Lazarball: Book One of the Anumal Empire Series written by Darren Jacobs and David Ayres sets itself in the future. The human race is long gone, replaced by the new dominant race, the anumals. Created using a combination of human and animal DNA, anumals come in many shapes and sizes, or rather, in many breeds. Clinton, our protagonist, is a feline; a lion. Having lost his parents, Clinton is now responsible for his little brother Raion. As if that weren't enough, his family is despised and the two brothers have been forced to live in the village slums and scrounge for food. All Clinton wants is to win the Lazarball tournament, so he can use the prize money to get himself, Raion, and his father's old friend, a gecko named Arkie, away from Wooburn to a place where no one's ever heard of them and they have a fighting chance. Little does Clinton know that he's destined for things much greater than simply Lazarball.