River of Teeth

In the early twentieth century, the United States government comes up with a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana, where they would be bred and slaughtered for meat. The plan is real. Hippos are also fast and savage, and their jaws can snap a man in two, so it goes badly.

This novella imagines the America that might have followed, an 1890s bayou overrun by feral hippos. Mercenary hippo wranglers have arrived from around the globe to deal with them.

The story follows Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. They are in the bayou for the money, and Houndstooth also has a score to settle, so the book follows both their fortunes and his revenge.

The book is alternate history written as an adventure, with a loud, comic streak running through a premise built on a true piece of government folly. It was a finalist for the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella.