The Carnelian Fox by Kay MacLeod

SPSFC 2022

Monsters don’t exist. At least, they didn’t until we created them. Maiyamon was once merely a game. Now it's a global reality. After dozens of hit monster collecting games raked in billions of credits per year, it was inevitable someone would create real ones. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so obvious how many people would dump them in the wild… Sam Wentworth grew up with nothing. She’s worked tirelessly just to get through college and earn her first monster. Bankrupt and exhausted, she sets her sights on fame and fortune in Maiyamon arenas. Instead, Sam’s caught between battling the rampaging elemental creatures abandoned by their owners and standing up to a toxic group intent on ending the game forever. With her flame fox cub, Finn, at her side, Sam sets out to build a team capable of protecting both innocent people’s lives and the creatures she loves. That’s the easy part. Monsters may fill the world, but it’s humans she fears the most…