As Graham lifts the bolt, the cow turns to him and asks if he will Turing test him before pulling the trigger. The cow is a Bête, an animal with a AI chip in its brain that means it can converse and think. The law is just about to change, so that the killing of these beasts is now murder.

And so begins a raft of changes in Graham's life, as his farm fails and he hits the road just to survive. The rise of the animal rights movement has empowered the animals in England, and given them some political power. As he drifts in and out of of a dramatically different society, he never really escapes from his past actions. And one day that very past confronts him, and offers him a choice.

Possibly the strangest book I have read in a while, it is a blend of a dystopian future, with a cyber culture sub text. The society was fairly well advanced until the rise of these AI enhances creatures. As I read it I felt that I was reading a modern version of Animal Farm, but rather than a communist overthrow of a farm, this was the rise of the AI animal. Weird and disturbing at times, this was a genuinely original dystopian novel. ( )

In a world where animals have been infected with a super virus which gives them sentience, Graham, an erst-while farmer and butcher, is out of work. This hilarious novel followshis progress through an increasingly chaotic landscape, coping with the death of a partner, as he searches for a new niche in life.... ( )

I really liked it. ( )