Customer Reviews
What a Cat Thinks
Many books and movies attempt to tell us how animals see the world. Unfortunately so many of them try to make the animals think and talk the way humans do. Diane Duane knows that cats are a different species and therefore have different ways of thinking. From that she created an entire book in which we see the world through a cat's eyes. The cat's words are translated into English for our convenience, but we are told when the English word just isn't a good translation, or when body language is used instead. She creates personalities and mannerisms and everything feline based on what we already know of cats, or at least the real cat lovers do. In fact, she's so accurate that you'll probably look at your own cat and wonder if you have a normal cat or a wizard on your hands. Because, you see, the cats in this novel are not just ordinary cats going about their feline ways, they are actually wizards, working hard to keep the world and New York in balance. If you are a big Diane Duane fan, you have to read this book, and if you like the Young Wizard series, then you're in for a treat, because it's set in the same world and has a few cameo cross overs. Enjoy!
Deeper and darker than her others, one well worth reading.
Once again Diane Duane tells a story of good vs evil where the youngest has the most power and saves the day - or will he? This book is a step darker and more intricate than her others. Rhiow may be a cat, but she is also a wizard, the leader of a group of three that work together to keep the World Gates safe. The adventure begins when a gate suddenly needs a mysterious repair. The team gets on the job only to find a young wizard (cat) newly come into his powers and gravely injured. Before you can say "catfish", Rhiow and her team are dealing with an emotionally disturbed, physically injured, very powerful young male "tom", a plague of rats, the disablement of ALL the world gates and the disappearence of the supervisory wizzard for the entire North American continent. Those who have read "So You Want to be a Wizzard" or "Deep Wizardry" will enjoy seeing cameos of people already near and dear to our hearts. But the real heros in this book are the cats.
A Dark and Furry Fantasy for Cat-Lovers
Set in the same Universe as the Young Wizards tetralogy (and featuring guest appearances by its main characters, Nita and Kit, and their immediate wizardly supervisors, Tom and Carl), this fascinating if sometimes sad and depressing fantasy tale focuses on a team of wizards who are both Terran and nonhuman--in short, cats. It seems that we humans share this planet with many sentient species--whales, dogs, and cats among them--and in each of these wizards are born on a regular basis. Rhiow, a black New York City housecat, is one of them, the leader of a team that includes the constantly itching Saash (no, she doesn't have fleas, though her ehhif (Cat-language for humans) think she does) and the young tomcat Urruah. Deep underneath Grand Central Station to investigate the malfunctioning of one of the many Gates that lead from world to world, the trio find an injured kitten, Arhu, who turns out to be a wizard-on-Ordeal--if he survives, he'll come into his power, just as they did in their time. Gradually it becomes clear that Something very nasty is messing with the Gates, and the cats must not only help to defend the City from a plague of dinosaurs that come charging through, but penetrate to the dinos' universe of origin and find a way to stop further incursions.
Reflecting her other career as a writer of sf (she's perhaps best known for several Star Trek:TOS novels including the excellent Rihannsu subseries), and perhaps a belief in the corollary of Arthur C. Clarke's maxim "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," Duane's magic is sometimes extremely technical (I can't work out how the Gates function *at all*, though the cats can). And there are a couple of places where she might have clarified better how her world works (why did the dinosaurs retreat to a subterranean existence? Why don't they have wizards as other sentient species do?). The story she tells is, like that of C. S. Lewis's Narnia, an allegory of Christianity, yet it partakes of early mythology from Egypt and Sumeria as well, and even has a touch or two of Zoroastrianism. What makes it all work is her characters. She obviously knows cats and has spent a lot of time observing them: Rhiow, Saash, Urruah, Arhu, and the other felines who appear briefly in the book are at once distinct individuals and recognizably animals. Even her villain, the Lone Power, is motivated and delineated in a way that makes It seem very real and understandable. There are moments of humor (Urruah's attempts to explain the concept of opera to Rhiow when they attend a Three Tenors rehearsal in the Sheep Meadow, Arhu's delighted discovery of mozzarella cheese, Saash's ongoing attempts to elude a human with a can of flea powder) and poignancy (Rhiow's return to the apartment she shares with Hhuha and Iaehh (Susan and Mike) to discover that Susan has been killed by a runaway taxi), and an epic battle deep underground between the Team and an unexpected saurian ally on the one side and the Lone Power and Its wizardly pawn on the other. The pyrotehnics and wild action salted throughout would make an eye-catching movie or miniseries, if sfx could figure out a good way to do the cats!
