No matter how much an author has written, the question of "is this actually good?" comes up every time you begin something new. I believe this is a feeling everyone here can identify with. I believe myself to have a good grasp on what will work but as these things go, staying inside your own bubble doesn't make for a god generator of diverse opinions, so here we go; Setting and Worldbuilding: The story plays out in a fictional alternative of our world, but it is inhabited by Anthropomorphic animals. Most higher mammals and certain birds have evolved into sapience, with many events throughout history playing out in a similar fashion to ours. This is done to both safe my sanity and to create parallels the reader can identify with. Key events throughout history played out in a similar fashion as ours, with cultural aspects adjusted to fit the fact that not just different races, but different species entirely share the top of the food chain. Synopsis: We are settled in Berlin, the year is 1901. Germany is entering the new century and millions are flocking to the industrial center of the world in the hopes of finding better work and living conditions. Having been separated by virtue of monarchies built around singular species, for the first time in history, they are now mixing together in the wake of the industrial revolution. The main obstacle is the physiology of predator and prey; where most predator species have evolved to sport human-escé hands, most pray is burdened by four fingers and hooved digits. These are vastly less versatile and thus mostly unsuited for filigrane assembly work, which is in high demand. To ensure proper employment, the government attempts to craft a working class system, that will ensure certain labor and professions to be reserved for pray species - yet grant them equal pay to higher class workforce. A lone politician of the socialist party is tasked with the monumental job of "fixing" this law and draft something that will ensure happiness about the population. This brings him in the crosshairs of industrialists, revolting pray and the old social elite, whom would much rather bring back the class systems from before the 1900s. Execution: I plan to write the story divided into three main viewpoints: One of the politician. One of a powerful Noble. And one of a group of domestic terrorists, whom will stop at nothing to prevent the law from passing. The idea is to take the reader on a journey through this animal world, with the date of the law being passed serving as the climax, thus creating a unified goal.
It sounds pretty great to me! Depending on how long it is going to be, I can see some potential for interesting subplots, if you haven't already thought about them. Do you plan on writing it in more of a short story fashion or as a full-length novel?
My initial reaction to this was "erk. Zootropolis", but that's only because you have a society of anthropomorphic animals trying to get along and then happen to mention the words "predator & prey". But it's the physiology specifically, isn't it, which is enough of a departure, or a complete departure. I'd suggest to avoid juxtaposing "predator and prey" in the synopsis. But I think I've got a more useful suggestion: consider submerging all the storyworld's causes for conflict, and write the conflict as coming from inside characters. predator vs prey hands vs hooves industrialists vs socialists I don't mean (necessarily) to remove these aspects from the storyworld: it's to push them down from the synopsis, so that the story's core still stands with these things as background flavour rather than plot-drivers. The conflicts in a reader's life don't arise from external social problems, but from who people are internally. I'd aver that even if I'm shot in a war or blown up by a terrorist, my character conflicts would remain very close-up and personal. And when these things aren't needing to drive the plot, you may gain more creative freedom over them. What if hands vs hooves was an accident of birth rather than determined by species: predators whose hands were too... handish(?)... might experience it as a disability. They can drive to work and use a smartphone, but they need a carer to get their antelopes in from the garden for them. (or whatever, I'm just throwing that out as an example).
