Catfantastic 5

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Book Reviews of Catfantastic 5

Book Review: 24 stories, a mixed bag.
Summary: 4 Stars

Barwood, Lee: "Grow Old Along with Me" - Aging cat is abandoned by the heartless humans he lives with, to be rescued by an elderly neighbor, who cares for his Alzheimer's-stricken wife.

Carr, Jayge: "Puss": `Puss in Boots', rewritten as OK science-fiction.

Davis, R: "Goliath": A `cats are aliens' story. See Norton's _Star Ka'at_ for a better example.

Drake, David: "Dragon, the Book" - Foolish magician trusts his familiar, although he killed her mate in an ill-considered attempt to get a powerful magic tome.

Edghill, India: "The Courtesan Who Loved Cats" - A cat asks for an incarnation to avenge her beloved human companion. This one is set in India, complete with Hindu deities in the afterlife.

Edghill, Rosemary: "The Maltese Feline" - A hard-boiled detective story in an Arthurian setting, where magic is used in place of machines. See Simon Hawke's _The Nine Lives of Catseye Gomez_ if you like this one.

Goode, Paul: "A Cat's Tale" - Lt. Mufasa Mubaric (not *my* spelling) of Monroe, Louisiana went to Antonio's to meet the anonymous informant who e-mailed him - who turns out to be Giacomo, the restaurant cat.

Griffin, P.M. "Tenth-Life Cat" - Another Bastet story (see Catfantastic 2, 3). This time the petitioning cat has completed her 9th life, and asks to go back in time and avert a disaster that occurred in her 1st life. No explanation is offered for why she left her 1st-life partner's soul to suffer so long, or why Bastet did not intervene sooner (dea ex machina is a feature of these stories, but only when convenient for the narrative). I recommend instead her Trouble stories from Catfantastic 1 and 4.

Inks, Caralyn: "Kindred Hearts" - `Kitty Kitty' is used as `furry love therapy' for seriously ill patients - but he can mindspeak, and has real healing ability, unknown to the families of his clients.

Lackey, Mercedes: "A Better Mousetrap" - see my review of her collection _Werehunter_.

Lee, Sharon: "The Big Ice" - Not a Liaden story, but the human protagonist reminds me of Zhena Trelu in _Carpe Diem_.

Longyear, Barry: "Preliminary Report" - Cats have the task of trying to shape up their human companions; the cat delivering this report (in a hard-boiled style) has a few choice words to be passed up the line to whoever dishes out these assignments, as well as for his fellow cats who are getting tangled in bureaucratic nonsense and touchy-feely meetings. (They've been watching too many talk shows.)

McConchie, Lyn: "Lullaby" - A dravencat story (see Catfantastic 4), dealing with the descendants of Many-Kills and her human sister.

Mayhar, Ardath: "The Very Early Hermione" - See also Catfantastic 1, 3, 4. Hermoine, in her later years (now with a new human charge, a witch) has been asked for a story of her youth with her parents and their wizard. This Hermoine story's contents reveal that the 19th century England in which she lives is not on our own timeline, since magic is accepted there.

Miesel, Sandra: "Miss Lotte" - Miss Lotte isn't an ordinary 1955 New Orleans voodoo.

Miller, Sasha: "Kitten Claws" - See Catfantastic 2, 3 for the preceding stories, or you won't follow this very well. Ede (now a human woman and Ferdon's wife) is expecting her first child - but will it be a normal human infant?

Norton, Andre: "Noble Warrior and the `Gentleman'" - See also Catfantastic 1 - 4; Thargun was reunited with Emmy after the events in 4. Her father has unexpectedly inherited a title and estate, so the family is relocating.

Schaub, Mary: "The Cat, the Sorceress, the Buttons, and WHY" - NOT a Flax & Drop story. The feline protagonist remains anonymous for most of the story; as it happens, when he's caught spying on the sorceress who's just taken over the castle, she takes a liking to him, and exempts him from the warding spells around the fortress. Bad move...

Schwartz, Susan: "Hobson's Choice" - Hobson's humans foolishly named their vineyard `Pindar', and their wine `Mythology.' They're unaware that by night, they've attracted the visits of satyrs, Dionysius and his Maenads, and other creatures of wild magic.

Traylor, Estelle: "Rosemary for Remembrance" - The injured stray, swept through a gate into our world, is named `Kaththea' when adopted, after the Witch World character Kaththea Tregarth (see Norton's _Sorceress of the Witch World_).

Underwood, Laura: "Patches' Pride" - Shona, the local mageborn in this Scottish-like fantasy setting, acts as a kind of exterminator, keeping local crofts bogie-free. But she foolishly falls for a bogie's request to help its young, despite her cat's better judgment.

Watt-Evans, Lawrence: "Trixie" - Unlike the Noble Warrior stories, the brownies here are cute and harmless, and Trixie the cat isn't written with human-level intelligence. Pleasant, but not gripping.

Wolf, Rose: "Pick, Cry, and Grin (Ag'in)" - Pick and Dolly live with a country-music composer. A couple of whackos in a pickup truck run over Pick (a Manx) in mistake for a rabbit soon after he learns of his impending fatherhood. Pick wakes up in Noah's lap (St. Francis gets all cats except the Manx breed, due to the legend of how they got their tails).

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