Book Review: Catalyst: A Tale of the Barque Cats by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

The Barque Cats are a special breed, trained from birth to serve as companions on spaceships. They keep the crews' spirits up as well as control the mice and rat populations and find any oxygen or other leaks within the ships. Chessie (more formally know as Thomas' Duchess) is one of the finest of her breed, and her soon-to-be-born litter has already brought in a good price. While stopped at the planet Sherwood, Chessie is catnapped from the local vet. As her keeper Janina tries to find Chessie, a supposed epidemic breaks out among the planet's animals, and the government begins impounding and threatening to kill all animals. It's a race against to time to save Chessie and her kittens and to discover the cause behind this outbreak before more animals across the galaxy are captured.

I enjoyed the story, following both the humans as they set about trying to uncover the motives behind the government's need to impound all animals and the cats who discover telepathic connections with humans thanks to a mysterious space cat name Pshaw-Ra. The stories were full of action and kept me turning the pages. I especially liked Pshaw-Ra himself, seeming to come from a long line of Earth cats going all the way back to Egyptian times, a feline mastermind with a plot to take over the galaxy in a very unique way. But I had the impression that the book wasn't intended for an adult audience. As I read, I thought how much the young adult/teen crowd would love the story -- a good sci-fi/action adventure mixed with talking (albeit telepathically) animals.

That's not a bad thing. With the younger crowds being drawn more and more towards bright lights and shot-em-up video games, Catalyst is a book I think even they would enjoy. I know I did.