From the author of Dogland, a dark new vision of the future of gene-splicing and artificial intelligenceWill Shetterly has created a dark and intriguing future for this novel, a world of genetic engineering and cloning where human and animal genes can be melded to create chimeras, more often referred to as critters. These beings are human, for all practical purposes. They think, they feel, they love, and they dream. But they still have some of the qualities of the animals that they are bred from. Most importantly, they are not granted the rights of humans. They are property. Slavery has been revived in America.But there is also a movement for Abolition, for the granting of legal rights to chimeras. Zoe Domingo is a jaguar-woman, created to be a sex-slave. Instead, she became the property of an abolitionist, and was freed, though she remained as her former owners companion. But on a trip to Los Angeles, Zoes mentor is murdered under violent and mysterious circumstances, and Zoe is accused of the crime.