Catfantastic I - IV
(Books 1 - 4)
Andre Norton and Martin H. Greenberg, editors
DAW
Fiction, Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Anthology
****
DESCRIPTION: Since ancient Egypt, cats have held a special place in the human imagination. These are collections of fantasy and sci-fi short stories about cats, big and small: cats of the past, cats of the future, and cats from other worlds.
REVIEW: Given my notoriously poor luck with anthologies, on the whole these are fairly good. The stories' tones range from humorous to introspective, the styles simple
to convoluted, the quality good to mediocre or boring. In progressive anthologies, some stories progress through sequels, so you get to revisit favorite (or not-so-favorite)
characters. As implied, this can be good or bad, depending on your reaction to the initial story. I wish more people would venture away from the standby feline plot devices of
Nine Lives and Ancient Egypt/Bastet for their cat stories, but I suppose that's just my beef. Likewise, I find the pre-story author hype (wherein the editors tout the credentials
of the authors, as if only the works of famous authors are worth reading) subtly irksome. Cat lovers who like fantasy and science fiction should find something to enjoy in these
books, but even as a confirmed feline fanatic who likes both genres, I was left cold by several stories here.
Incidentally, I know there is at least one more book in the anthology series, probably more, but my budget is strained sufficiently that I can't justify the purchase price of
any further installments.
You might also enjoy:
Heart of a Tiger (Marsha Diane Arnold, YA Picture Book - A shy gray kitten wants a tiger's name on Naming Day)
Catkin (Antonia Barber, YA Picture Book - A small cat must enter a fairy mound to save a kidnapped girl)
The Jaguar Princess (Clare Bell, Fiction - A slave girl in the Aztec Empire displays unusual gifts for writing and a strange connection to jaguars)
Comet's Nine Lives (Jan Brett, YA Picture Book - A stray cat looks for a home before he runs out of lives)
Bruce Coville's Book of... Anthologies (Bruce Coville, editor, YA Fiction - Themed short story collections)
Lion Boy (Zizou Corder, YA Fiction - A boy who can speak Cat sets out to find his kidnapped parents)
The Folktale Cat (Frank de Caro, editor, Nonfiction - Cat folktales and legends from around the world)
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (T. S. Eliot, Poetry - Whimsical poems about various cats, the inspiration for the musical Cats!)
Cats in Space (Brian Fawcett, editor, Fiction - Sci-fi cat stories)
Cat-a-Lyst (Alan Dean Foster, Fiction - An actor's cat knows more than she lets on about a portal to an alternate world)
Warriors: Into the Wild (Erin Hunter, YA Fiction - A housecat answers the call of the wild and becomes part of a feral cat clan)
Cat Scratch Fever (Tara K. Harper, Fiction - In the far future on a colony world, a woman forms a forbidden bond with the planet's wild cats)
The Wild Road (Gabriel King, Fiction - The pampered housecat Tag is chosen to escort the King and Queen of Cats safely to the conjunction of the mystical "wild roads" at Tintangel)
Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria (Rahma Krambo, YA Fiction - A housecat must help defend a powerful book from evil forces)
Snow Leopard (Jackie Morris, YA Picture Book - A snow leopard's magical songs bring the seasons and protect the valley, but it needs an apprentice to take over its duties)
Ringworld (Larry Niven, Fiction - Two humans, a catlike kzin warrior, and another alien explore a vast habitable ring built around a star)
felidae (Akif Pirinçci, Fiction - A tom discovers a murdered cat in the yard of his new home)
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (Terry Pratchett, YA Fiction - A cat running a rat-plague con with co-conspirator rodents and a boy piper runs into a real problem)
The King of the Cats and Other Feline Fairy Tales (John Richard Stephens, Nonfiction - Fairy tales and folk stories of cats from around the world)
Tailchaser's Song (Tad Williams, Fiction - A young tomcat's search for a missing cat-friend leads him to ancient dangers straight from the days of the long-lost Firstborn)
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