Helpful Score: 3
I have mixed feelings about this book.
On the one hand, it's fantastically written, the main character has a strong voice and definite character, and the story has stuck with me for years.
On the other hand, most of it is friggin' depressing.
Cat's Paw is, as I found out later, the middle of a trilogy- though I read it as a stand alone- and tells the story of a once telepathic alien, now broken from the crime of murder, albeit in self defense, recruited to serve as a spy and bodyguard to a powerful family in danger of sabotage. Given dangerous drugs to resurrect his telepathy, within fifty pages he's cast adrift in a vividly drawn political arena with undertones that made my head spin.
The odd thing about this story is that while neither the writing nor Cat himself is remotely immature, I have to say he gives off one of the strongest tastes of teenagerdom that I've found in any character. I think that alone gives a burst of freshness to this surprisingly undated sci fi novel.
On the one hand, it's fantastically written, the main character has a strong voice and definite character, and the story has stuck with me for years.
On the other hand, most of it is friggin' depressing.
Cat's Paw is, as I found out later, the middle of a trilogy- though I read it as a stand alone- and tells the story of a once telepathic alien, now broken from the crime of murder, albeit in self defense, recruited to serve as a spy and bodyguard to a powerful family in danger of sabotage. Given dangerous drugs to resurrect his telepathy, within fifty pages he's cast adrift in a vividly drawn political arena with undertones that made my head spin.
The odd thing about this story is that while neither the writing nor Cat himself is remotely immature, I have to say he gives off one of the strongest tastes of teenagerdom that I've found in any character. I think that alone gives a burst of freshness to this surprisingly undated sci fi novel.
