Women's Country

One night with reporter Tamar Longren changes everything. Exposed to the world, gorilla Lethias becomes an overnight sensation—and a political weapon. The Oregon Initiative would make his existence illegal. Religious zealot and presidential candidate Melissa Adenour brands him abomination incarnate. Thrust onto the campaign trail for incumbent President Shuman, Lethias discovers that politics is a blood sport and love more dangerous still. Between rallies and speeches, an impossible dialogue emerges across the divide—two people speaking to each other through the words they give their candidates, a conversation disguised as combat where every phrase carries the weight of desire and betrayal. On their hidden island, the ape colony's situation grows desperate. Marcus arms the apes with guns, preparing for the war he's certain is coming. But in the island interior, in Women's Country, scientist Carroll Sims and gorilla Jefferson are conducting experiments that could change everything and could save them or destroy them. As the presidential race reaches fever pitch and violence erupts at campaign events, Lethias must navigate a landscape where his celebrity has made him a target, where political forces spiral beyond anyone's control, and where Tamar crafts the very words used against him. The question isn't whether the world will discover the breeding colony. The question is what the apes will become before it does. Women's Country expands the hard SF concepts of the mind-bending Cori Field Equations while diving deep into the brutal machinery of American politics, exploring what it means to be human when humanity itself is no longer alone.