Daryl Gregory's The Album of Dr. Moreau combines the science fiction premise of the famous novel by H. G. Wells with the panache of a classic murder mystery and the spectacle of a beloved boy band.
It’s 2001, and the WyldBoyZ are the world’s hottest boy band, and definitely the world’s only genetically engineered human-animal hybrid vocal group. When their producer, Dr. M, is found murdered in his hotel room, the “boyz” become the prime suspects. Was it Bobby the ocelot (“the cute one”), Matt the megabat (“the funny one”), Tim the Pangolin (“the shy one”), Devin the bonobo (“the romantic one”), or Tusk the elephant (“the smart one”)?Las Vegas Detective Luce Delgado has only twenty-four hours to solve a case that goes all the way back to the secret science barge where the WyldBoyZ’ journey first began—a place they used to call home.
Before embarking on this I listened to The Island of Dr Moreau, and I'm really glad I did. I found The Island difficult, because of the classism, racism and speciesism, as well as the wanton cruelty. On it's surface The Album seem lighter and to lack the horror of it's inspiration, but it's all there, hiding just under the surface. I'm really glad I waded through the original material, it gave The Album so much more depth and meaning.
The books were about the same length, which made me sad, because I read this in a weekend, and I would have gladly spent weeks with the Wyld BoyZ. The book was published in 2021 but set in 2001 and is full of boy band jokes, animal puns and nods and winks to genre fiction, some of which I got and many of which I'm sure I missed. A satisfying, sometimes uncomfortable, wonderful read.
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