The Mount (novel)
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Cover of first edition (paperback)
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| Author | Carol Emshwiller |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Small Beer Press |
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Publication date
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2002 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 232 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 50289922 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3555.M54 M68 2002 |
The Mount is a 2002 science fantasy novel by Carol Emshwiller. It won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002, and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2003.
The author was inspired to write The Mount after she took a class in the psychology of prey animals. After the class, Emshwiller wondered what it would be like if a smart prey animal rode a predator. The idea fascinated her enough to write a short story which became The Mount.
The first-person narrator, Charley, is a young man who, like all humans, is used as a riding mount (e.g. horses) for an alien race known as Hoots. Humans in Charley's world, a pastoral Earth, have existed in a master-slave relationship with the Hoots for centuries. The Hoots, who have no way to return to their home planet, maintain the natural systems that keep the world running. Escaped mounts like Charley's father, formerly the Guards' Mount known as Heron, lead assaults on the stables where humans are kept and seek to unify their own people against the Hoots.
When Charley (mount name Smiley) meets his father for the first time (Heron and Merry Mary were mated and separated by the Hoots soon after Charley was born), he resists betraying either his Master, the Hoot heir apparent, or anything that might help the resisting humans because his life as a mount (breed Seattle) is the only one he's ever known.
The Hoots are a race that have evolved from prey. They are herbivores who have developed a set of very keen senses which allowed them to tame and use predators as mounts. The need for mounts is due to the fact that Hoots have very weak leg muscles, which prevents them from moving about efficiently. Most Hoots have never developed their leg muscles and use either mounts or small bicycle devices to move about. Hoots have very large and strong hands which were evolved for strangling predators. They also have large eyes and very large ears. The ears are used as a way of expressing emotions. For example when a hoot laughs their ears flap up and down.
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