Catacombs

October 4, 2010
McCaffrey and Scarborough follow January 2010's Catalyst with another light space adventure featuring super-smart cats. The barque cats, mistaken for a public health hazard, flee Earth for the feline-dominated planet, Mau, with the help of Pshaw-Ra, a mysterious cat with his own spaceship. Oddly, no one—including the humans—is bothered that he plans to take over the universe on behalf of felinekind. Chester and his 10-year-old human friend Jubal are likable young heroes who make a good foil to the charismatic, shadowy Pshaw-Ra. Readers of all ages will be entertained as the barque cats explore strange new worlds and save the day.

October 1, 2010

When the Barque Cats seek refuge on an inhospitable planet, their problems—and the readers'—are only just starting.

In this follow-up to the team's Catalyst (2010), the large, furry and telepathic Barque Cats are once more in trouble. Having fled persecution at home, a spaceship-load of survivors (descendants of Maine Coon cats) land on the mysterious Pshaw-Ra's planet, Mau, only to find uncongenial desert-like conditions and strange goings-on with Pshaw-Ra's haughty queen. But while the feline adventurer Chester, whose narration alternates with Pshaw-Ra's, immediately finds the strange "treats" given to the furry refugees suspicious, his one-time shipmates seem content to slurp up goodies and be waited upon by human slaves—at least until kittens start going missing. As Chester and "his person," the boy Jubal, track the missing litter into an underground city, they also uncover a web of deception involving the queen, her exiled sister and the sterility of their tawny hosts, who want to use the Barque Cats to breed vitality—and polydactyl paws—back into their line. But while the premise is adorable, the cacophony of names, alternating voices, back story from the previous book, Egyptian mythology (involving mummified cats) and jarringly contemporary cat-health issues (such as feline diabetes) bog the adventure down. Inconsistent tenses—one scene progresses from "Meanwhile the kittens are going 'Mew mew mew' even louder" to "Jubal pressed against the force field"—add even more to the confusion. Unsure of itself as science fiction/fantasy, the book then seeks to fall back on cute kitty appeal, with disastrous results. While both authors have developed loyal followings for their previous work, it is hard to see how this hodgepodge could hold an audience.

Too many half-digested ideas make for an unreadable garble.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 15, 2010

When powerful, mysterious cat Pshaw-Ra helps rescue the telepathic Barque Cats and their space-faring human companions from certain death, the refugees find Pshaw-Ra's planet Mau an uncomfortably hot, desert haven. One telepathically bonded pair, the human Jubal and his cat Chester, discover that Pshaw-Ra's altruistic intentions are really part of the ambitious feline's hidden agenda, a plot that must be stopped. This sequel to Catalyst continues the tale of cats in space and the humans who rely on them and further develops the feline society of the planet Mau, where cats are worshipped as gods. VERDICT Written with gentle humor and a genuine understanding of the feline species, this welcome addition to a new series will appeal to cat lovers and fans of McCaffrey (Pern series) and Scarborough (The Healer's War).

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2010
Cats in space! In their sixteenth collaborative novel, the authors return to the universe of Catalyst. Saved by the arrogant space cat Pshaw-Ra from mistaken euthanasia at the end of the last book, the dashing tom Chester, his telekinetic boy partner Jubal, and a shipload of other cats and their people land on their mysterious saviors desert planet. Promises of fishy treats, naps, and other luxuries soon give way to the cruel rule of a petty cat queen and the lurking pursuit of the unkillable snake Apep. Given the meandering plot and fluffy style, the only purrs this book will elicit will come from young readers, feline fanatics, Egyptian-mythology buffs, and those who enjoy light space opera combined with extreme cuteness. Even those readers may find that the huge cast of characters and confusing descriptions of events go down like a hairball. Long, honorable careers have garnered McCaffrey and Scarborough a legion of fans, so expect demand; but readers might do better with rereading one of their classics. High-Demand Backstory: Fifteen previous collaborations between these two popular authors have shown that together their books are as popular as their individual ones have proven to be, and their latest partnership will follow suit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)