Catspaw

Rating:
Summary: An exciting read, a real eye opener
Review: This was the first real science fiction book I read and I loved it! It really turned me on to the world of science fiction. Since Cat's Paw, I've read both Pison and Dreamfall and after that, only have one question. WHY DOES EVERYONE EXCEPT CAT GET WHAT THEY WANT!!! I mean, in Dreamfall, Cat's soulmate gets to keep on working with Joby. The hydran's are treated better and Cat gets SHIPED OFF WORLD leaving his soulmate BEHIND and all because he HELPED PEOPLE in a slightly illegal way. In Cat's Paw, he literally gets beat up so that a vote will go the other way and then they say, "Good bye!" and ship him off to the University. And in the first book, Pison, Cat loses his telepathy (why didn't the other two lose theirs???). I keep on waiting for Joan to give it back but she keeps side-stepping the issue. Any ways, I just wanted to know (you all notice that gave the book a 10, don't you?). I still highly recomind that people who LOVE science fiction should read this book. Bye!

Rating:
Summary: strong galaxy building futuristic tale
Review: Though an orphan street punk, Cat used his psionic abilities to save the galaxy from a peer (see PSION), but his reputation formed that has traveled light years to earth. When someone tries to kill Lady taMing, head of the wealthy and powerful family that runs Centaur Transport, her supporters abduct Cat to provide psionic protection to her.

His kidnappers drug Cat, so that the half-breed cannot use psychic powers against them, but provide an antidote so that he can protect Assembly member Lady taMing. However, while doing his new job keeping his client safe, Cat uncovers secrets about powerful individuals including taMing family members who will kill him to keep their skeletons in the closet.

CATSPAW is a powerful science fiction that describes an astonishing New York City in a few centuries. The well-designed plot provides a complex multiple helix of a political and social futurology that will stun readers on its realistic but different outlook. However, in building her lush realm, Joan D. Vinge pays a price as the massive particulars that serve as the theme's center with its future's profundity also keeping the story line from attaining light speed. Still, this sequel will please the author's fans and anyone who relishes galaxy building as a key ingredient of a novel set several hundred years into the future.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Simply wonderful
Review: Well developed characters with depth and personality, engrossing storyline and complex, changing relationships. Couldn't put it down.

The plot involves a corporate-run future where one corporate family's intrigues draws the telepathic, street-tough, future punkish, main character into a career he doesn't want with an offer he can't refuse.

Rating:
Summary: I can't say enough good things about _Catspaw_!
Review: What can I say? Catspaw is a masterpiece! Everyone can relate to Vinge's hero, Cat--a streetwise, smart-mouthed punk who really only wants to live his life on his own terms, and finds himself, time and again, the "cat's-paw" of greedy, powerful corporate states, in Vinge's frighteningly probable future world. _Catspaw_ is fast-paced, funny, and intelligent, one of the earliest examples of the cyberpunk vision. But Vinge's world and her vision are uniquely her own, and Cat is one unforgettable guy. He's your best friend, your lover--yourself. They say that for a work to be a success, the author has to really make you CARE about the characters--Joan Vinge does all that and more. This is one of my all-time favorite books.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this...
Review: Whoah! I've read this book three or four times already! I love it so much. and Cat is just a great character you can just fall in love with him. I really hope others read this book too. i still haven't read the 1st or 3rd books to this series but i feel like i understand them perfectly. but i still really wish to read them. I've never liked a book quite this much.

Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: You are taken on a ride perched on Cat's shoulders to become an inseparable part of his life. You become pulled into his problems and want to help him find the answers to all his dilemmas!

Rating:
Summary: Haunting, beautiful, perfect...You Must Read This Book
Review: You Must Read This Book.

Joan Vinge's *Catspaw* is one of the best novels I've ever read, sci-fi or otherwise. I've read it four times, and each time I cry, get dizzy, get nauseous, nearly choke with anger and fear, fall in love, hurt all over, rejoice, and at the end cry again. Cat is surely one of the most complete and sympathetic characters in all literature. He's part of my world view now. Joan Vinge's beautiful, wounded child-man changed my life. I know that sounds melodramatic, but it's the truth.

This series is frightening in the unflinching reality of its characters and their world. Vinge looks dead on at all the worst things in humanity's collective soul, and you can't turn away. She'll show you the worst in yourself, and the best, and prove to you that Good really can triumph over Evil -- if enough of us care, if enough of us dare to open our mouths and SPEAK.

*Psion* and *Dreamfall* are also required reading for thinking people, but I, like so many, came in to the middle of Cat's story, and I would recommend that approach. I'm not sure I could've handled *Psion* if I hadn't known that Cat would survive the mines. And I must warn you that *Dreamfall* is even more painful than *Catspaw*, but also contains scenes of incredible joy and magic.

I don't understand why *Catspaw* hasn't been made into a movie, unless it's Vinge's resolute refusal, or the nearly impossible task of casting Cat. Anybody got any ideas there? I surely don't. I can't think of an actor that beautiful. But if any sci-fi book has the potential to be made into a movie that wins any of the big Academy Awards, this is it.

Dear Joan, please don't leave Cat alone. You've got to get him back with his nashirta, for his sake and for mine, too. Thank you for sharing Cat with us. We're all better for it.