Catspaw

Rating:
Summary: Intrigue, adventure, exciting- you get it all
Review: I loved this book. I've read the entire series of the main character, Cat, but Catspaw I believe is best in the series. What's more, the book can stand alone. The unique writing kept me interested the entire journey, with the 1st person view of the main character, but his abilities to read minds lets you have the perspective of other characters in the book as well. I liked Cat's personality. He's real, with flaws, and fears, and yet does the right thing without being a do-gooder. Even the villians in the book seem real, and you can almost- but not quite- understand why they are the way they are.
This story encompasses Cat being pressed into service to be a body guard for a political member of the very government he hates. You get political intrigue, a hint of romance, and a splendid view of a futuristic world with a well thought out plot. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Rating:
Summary: If I had to reduce my reading to one book for all time...
Review: I rarely read books twice, but Catspaw I've read three times since finding it, and with each reading I look forward to the next one even more (although what I always WANT to look forward to is another book that I become as personally involved in as I did this one).

Joan D. Vinge doesn't just make Cat a character you can really identify with and care about (as other reviewers have noted), but he lives in a world that the reader becomes involved in because it is at once alien (and thus intriguing) and ultimately recognizeable: this Cat shows with his affinity for the low-class garment denim jeans, which have lost favor in an era of highly developed fibers and deep space travel. I was amused by Ms. Vinge's workplaces, staffed with secretaries and clerks as they always have been, filing and answering calls while also using equipment that we can scarcely imagine. After finishing Catspaw the first time, I ached to find a threedy, don its net, and surf it just as Cat would have done...

Too often the world that a sci-fi writer creates is so drastically changed or alien that it is impossible to relate to, but Catspaw makes you feel like you'd really caught a glimpse into the future and seen how life would really be. Cat describes the places and organizations he encounters just enough that sooner or later you can make a mental archeological jump between its name and his description to figure out which presentday familiar place or organization lies deep at the heart of its past. Many place name (N'Yuk), organization names, and object names ("threedy" for three-dimensional "television") have evolved, but in such a way that the reader doesn't need a glossary, their evolution makes etymological sense, and their use is as natural as the English we speak today.

Most importantly, Ms. Vinge displays a rare understanding of both individual and group psychology/behavior, and of their interplay and composition. Too often I am frustrated by authors whose work is limited to interesting individuals in unrealistic societies or the larger movements and problems of societies whose individuals are hard to relate to, but Ms. Vinge's characters and societies have real depth. She has the ability to portray individuals, family groups, corporate groups, political groups, the media and the objects of their attention, friends and the friendless, strangers, gangs, loners, and all everyday people with the mixture of immediacy, objectivity, compassion and understanding that really gets a reader involved, and in none of the books of hers that I've read so far (five so far) does she do that as well as in Catspaw. On top of that, her prose flows so easily and naturally that the reader is involved before she or he turns the first page. I'll be reading Catspaw again within the year, I'm sure, and possibly Psion and Dreamfall as well; I only wish there were more books about Cat's adventures for me to explore.

Lyle

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I read Catspaw and instantly was amazed. When Cat was taken to Earth it was thrilling. The reader can feel absolutly everything.

Rating:
Summary: Even the translation...
Review: I read Catspaw in french (Cat le psion) a while ago for a class, bought it off of my teacher pretending to have lost the thing because I loved it so much. I've since read it many times, even though I normally dislike reading in french, because the storyline just sucks me in. I also found Psion (same title, but obviously translated by someone else because Julie is Jule and Cat is Chat, whereas in Catspaw they have the english names) in french... but I can't find either of them in english. I can't buy them off of ebay, amazon, etc because I have no credit card, but if anybody has a used copy they are willing to let me pay for with mailed cash, please email me at [e-mail]... thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Very Amazing..
Review: I read this book first in 7th grade (which is probably to young!) But I love it. It was so amazing, so real and lifelike. Honestly the best book I've ever read. Makes me wish Cat was a real person; cause I would fall in love with those eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Breath Taking
Review: I this is absolutly my favorite book. For months my sister bugged me to read it, then I finaly did and now I can't get enough of "Cat". I havent read the first book yet because I read "Dreamfall" right after and I just finished it, but I can't wait. You will just fall in luv with the characters. Cat is soo amazing and I wish there were more books 'bout him. This book is definatly worth reading. Get ready to take your emotions on a roller coaster!

Rating:
Summary: Catspaw
Review: I thought this was the most accurately thought out science fiction novel I had ever read. It showed the dark side of the future that so many other novels tend to 'cure' with out losing the beauty of the charactors. This was the first novel I had read in this trilogy and it stands alone as it should.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating character study; a fun read.
Review: I was leery when my fiance shoved Catspaw under my nose and insisted I read it; the cover art and the back-cover description made it sound exceptionally cheesy.

Time for me to eat crow: it was a really good book. Taken from a literary standpoint, Catspaw is a fascinating look at our own world, and our own self-imposed limitations. Taken as sci-fi, it's refreshingly original in its presentation of common sci-fi/cyberpunk themes. Moreover, it's just a fun, quick read. If you're looking for some modern sci-fi that's not just popcorn, this is your book.

Rating:
Summary: What a page turner!
Review: I'm a new fan of Vinge, but now i'm hooked. after reading only one of her books i'm stuck - addicted even. Catspaw is a fascinating adventure with surprizes everywhere.
the premise is simple, a young man is recruited by the powerful security agency of an extremely wealthy family to protect one of its members from being killed. the young man, known only as Catis specificall chosen because he is part alien and this part gives him telepathic abilities. as Cat arrives at his destination to protect this VIP his world begins to change, and it will never be the same.
this book is fascinating, cvaptivating, and if you read it you'll never get any work done.
the entire alien blood series(Psion, Catspaw, Dreamfall) by vinge is amazing in its capacity to entangle you in a strange world that you feel you can completely relate to. i've read all three and i;m dying for a fourth to come out!

Rating:
Summary: What a page turner!
Review: I'm a new fan of Vinge, but now i'm hooked. after reading only one of her books i'm stuck - addicted even. Catspaw is a fascinating adventure with surprizes everywhere.
the premise is simple, a young man is recruited by the powerful security agency of an extremely wealthy family to protect one of its members from being killed. the young man, known only as Catis specificall chosen because he is part alien and this part gives him telepathic abilities. as Cat arrives at his destination to protect this VIP his world begins to change, and it will never be the same.
this book is fascinating, cvaptivating, and if you read it you'll never get any work done.
the entire alien blood series(Psion, Catspaw, Dreamfall) by vinge is amazing in its capacity to entangle you in a strange world that you feel you can completely relate to. i've read all three and i;m dying for a fourth to come out!