Birds and the Emperor: Three little owls from California go to Washington to send a message

This novel is a hybrid of nature fantasy, science fiction, and dystopian political satire.

Three young Burrowing Owls, Cal and her brothers Dorzo and Tim, sip a buried radioactive liquid and acquire certain superpowers. The main superpower is the ability to get into the brains of other creatures, learn from them, and change their behavior. At first they bring peace to their home park in Berkeley by programming the dogs to stop chasing wildlife.

Then they get into the heads of humans. What they learn about human affairs concerns and distresses them. They decide to tell the Emperor what’s happening so that he can make things better.

This quest takes them to the East Coast, where after various adventures and mishaps they learn to their dismay that the Emperor has been replaced by a humanoid robot. Their effort to enter him fails and they return to California in defeat.

There they meet a migrating duck who is offering to import a deadly virus from Asia which would wipe out large numbers of humans absent an effective vaccine, which the Emperor has banned. An all-bird council deliberates the matter but does not come to a conclusion.

Meanwhile in Washington, a conspiracy festers in the White House. The three owls decide to return to DC, gathering a snowballing mass of other birds with them.

In the final chapter, billionaires gather for the inaugural banquet of the Emperor’s new golden ballroom. As the Emperor makes a devastating announcement, shooting breaks out among the inner cabal, and there is pandemonium on the floor. Half a million birds enter the ballroom and bury the celebrants in an avalanche of poop. Cal thanks the birds for delivering a message.

This book is available as a Kindle ebook and as an Amazon paperback for online ordering, and as an IngramSpark paperback for ordering in bookstores.

Here are the final five chapters of the book. In Chapter 36, Tim saves a life. In 37, Dorzo does successful neurosurgery. In 38, Cal becomes a single mom and learns of a deadly virus. In 39, the birds hold a council. The final chapter takes place in the Emperor’s golden new ballroom.