Writer's Showcase, iUniverse 2000, 651 pages, paper.
This omnibus trilogy chronicles four generations of dairier ants and two generations of adopted roaches, who reach out to the roach community to end the hostilities. The ants strive to create common ground in mining, construction, trade and law. Among the roaches, there are those who savor their privileges and will go to any lengths – even murder – to maintain the status quo. If the ants fail, both species will pass away, just as the Duo Pods did.
I had trouble starting this book, because I'm a cat person, not a roach person. It also brought back lost memories of weighing food remains in 90 F heat for my U of A Anthro extra credit: Le
Project du Garbage. However, by the time I got to Chapter 11, I was cruising.
Looking back, I think I'll miss Anthony. It takes a very special ant to adopt a roach, because his mate can't have any children of her own. I thought of this book as "The Hellstrom Chronicles" meets "Watership Down."
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There will come a day when Mankind (the Duo Pods) is extinct and the insects have inherited the Earth. The Earth Mother has allowed the Duo Pods' chemical wastes to change the ants and roaches into self-aware beings with unique and viable cultures. Plastics mined from ancient waste disposal sites are essential food supplements for the proper growth and development of
these sentient insects. Vying for access and ownership of the plastic mines has created decades of intense animosity, exacerbated by occasional military actions between the ant and roach nations.