Barsk

I am not much of a fan of anthropomorphized animals and so I was highly skeptical I would enjoy this. But it came with high praise from several sides when I saw it on the shortlist for this year's Nebula I got the free sample and from there continued straight to the book.

This is somewhat of an "idea" book. In this universe a variety of species reminiscent of earth animals has settled a bunch of planets one of which is Barsk. While the other species live together on the other planets for some reason the two Fant species - the Lox and the Eleph - have been exiled together to the water world of Barsk where no more than a few islands provide land to live on.

In this universe there's a matter particle that we apparently haven't discovered yet ;) It is called a nefshon and nefshons comprise the memories people collect of each other. On Barsk they produce a drug called koph that allows so-called Speakers to summon the nefshons of someone who died and allows them to speak to a "construct" of that person as if it were that person just before they died.
Jorl is a Lox, a speaker and a historian and the only Lox in recent memory who has ever left the planet. When he finds out that something is wrong with the recently deceased he is reminded of an ancient prophecy. His curiosity quickly draws him into a power struggle between powerful political players, some of which are already dead. And nothing less than the survival of his species is at stake. The second protagonist is Pizlo, the six year old son of Jorl's best friend. His is a weird little albino Lox, shunned by everyone but his parents and Jorl. He makes up for this by exploring the jungle, collecting insects, and hunting moons. His story twines around that of Jorl in a colorful often poetic manner that brings everything to a surprising conclusion.

You don't forget for a second that you read about species derived from earth animals in this book. The book drives it home through names, look and behavior of all the characters and cultures. I thought I wouldn't like that but it worked surprisingly well for me. The story is complex but not convoluted although there was one point where I was struggling with who was who and what there motivations were at that point but that cleared itself up quickly enough. The whole concept of the book and the plot does revolve around those nefshons and the idea is set up in a fascinating way, so if you enjoy these kinds of "what if" stories, I can highly recommend this.