Another wonderful offering from the master of Furry fiction, Paul Kidd brings the two contrasting worlds of Acomar and the Mornmist to life. His stories are filled with personable characters, humour, excitement and also sorrow. Although not so much of the latter in this one as his excellent "Whisper of Wings". "Rats..." is a somewhat lighter read, and very entertaining.

In the desolate plains of Acomar we have the Itheem; rats - breeding, fighting, scavenging and living a brutal and cruel, and short, existence. Amongst these is warrior rat Ra'hish, a dedicated lone-rat, who suddenly finds himself having to look after a dozen youngsters. We also have the albino Oosha and her sister Teela, two young female rats determined to find a beauty in their desolate life. And G'Kaa, warlord, who dreams of leaving the wretched plains of Acomarand invading the beautiful valleys. Acomar is a wasteland, and my first reaction upon reading it was "oh drat, the ideas are the same as my Furritasia ones, now I'm going to look like I'm copying this", but luckily the similarities end there.

On the other side of the border wall we have the Uruth, the canines, keeping their land safe from the "goblin hoards" beyond the wall. One such character is Tupan, a lively and impulsive coyote that has left her wanderer roots and sought out civilisation. Her unwilling companions in her undying endeavours to "fix things" are the grim greyhound, Surolf, and his rather friendlier pony, Hern.

Together these two very different groups will be brought together in alliance, and find out that despite outward appearances, they are not really all that different.

All in all, another grand offering from Paul Kidd. Alas, the other "Mornmist" books appear to not exist (despite having titles and ISBN numbers), so it seems Vision books have evaporated. This is a pity, because I rather liked the world. The "Mornmist" was intended to be one of those "Shared worlds" with books by Elaine Cunningham (who wrote "Daughter of the Drow") amongst others. Alas. But at least they got the first one out. ( )

Paul Kidd seems to have problems starting books; "The Rats of Acomar" is weighed down at first both by the overuse of adjectives and scene-setting description, and the initially annoying characters Tupan and Surolf. He settles down once the initial scene is set, however, and the characters involved begin to grow on you (and grow a little in general).

The world in "Rats of Acomar" is one populated entirely by anthropmorphized animals - dogs, coyotes, horses, cats, and the rats the book's central movement is about. The rats are violent and warlike, trapped in the wasteland region of Acomar by a heavily guarded wall; constant deprivation and intraspecies warfare has left them a culture and existence that would devour the land if they ever breached the wall. Naturally one rat - G'kaa - is trying to do just that.

The book is frequently lighthearted; the scenes with Tupan (a carefree coyote) and the young rats that start to follow Ra'hish (a loner rat) usually so. There's nothing that stands out about these passages, and Tupan's attitude is overplayed at first, but they're amusing enough and the book keeps moving. G'kaa is a ok, if somewhat standard, villain; a secondary villain introduced later does nothing more than nibble on the scenery.

The odd mythology of the Giants and the odd pillars in Acomar are interesting, especially as they become key to the plot; as is the insight that the rats must not only be defeated, but changed, so that the constant violence and pressure to invade are eased and removed. They're dealt with fairly shallowly, however; the book is quite short (just under 200 pages).

Once Kidd gets his writing legs, there's nothing about the book - or the accompanying illustrations - that's especially bad. It just never really gets above adequate. ( )