“Ants are a metaphor for us, and we for them.” – E. O. Wilson

Edward O. Wilson is the world’s foremost expert on ants, and Anthill’s protagonist, Raphael Semmes Cody (aka Raff) — 15 years old when the story begins and a lawyer 12 year later at the novel’s end — is the character Wilson invented who studies ants and has a world’s worth of things in common with his author. Most importantly, both Raff and Wilson join the ranks of conservationists struggling to save the planet from global environmental catastrophe. With Anthill Wilson has written an entertaining and inspirational novel that has in its DNA a robust collection of memes (the cultural equivalent of genes) for propagating the continuing survival of mankind on planet Earth. This includes an extraordinary and not to be missed novella within the novel, The Anthill Chronicles.

Anthill presents the actor Kevin T. Collins with an enticing narrative mix. There is the novel’s third-person narration, putatively told by Frederick Norville, a professor of ecology at Florida State University, a friend of the Cody family, and the first of Raff’s two mentors. Collins’ third person narration thus reflects close familial bonds (Norville is called “Uncle Fred” by Raff). The third-person narration expresses the sympathy Norville has for Raff, and the listener can hear these expressions in Collins’ narration. His expressive craft really kicks in when he speaks the characters’ dialogues, expressions, and thoughts. Collins’ voice quickly and deftly shifts from third-person into the characters. His creative colorations of characters and his accuracy in making an expressive match score high marks.

Anthill begins with a Huckleberry Finn-type adventure with a sociopath pointing a shotgun at Raff and approaches its end with a deadly thriller. This bookend set of near violence and actual deadly violence have the effect of adrenaline shot into Collins. The flight or fight response is transformed into high dose, fast-paced, and nicely sequenced and exciting narration. In between these adventures Raphael Semmes Cody grows into manhood and as a lawyer pursues his commitment of saving from commercial environmental destruction Nokobee, the wildlife area where Raff has done his ant studies. —David Chasey