In 2019, the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute announced that it would close its animal facility within the next three years because ‘New laboratory techniques mean we simply do not need the numbers of animals that were once required. Some of the book's elements, particularly cultural references, appear dated now and certain abhorrent practices in the book have either been curtailed or heavily protested since the 1970s. Rat Trap lets the data speak for itself, from pointless tests to shamefully poor experimental designs, plainly revealing how 150 years of animal testing have succeeded only in thwarting medical progress and lining the pockets of an industry that just wants to maintain the status quo. The combination of visceral scenes of brazen animal torture with lashings of black-comedy made for an altogether gut-twisting and chillingly guilt-inducing read.

Considering the 70s context, Kotzwinkle deploys general images from the Vietnam War: animals scurrying from the “rainbow of death” of chemical warfare caused by “special Army Mixtures, Agent Blue, Agent Orange, and Agent White” (185). The novel was well-received by critics and the general public alike, winning the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1977. Perhaps it’s one of those images burned into the memory which never actually happened – such as the Fourth Doctor, K9 and Leela facing off against the Daleks. After all, this was the era in which Harry Harlow was boasting in major magazines about driving infant monkeys insane in “pits of despair.I think a case could be made for magical realism — it has a political message and “magical” communication between animals.

Born in December of 1995, Scottish author Stacey Lannigan grew up with a passion for both reading and writing.On each occasion Dr Ratnavel kind friendly and professional approach has made me feel totally at ease. Kotzwinkle… has an eloquent sense of timing and brevity, and his quisling rodent proves to be an ingenious device, one that cleverly wisecracks us into a gut-churning realization of just how self-oriented and inhumane our species really is. The plot revolves around Doc Rat fighting against the rebellion, but we see parts of the plot told through the eyes of other animals and species. Flopsy’s and Jasmine’s relationship with respect to the rabbits has been settled, but how Flopsy’s old wolf pack regards his “betrayal” and his “embarrassing all wolves” is another matter. I have Doctor Rat (the Laidlaw illustrated edition, above), and at least 5 of Kotzwinkle’s other novels (Fata Morgana, etc) but have never got around to reading any of them – I must rectify that, soon!

A bloodcurdling novel in the spirit of Animal Farm and 1984, Doctor Rat is a trip through a laboratory worthy of a mad scientist—except this scientist is a wisecracking rodent.He’s a sensitive chap and it was his exquisite sensitivity that caused him to dream up the item that’s become the latest rage here at the lab: the fabulous removal of eggs from a female rat’s body and the grafting of them to different parts of the male rat’s body — to the tail, to the ear, to the stomach. The resulting world substrate, with its moments of pseudo-knowledge and references of devastation caused by mankind, causes the reader increasingly wonder what is possible, what is happening, and what has already happened. I was obsessed with the show, so when I wasn’t watching it or thinking about it, I would be putting pen to paper, creating countless unfinished comics or drawing my ultimate obsession – the Daleks. Some of the other stories I read can be as violent, but Kotzwinkle‘s writing dug his claws of horror and despair into my brain. Just ask any evolutionary biologist and they'll [sic] tell you just what a Rube Goldberg contraption is the human body.

In Last and First Men, intelligence is the goal of evolution but Man (at least the First Men -- us) is not its final or best expression.Did I laugh my head off at the point where he had his commentaries about human musicians pulling a David Attenborough on the whales while they waxed rhapsodic about how smart they were? Her story, "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain," from her collection Near + Far (Hydra House Books), was a 2012 Nebula nominee.