

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