Harry Says (ePub)

Harry Says is mostly set in London in the middle of the 21st century, though our hero Harry the Hamster also travels to Las Vegas and Bangkok as he follows a career as an international entertainer and celebrity. But how does a hamster become a celebrity? The technology of genetic modification has taken a giant leap forward in the previous forty years. One experimental project goes wrong and a number of genetically modified animals with human characteristics end up being released into society. Our hero is Harry, but you will meet other X-Pets (as they are called): Porky the Pig, the wealthy owner of Casino Byzantium and founder of piggypoker.com, "Bloodbath" Henry the cat, Will the Pit, a pit bull terrier, the Corgi brothers (loved by the whole nation) and most importantly of all, Big Cheese the cat. Big Cheese is the mover and shaker of the X-Pet community and a spokesperson for the group. Early on in the story he meets Harry and becomes his mentor. Big Cheese oversees Harry's rise to fame and fortune.
Things go well at first for the X-Pets, but unfortunately they take on some of the more undesirable characteristics of their human creators. The X-Pets become controversial and their destiny is played out against a background of political manoeuvring involving human characters. We meet Mr W who is in psychiatric care and who gives an account of the life and career of The Master, the dominant political figure of the age. Alex Pendrivel is a journalist at Britain Today who writes about the X-Pet phenomenon. Charlie Spitzenburger is CEO of Neazo Inc., a corporation with interests in genetic modification. These and other human characters all affect the destiny of the X-Pets.
Harry Says is a mixture of fantasy, science fiction and social satire.