Service Goat - Piers Anthony

4 Stars!

ABOUT THE BOOK -

Orphaned and blind seven-year-old Callie has a service animal – a goat with extraordinary powers.

Ben Hemoth is a down-on-his luck news reporter facing prison. Needing to save his job and his reputation, he teams up with Venus, a young seductress caught up with a teenage drug gang.

When a mysterious letter arrives detailing a top-secret investigative operation, Ben and Venus think they’ve found their chance for redemption. The mission? Investigate a goat.

In exchange for an extravagant paycheck, Ben and Venus must piece together the wild rumors swirling around Callie, her supernatural goat, and a possible UFO visit. 

  
ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Piers Anthony is one of the world's most prolific and popular authors. His fantasy Xanth novels have been read and loved by millions of readers around the world, and have been on the New York Times Best Seller list many times. Although Piers is mostly known for fantasy and science fiction, he has written several novels in other genres as well, including historical fiction, martial arts, and horror. Piers lives with his lovely wife in a secluded woods hidden deep in Central Florida.

Visit his website - HERE

MY THOUGHTS -

Surprisingly quite a nice story! I say surprisingly because-

This was one of the strangest books I have ever read, not THE strangest, but one of the strangest (the author might be upset by this because I'm pretty sure strangest was what he was going for!). But... as you all know - I do like strange (or, um, unique lol) once in a while.

Besides all the wackiness, there were actually some quite interesting facts about service animals and was a very endearing story. I had a friend who was raising a dog to be trained as a service dog he ended up failing the test and they got to keep him as a pet. So I knew a little about service animals.

But! - An alien in goat form posing as a service animal with powers to make a blind girl see, only to learn facts about Earth??? Now that is something new. This was quite an amusing read indeed! It definitely kept me reading. The pace was steady throughout and got quite exciting at the end (without overdoing it). Great character development! I loved Callie and Nanny (the alien goat, of course!).

He pondered. What they wanted was simple enough: a private investigation of--A goat. Ben stared at the text. So did Venus. “Maybe the money's fake,” she said. But it wasn't. Ben phoned. “You want this private, but the moment I start asking questions about a damned goat they'll know something's up. Nobody cares about a goat.”

Had there been an Unidentified Flying Object--a UFO or flying saucer--that delivered the animal and departed? That would explain it, to a degree. But why would an alien craft deliver not a combat robot or an extermination bomb, or a Bug-Eyed Monster (a BEM) lusting after lovely human maidens, but a goat? It just didn't make sense.

*Is this the type of book I would want to read all the time - probably not

*Is Piers Anthony going to be my favorite author- probably not

*But - Would I read another one of his book - absolutely!

This book will certainly have me looking at goats in a different light!!

I voluntarily posted this review after receiving this book from Dreaming Big Publications. Thank you!

Order your copy from Amazon - HERE