Book excerpt: Animal Alterity uses readings of science fiction texts to explore how animals are central to our perception of humanity. Arguing that the academic field of animal studies and the popular genre of science fiction share a number a critical concerns, Sherryl Vint expresses an urgent need to reconsider the human-animal boundary in a world of genetic engineering, factory farming, species extinctions, and increasing evidence of animal intelligence, emotions, and tool use. Mapping the complex terrain of human relations with non-human animals, this book offers an important intervention into the contentious ongoing discussions of the post-human.