A different take on the "end of the world as we know it" apocalyptic stories that are the usual read. After the makority of humankind has manged to destry itself in a Calamity, the animals must decide what to do with the survivors. Thus, they form a Council and debate mankind's worth to the rest of the planet. It's definitely an educational look from a view point not married to the humans as the top of the food chain theory as the Council has seen many pros and cons from before the Calamity. The story is an original but not something I'd want to read everyday. Still worth the time to read and share from this human who would hope to survive and not be eaten.

I love this book. Such a sweet read, especially for an animal lover. The author did an amazing job infusing the spirit of each character with the wonder of their species, and it made for a beautiful read.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this book incredibly interesting the author really kept me hooked until the end. very well written I highly recommend.

This is a short little book, about several animals trying to decide what to do with a small group of surviving humans that have been discovered after a never-specified-but-human-caused Calamity. I was worried it was going to go hard in an Animal Farm direction, which it didn’t, but it also failed to really capture my attention. Pleasant enough but insubstantial.

CW// violence, brief mention of child abuse

The Council of Animals follows a group of seven animals who are selected to vote on the matter of whether or not to eat the remaining humans on Earth. If you liked Animal Farm, I’m sure you will like this one, but I didn’t enjoy Animal Farm and so this one was not as enjoyable as I hoped it’d be.

I found this book to be rather dull and uninteresting. It didn’t hold my attention while I was reading it and I had a hard time getting invested in the story. The characters were either way too philosophical in their arguments or they were supposed to be funny but I found the “funny” parts to be a little over the top.

It definitely got slightly more interesting after the action started midway through this book, but I found that I was more interested in the setting than in the actual events occurring. I also found the narrator’s commentary and side tangents to be way too distracting and boring.

The only thing I really liked about this book was the artwork. I wasn’t expecting there to be artwork in this book, but it complimented the story really well and it looked very nice.

This slim book (just 208pp.) was the strangest of stories that I've read in a while. It reminded me in some ways of what I remembered of Animal Farm (from decades ago). In this story there is an event referred to as "the great calamity" where humans were pretty much extinguished from the face of the earth except for about a dozen remaining who are frightened as to what will become of them. The event appears to have had something to do with climate change or something nuclear even but something caused by humand actions or inaction.

Left to decide the fate of the few remaining humans are "The Council on Animals" which consist of dog, cat, bear, raven, cow, horse and baboon. Since the animals feel the humans are the ones that caused the calamity, should the dozen who remain be allowed to live or should they be killed and eaten? The manner in which the debate and finger/paw pointing goes made me smile as chaos erupted. The animal factions and their rationale was entertaining. Yes, it's political satire but, it seems in some ways to mimic the finger-pointing that has been going on in our own politics and the divisiveness that we witness day in and day out.

I started with the short audio book (3 hours) read by the author but, the narration and sound seemed a bit annoying so I switched over to the eBook which had some cool illustrations done by Steven Tabbutt. Although this wasn't the type of book I would normally read, I thought it had merit and was certainly thought provoking enough.

https://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/2021/09/brief-reviews-from-late-august-reading.html
Rating - 3.5/5 stars

3.5 I came to read this book in a sort of amusing way. I have been reading, the last few years, many nature and animal books, so when I saw this title and the animal on the cover, I grabbed it. I also should add that I also seldom read book summaries as I feel they often give too much away. So, I started reading and quickly determined that this was fiction and not what I thought it was going to be. Yes, there are animals but in a fable type, allegorical type of tale. It's been many, many years since I had read Animal Farm, but the comparisons, although not the same scenario, are there.

There has been what is called the Great Calamity. The pandemic has killed so many humans that there are very few left. The animals are now in charge and representatives from several species have a council to take a vote on whether the rest of our kind should be killed, or allowed to live.

Reminded me of our Senate, each representative gives a speech, and then votes. There is arguing, each trying to persuade the others to their way of thinking. The animals speak a common language called grak, but this is one of the few things they have in common. There is more to this of course, interesting to see the ots formatted, opinions changed but yes in the end our fate rests with the animals in the natural world we tried so hard to destroy. Divine justice, perhaps?

ARC from Netgalley.

Published by Henry Holt and Co. on July 20, 2021

Novels that attribute human speech and characteristics to animals are often intended to shed light on the human condition. I suppose the same might be said of Warner Brothers cartoons. In any event, the nonhuman characters in The Council of Animals judge humans from an animal perspective. The verdict is mixed.

The novel imagines that all animals can speak to each other using a common language called Grak. The animals meet in a council to decide how they should respond to an undefined event known as the Calamity. The Calamity destroyed the ecosystem. Some forests turned to plastic. All creatures suffered, but the outcome was disastrous for humans, few of whom are still alive.

In theory, the council consists of one representative of each species in the Animal Kingdom. In practice, only a few representatives attend the meeting. Too much political representation, after all, is unwieldy. The job of attendees is to decide the fate of the remaining humans. Some animals favor eating them. Others would let them live. In a Shakespearean moment, a bear cradles a skull and thinks: “Humanity or not? I voted for them before. But whether they are worth the struggle, or only chew toys? Better to take my diurnal death, and hibernate, and perhaps dream of honey.”

The story of the council meeting and its aftermath is told by an historian. “History is a dark tale that doesn’t wag,” the historian tells us. The council meeting is attended by a horse, a bear, a baboon, a dog, a cat, and a crow. The dog once accompanied a human General in a war against people who, for reasons the dog cannot comprehend, forbade bacon. The dog generally likes humans, as dogs do, but is easily distracted by thrown sticks. The cat also favors humans but, as cats do, has its own agenda. According to the cat, “It is better to accept what cannot be changed, and pee on it.” The baboon doesn’t like humans at all and is rather Machiavellian in his manipulation of the horse. The crow is lost in his eccentric religion; nothing much matters to the bird except the Great Egg.

Eventually a few of the animals decide to make contact with the surviving humans, having heard a rumor that one of them speaks grak. They meet a boy who overcomes his misery by reading. The historian tells us that the boy loses himself in books that convey “not only the pain of life but some of its joy, some of our pleasures, whether sleeping in the sunshine, hearing the final notes of a blue sheep aria, or knowing, for a little while, the mind of another animal.” The story follows the group’s progress and eventually leads to a confrontation, followed by an amusing resolution.

Nick McDonell uses birds to satirize religion. He employs the entire Animal Kingdom to suggest that humans are not the only species to experience prejudice. Insects and rodents are rather put off by the failure of other animals to give them respect. A scorpion complains that mammals are no better than insects but will never be fair. A baboon complains that baboons “are not a monolith. Species does not determine what an animal thinks.”

Another similarity between animals and humans is the propensity of some (but not all) toward violence and authoritarianism. “We evolved to eat each other,” laments the historian. Leaders arouse the violent tendencies of their followers to cement their power. The historian wonders why we are “continually surprised by the rapacity, violence, and arrogance of those creatures who ascent to leadership.”

The novel leads to an ending that might be described as cute, perhaps because there were few possible endings to the story that a reader might be willing to accept. The Council of Animals doesn’t have the political significance of Animal Farm or the world-building complexity of Watership Down, but it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is — a quirky allegorical story that uses animals to remind humans of our foibles. In that regard, it resembles last year’s Talking Animals, another book about anthropomorphic animals that won my admiration.

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What an odd little piece! Taking place after The Calamity (an unknown disaster that wiped out much of the human population), this slim novel covers the decision making and subsequent actions of a council of animals that are trying to decide whether they should eat all the remaining people - and therefore render them extinct.

While children's books frequently have anthropomorphic characters, upon reflection I think the only other adult book I've read with talking animals is Animal Farm, an unfortunate comparison for The Council of Animals as I absolutely love the former. While there's humor here, the fable-like element I was expecting didn't come all the way through for me. There's quite a bit of action, but my favorite parts was probably McDonell's playful use of language, including the addition of words like "demoscratchy" (said by the dog) or "purrsuit" (said by the cat). Ultimately, not quite sure what this was supposed to be satirizing (if it was trying to at all?), but found it a unique and entertaining read.

The Council of Animals is a completely original story of what animals might think about us very faulty humans. It is told with humor, but there are underlying messages of how our destructive actions are affecting animals and destroying the world. Would our planet be better off without us, leaving the animals in charge?

Nick McDonell’s The Council of Animals starts—like many SFF books do—after an apocalypse. Unlike many SFF books, however, the struggle of what to do after a civilization-killing event doesn’t center around humans; it’s the animals who are the main characters of this after the end of the world fable.

In McDonell’s 208-page tale, all animals except humans can speak a universal language called grak. The animals also hold Councils from time to time to vote on major decisions that impact the Animal Kingdom. The story—told by an unknown narrator (until the very end)—starts at one of those Councils. After a human-caused disaster called The Calamity, representatives from a handful of species congregate to decide whether or not they should kill off the few dozen humans who are still alive.

The Council starts with a grizzled bulldog, a cunning baboon, a clever cat, a sugar-addicted horse, an Egg-worshiping crow, and a morose bear full of despair. Other creatures make appearances at crucial times as well, including dangerous moles, a lizard who thinks he’s a bat, a horde of cockroaches, and several other creatures great and small that represent multiple branches of Earth’s evolutionary tree.

The central question that starts the book rests on one question: should the animals kill the remaining humans? Different members of the Council have different thoughts on the matter, and the fable starts out by weighing the pros and cons of humanity through the perspectives of the Council representatives. [rest on website]

The majority of the humans were wiped out in The Calamity. A few are struggling to survive as we enter this tale. The animals have sent a few representatives to be a council and to discuss and vote about the fate of the human race. Do the animals kill and eat the surviving humans or do the let them live?
Not all is as it seems as at least one of the animals has been trying to bribe and persuade the others before the council met. And will everyone agree to and follow through with the vote? Whether it is for or against the humans.
This is not the peaceful heartfelt book I was expecting, leaving me with words of wisdom and warmth in my soul.
This is a fantastical tale of plotting and vengeful animals written for all ages that I felt got a bit weird.

I think I may be too cynical for fables. I can think of a few recent ones and they always feel like 80% the book I want them to be. If I want lessons in my fiction, I do not want them heavy-handed, and unfortunately this one comes across as a bit preachier than I hope for. I was drawn in by the illustrations and I do think they are quite appealing. The development of the animal cultures is done extremely well and I feel like an animal cultural bestiary in this manner would be unputdownable. But unfortunately the excellent council discussion part of the book turns into an adventurous romp (even if truly the journey seemed to span only a few hundred yards) and that is where the book starts to suffer. I enjoyed it, I think parts were very clever, but it never coalesced how I would hope.

Mankind is down to small group after calamity has struck the earth and the animals and insects of the world blame humans for this pandemic. The council made up of a horse, a cat, a dog, a bear and a raven and a baboon who seems quite manipulative to decide the fate of the rest of the humans that are left. Shall they live or shall the animals kill them ? This is a definite roll reversal between mankind and animals. This book was a little better than average I would rate it at 3 1/2 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and Henry & Holt for an ARC for a fair and honest review.

Once the Calamity transpires, humanity is almost erased except for a lone group. It is now up to the animals to carry out their decisions on whether to help the humans, or to avenge the deaths of the animals that they lost. A mass of animals, each representing a specific species, assemble to vote either to deliver a favor to humans, or a favor against humans. What will the animals decide? It is all up to them, the fate of the human species is now in the hands of animals.

A copy of the book was given to me by a publisher from Henry Holt Books via NetGalley. Thank you for the gifted ebook copy!

Animal Farm for the Donald Trump generation.

In the wake of an unspecified Calamity that has wiped out the majority of humanity, a disparate group of animal representatives meet to vote democratically on whether to allow the remaining humans to live or to slaughter and eat them. What follows is a brilliantly subversive fable exposing the ludicrous nature of modern political intrigue, complete with backstabbing, lobbying, populism, and fearmongering as the animals debate how to handle a species which has managed to nearly erase itself and many other species from the face of the Earth. Try matching up each animal with its real life political figure...you'll have bundles of fun!

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to
Henry Holt and Co.**

Nick McDonell’s The Council of Animals is likely to be the most unusual novel I will read in 2021. Publisher Henry Holt & Company calls this one “a captivating fable for humans of all ages,” and that’s not an overstatement. Comparisons to George Orwell’s Animal Farm, numerous as they are certain to be, are also appropriate because of how in both books animals rebel against humans and try to build a better, fairer world for themselves.

The animals in The Council of Animals, however are considering a question that goes a giant step further than the animals in Animal Farm were prepared to go; they are meeting to discuss whether or not the few humans who have survived The Calamity deserve to live. If the vote goes against the humans, they will all be killed and eaten. The council that will decide the fate of the humans consists of a bulldog, a horse, a bear, a cat, a crow, and a baboon, each of whom has been chosen to represent its species. They are gathered to cast their own votes while they wait for the arrival of the “mythical” animal that will cast the pivotal (if it comes to a 4-3 split) seventh vote.

The debate soon becomes heated, even dangerous to its participants, and the animals, whether they want to admit it to themselves or not, soon prove that their own nature is really not very different from that of humans who have by now practically destroyed the environment. Much of the fun in The Council of Animals, in fact, comes from watching animal behavior so closely mimic all the finger-pointing and other foolishness that is all too common today: claims of cultural appropriation, stereotyping, and looking down upon what are perceived by mammals to be the inherently lesser species. When it is revealed, for instance, that dogs are often denigrated by the other animals with their own version of the N-word, I almost laughed out loud. Amusing misdirections like that one, though, make the book’s overall message and surprising ending even more memorable than they otherwise would have been.

Bottom Line: The Council of Animals is a book I can envision being used in classrooms around the world for years to come, much like Animal Farm has been used for the last several decades. Its clever use of humor and its suspenseful plot keep the reader — no matter what age — turning pages until its deeper message seeps in. This deceptively simple novel has a lot to say about us and the world we have created. Maybe, just maybe, it will open a few eyes as to what is important — and what is not.

A poignant book about an adventurous journey, seeped in huge consequences. My favorite part about this book was the animals. Of course. I'm an animal lover, a vegetarian, and hopefully one day a bulldog rescuer. So, you can see why the old, grumpy, sleepy, bulldog of this book was my favorite. There was humor at times and lots of adventure. The first half of the book was very heady. I understand the need to put in place, why this is occurring, who these animals are, and so forth. But, for me it was just to much and too overt at times. The pandemic aspect is very true to the times we are currently living in. I appreciated that part of the book and the emphasis on how much damage humans can do to This World.

I loved this book. Yes, it was similar to Animal Farm, Watership Down, Tailchaser's Song. Would be a great required reading book for older children. This book is also great for adults. Beautiful writing, great story line.

This is a really hard book for me to review. I really enjoyed this book. I felt like I was reading a literary classic in the making. That being said I am bot sure this book is for everyone for that reason.
This book had absolutely gorgeous prose. I literally felt like I was reading a classic the prose were that poetic and gorgeous. It felt beautiful and lyrical in a way all old stories do and it took my breath away.
I also adored the characters particularly how distinct their voices were. I do feel like the author leaned a little heavily on what is normally used in book for animal behavior and character but I can't exactly fault him for it when literally ever other author does the same thing while being praised up and down for their brilliance. I found the cat to be a great character and probably my favorite overall.
The illustrations also really added to the story. Again the art had a very old world classics feel to them which just enhance my feeling as if I was reading a classic.
This is a book in am not only hoping to see on multiple book of the year list but I am betting on it. This is definitely the exact type of book to become book of the year. I also see this book being hailed as a modern classic, one of the first ones I have seen in a long time. This book was just so fantastic and I can not wait to see the rest of the worlds thought and reactions when it comes out.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early review copy.