Plane Crash with fatalities, but the real nightmare? The survivors' rescuers are seven-foot intelligent antelopes with their own laws, religions, and a death sentence at the ever-ready. Religious fanaticism. A rigged Kafkaesque trial. Everything you thought you knew about civilization is turned upside down.
Mack McElheney's job was simple: keep eighteen lottery millionaires safe on their dream vacation to Rio. That was before the crash on a remote mesa in Venezuela. Before the appearance of seven-foot Antelopes with emerald eyes who've remained hidden from humanity forever. A civilization as advanced as it is intolerant when devout Baptist Courtney Sherman destroys a statue of the sacred God of the Golden Antelopes, who claim religious and cultural superiority over the Ermine Antelopes, and the Ivory Antelopes. Though each race despises the others, they agree on one thing: humans threaten their entire civilization, and all three Antelope nations unite against the human threat.
Courtney doesn't just commit blasphemy-she triggers a political crisis that could shatter the fragile peace between Antelope nations and expose their hidden civilization. Mack must defend her in an alien kangaroo court where the judge is prosecutor, the jury are co-defendants, and the penalty is immersion in boiling oil. In this courtroom, logic means nothing, the judge finds Mack in continual contempt for demanding fairness, with a verdict decided before the trial began. As three warring Antelope races debate the humans' fate, Mack must navigate impossible diplomatic waters while his group fractures under pressure. The Antelopes fear human discovery will destroy their world. The humans fear they'll never see home again, and Mack faces an impossible question: Can he save Courtney's life before time runs, without precipitating a condemning a cataclysmic Antelope war?
As foreign media reports the disappearance of 18 new millionaires and rescue teams mobilize, religious tensions explode. Can Mack prove that justice transcends species, or will humanity's first contact with intelligent life end in their execution and a suicidal war among the Antelopes?
ANTELOPES: A Modern Gulliver's Travels is David Rich's brilliant satirical science fiction that channels Swift's classic for the contemporary age. If you appreciate dark comedy, anthropological insight, and stories that make you laugh while questioning everything, then you'll love Rich's razor-sharp social commentary. Pick up your copy now and discover what happens when worlds collide!