SFF

River of Teeth

by Sarah Gailey
Tor.com. May 2017. 176p. ISBN 9780765395238. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9780765395221. FANTASY
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DEBUT Winslow Houndstooth is assembling a crack team made up of a sharpshooter, a con woman, a demolitions expert, and an assassin. But don't call it a caper he's plotting; he's running a legitimate operation, employed by the federal government, to take care of a wild hippo problem in southern Louisiana. It seems that in this alternate version of late 19th-century U.S. history, the government imported hippos to America to use as a food source. Ranchers raised them, riding some of the smarter breeds like horses. But an unscrupulous riverboat entrepreneur named Travers has allowed hundreds of feral hippos to threaten commerce on the Mississippi. Houndstooth has a job to do, and some scores to settle, but his crew all have their own agendas as well.
VERDICT First-time novelist Gailey assures us that her premise for this novella, bizarre as it seems, was really contemplated by Congress. Along with her swift-moving plot, she includes a sweet romance between Houndstooth and his gender-ambiguous demo expert Hero. Readers will wish they had their very own hippo to ride around the bayou.
Reviewed by Megan M. McArdle , May 15, 2017
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