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Tailchaser's Song

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 4,815 ratings · 252 reviews

Fifteen years ago, a young author surprised and enchanted readers with his first novel—the story of Fritti Tailchaser, a courageous tom cat in a world of whiskery heroes and villains, of feline gods and strange, furless creatures called M'an. The book was Tailchaser's Song, the author was Tad Williams. The legend was born.

Mass Market Paperback, 378 pages

Published December 2000 by DAW Books Inc. (first published 1985)

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Jan 25, 2012 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen-faves, my-brains-junk-food, meowch-bad-kitty, favorites

i am a book thief.

this is not to say that i steal books from bookstores or libraries (although i considered performing a superheist at the morgan to get all their byron books with his notes in the margins)

but when i was twelve, i borrowed this book from someone. and i never gave it back. shocking, right?? even more shocking is that i do not regret it. "my" copy is fat, with sprouted, swollen pages soft to the touch, and has been read at least twenty times. the copies they sell nowadays have some...more

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May 05, 2012 Mariel rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: pussies (no pun intended)

Recommended to Mariel by: architects are better than engineers. Fact!

There is a scene in a (I could be wrong) little known film from the early '90s called Sweet Nothing. Michael Imperioli (you probably know him from The Sopranos) is addicted to the drugs he's peddling. You know, dealing drugs on the side of his little league Wall Street job wasn't as fun and easy as it first seemed. His not really his friend boss (played by Paul Calderon) looks at him with abject disgust and proclaims: "You crackhead motherfucker." It's not that good of a film but I always liked...more There is a scene in a (I could be wrong) little known film from the early '90s called Sweet Nothing. Michael Imperioli (you probably know him from The Sopranos) is addicted to the drugs he's peddling. You know, dealing drugs on the side of his little league Wall Street job wasn't as fun and easy as it first seemed. His not really his friend boss (played by Paul Calderon) looks at him with abject disgust and proclaims: "You crackhead motherfucker." It's not that good of a film but I always liked the way that Calderon says that line at the precise moment when Imperioli couldn't lie anymore about being anything else. There's also a good speech from Imperioli's character about chasing that first time high. He uses an analogy about cherry snow cones. Nothing before or since had ever tasted so cold and sweet but he keeps eating them anyway. Okay, Tailchaser's Song isn't Watership Down! You crackhead motherfucker. What was I thinking? I was thinking about Watership Down. I... can't help it! The times I read Watership Down were some of the happiest of my entire life. What else am I going to do?

I started reading Tailchaser's Song months ago. I stalled a bit, er a lot, because it seemed to be written in that 1980s overwritten fantasy style. You know the one when you keep reading them anyway and they force you to eat all kinds of snacks that are bad for you while you are reading them and then you put on too much weight? You know the ones. Please don't pretend you don't. We've come too far to turn back now! Take my hand. I won't leave without you! I've got your letter to Snowball and Fritz and they'll grow up proud of their papa. We're going to make it and then we're going to set up a nice little place and tend the rabbits.

Tailchaser's Song is better than the other pathetic attempts on my part to recreate Watership Down. No, I mean the pathetic attempt on part of the authors. I didn't do anything wrong. I was just innocently trying to read a water(ship)ed down version of the best book in the known universe. No one tries to rape anyone either like in Watership Down with Birds and Watership Down with Wolves, at least (those were some creepy as fuck scenes. I wasn't hungry at all). There's really nothing wrong with it. It's your typical quest story. There's a nice moral of the story about that feeling I always got when reading or watching quest stories. You know when they go home and they have to leave the amazing friends they made behind? And why does the damned story have to end and they can't keep any of those super cool friends? What was the point of going through all of that to just go home? Why can't the good stuff last forever and ever? Fritti has that at the end and I loved that he doesn't want to give that good stuff up. That was pretty right on on Tad Williams's part. But? The steady stream of animals they meet and episodic jams didn't make ME want to never go home. I didn't give much of a dump about the cat royalty either. It was nice enough but I didn't ever live in that world. I wanted to live in it! I wanted beep Watership Down.

I did like how Fritti mourns for his lost kittenhood from time to time. He was pretty cute. I mean, I totally respect him as his own cat and I'm not a M'an. I'm a little pissed that his girlfriend was another dumb female in one of these stories. Why do they always do that? Even my precious Watership Down didn't represent the ladies too well. We like adventures too!

My heart is hollow like a chocolate bunny now. Tailchaser (the cats have three names just like in Russian novels) gets to keep his friends. What about me? What do I get? I don't even want to eat these dang cheese sandwiches. No, you eat them. I'm too depressed. I have learned my lesson once and for all. NO MORE WATERSHIP DOWN READALIKES.

Okay, but this one could be good! This one might really be just like Watership Down... I'm not a total loser!(less)

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Sep 11, 2008 Juushika rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: status-borrowed, genre-fantasy

Fritti Tailchaser is a young ginger tomcat in a world where cats have their own language, culture, and mythology. When his friend and prospective mate Hushpad goes missing, Tailchaser sets out on a quest to discover what distant evil threatens the lives of the Folk. Tailchaser's Song is a generic fantasy questing novel with larger-than-life gods and a feline wrapping--but, unfortunately, Williams knows nothing about cats. Gross inaccuracies and general misconceptions strip away the feline aspect...more Fritti Tailchaser is a young ginger tomcat in a world where cats have their own language, culture, and mythology. When his friend and prospective mate Hushpad goes missing, Tailchaser sets out on a quest to discover what distant evil threatens the lives of the Folk. Tailchaser's Song is a generic fantasy questing novel with larger-than-life gods and a feline wrapping--but, unfortunately, Williams knows nothing about cats. Gross inaccuracies and general misconceptions strip away the feline aspect and so destroy this book's only unique aspect. I do not recommend it.

In plot, pacing, and writing style, Tailchaser's Song is unexceptional but not that bad. Williams knows how to write a novel, if not a very good one, and the book follows many common fantasy tropes. Tailchaser is an unassuming small "town" youth who leaves on an ill-advised quest which leads him to a big city, to an enemy city, and up against a scheming powerful antagonist so that good may triumph against evil. Bits of interspersed mythology create a powerful setting, yet this mythology still seem out of place when it enters the plot. Williams paces his book well, and Tailchaser's journey feels realistically long while maintaining interesting variety. Best of all, the book doesn't end as soon as evil is vanquished, identifying Tailchaser is a character in his own right and not just a tool of the story. All in all, the book is aptly- but not well-written: readable, passably skillful, but not memorable.

However, what sets this book apart is also what condemns it. Tailchaser is a cat, and his journey leads him through cat cities and against cat gods. But for all this focus on cats, Williams knows little about them. They speak a "high" language which is almost entirely spoken--but domestic cats don't vocalize among each other. Williams believes that kittens are born without fur, that cats prefer forests, that they live in teeming cities, that they can overdose on catnip. Cats also hunt mice and clean themselves and heckle dogs, but on the whole what Williams gets right are generalities and nothing more. Worse, he sets feral cats as the ideal--a dangerous and false lesson to the reader. Real cats are not the indigenous master species presented in Tailchaser's Song, nor do they hate humans for neutering, nor are housecats somehow inferior. Whatever personal secret it is that cats keep in their own silent, heavy-eyed company, despising M'an, building huge cat cities in forests, and originating from powerful old cat-gods is not it.

The premise of this book probably appeals most to cat fans--but the book itself will be most disappointing to cat fans. On the whole, the book is neither very good nor very bad. Capably written but not particularly skillful, it's a fairly average fantasy novel. The cat characters, on the other hand, could be quite exceptional--but this is not a book in the lines of Watership Down or even the Redwall series. In fact, there are barely any cats here--merely predictable human characters wrapped in cursory fur. With nothing else to endorse the book, I don't recommend Tailchaser's Song. While it is not outright bad, it is disappointing.

(As the writing isn't incredibly awful, I can't be quite so virulently negative about this book as I might like to be while still maintaining some sense of a fair assessment. However: I hated it. I hated it a lot--because if you're so captured by the magic of your first pet cat you should at least pretend to know something of that magic before you write a book about it. Cats don't have gender identities and aren't meant to be feral and, for the love of all that which is good, they do not meow at each other. A basic encyclopedia article offers more truth about the mystical depths of cat nature than there are in the 400 pages of this book. I really, really hated it.)(less)

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Jan 02, 2012 Monica! rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: one-dog-woof, hark-a-questing-beast, ten-year-old-me-says-squee, the-sparkles-mean-its-magic, the-nothingness-shows-through, read-in-2012

Friends, I am a fan of cats. Not necessarily a fan of their shedding, or of the terrible poufy eyes they give me, but I do love them like I love sunshine and Coke-flavored slushies. Hell, I used to have a friend who thought she was a cat! So you’ll have to trust me when I tell you this is the most phenomenal feline-related book ever written, topping even the oh-so-epic Algonquin Cat.

It’s very Watership Down, except cats are cooler than rabbits. (Sorry Fiver! You know you’re still my favorite cra...more Friends, I am a fan of cats. Not necessarily a fan of their shedding, or of the terrible poufy eyes they give me, but I do love them like I love sunshine and Coke-flavored slushies. Hell, I used to have a friend who thought she was a cat! So you’ll have to trust me when I tell you this is the most phenomenal feline-related book ever written, topping even the oh-so-epic Algonquin Cat.

It’s very Watership Down, except cats are cooler than rabbits. (Sorry Fiver! You know you’re still my favorite crazy psychic bunny!) It’s very Stardust, except Tailchaser is more badass than Tristran. And it’s very slightly Riddle-Master of Hed, or maybe Last Unicorn, except Fritti doesn’t have mirrors around him very often (because he’s a cat) so he tends to forget that he has a mystical star on his forehead.

There are Intricate Stories of Feline Mythology, and Elaborate Underground Lairs, and Soulless Beasts Crying in Agony. There’s true love, and true love that turns out not to be true love, and best bro love, and soldiers whose love is forged in the heat of battle… love, and also squirrel love.

Expect lots of running around, and endless descriptions of bleeding and battered paws, and what I believe the Amazon summary called “a unique cast of characters.” As an added bonus, Tailchaser doesn’t realize he’s hot shit, but everyone else sees how awesome he really is, so sometimes that means they think he’s shiny, and sometimes that means they want to kill him, and clearly this means the overall narrative is Fraught with Action and Danger.

Fact: I am fangirling all over this book. I can’t help it. I loved it when I was ten, and I loved it upon reread. (If anything, it was better—Williams’ introduction to the anniversary edition actually made me cry, damn him.) It’s hard to not adore a book that basically tells you, “Follow your heart, keep going even when life is beating you down, expect that change will come, roll with the punches, don’t be afraid to shift your priorities, when in doubt head for the light, don't be prejudiced about making new friends, and remember to laze around in the sun every once in a while,” but says all this with kitties.

Yes, kitteh, teach me your wisdoms!(less)

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Dec 03, 2008 Zero Restrictions Alfonso rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dont-mess-with-the-kitty-mofo

I’m trying to find a way to say how much I loved this book and look manly at the same thing… but fuck it! there is no way in hell I can pull that one off! Well maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger can… so with that in mind do me a favor and while you read this review imagine Schwarzenegger is the one reading it… please? Remember my manly reputation is in stake here!!!!

Omg is so cute!!! It got it all:
Cute cats [X]
More cute cats [X]
Cat fights [X]
Evil cats [X]
Crazy cats [X]
Some kick ass cat fight scenes [X]...more

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Aug 18, 2007 amelia cavendish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: cat lovers

Shelves: for-children, fantasy, fiction, books-2007

I read this book years ago and loved it to bits, so when I saw it in a bookshop recently I just had to buy it. Now it is always very different reading a book years on, especially when you have such high expectations, but overall this didn't disappoint.

This book is essentially about cats, or the folk, as they like to call themselves and one kitten in particular, Fritti Tailchaser, who goes on a desperate quest to discover what has happened to his beloved Hushpad, who has disappeared along with m...more

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Mar 25, 2008 maricar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-adventure, fiction-for-youngsters

Growing up surrounded by cats of every size, color, and temperament, it was definitely interesting to read Williams' take on the ways these creatures live. Like any who'd care to notice, Williams was quite right in saying that while dogs are boundlessly eager to please, cats display a languorous disdain towards their keepers. I remember remarking once that they treat our home more like a motel--they stop by when it's time to be fed, putter around for a short nap, and then set out again without s...more

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Jan 13, 2009 Firekeeper rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: animals, fantasy

"Tailchaser's Song" has an interesting story, and the author did a good job of giving the animals different cultures. But I felt nothing for the characters. You meet Hushpad once, and she becomes Tailchaser's best friend somehow. Suddenly she's gone and you're obviously supposed to feel pathos for her, but I couldn't. Taiilchaser himself didn't have much of a personaliity either. The only characters with personality were the squirrels (who have a cool way of talking), Eatbugs (for whom I lost my...more

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Apr 18, 2010 Eh?Eh! rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: goodreader-gave-to-me, babble-added, weep

Another long ago read that I can't quite remember. I did own it but lent it out and never saw it again. I have mental images of a cat with red claws, evil cats with chilling graveyard breath, and a climactic showdown involved a Jabba-the-Hut-sized evil cat god. I think I cried, too, but I can't remember why or for what...need to read this again.

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Mar 07, 2013 ciel phantomhive rated it 5 of 5 stars

Before I read this book, I didn't know who Tad Williams was, or what this book would be like. Because I'm pretty sure all of you know how it feels when you need something to read over the summer, and this was it. Would I recomend this novel? Yes, i would. Because, if you are any kind of reader -whether you're into adventure(which it has), a book that'll make you think(this book does that too, trust me), a sad book that'll make you tear up(this too), or just a plain o' book about kitties- you got...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Phaedra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: re-read, nook, 2013

I am a crazy cat lady. It's true. So you know I'm going to love this book to itty bitty pieces. And I do. Mostly. I read it when it first came out and it was like my itty bitty feline loving heart was over the moon. Brave cats, smart cats, questing cats, mysterious cats, mythic cats! But even as a youngster I felt there were parts that were stilted, but for the most part getting to read about the secret lives of cats trumped that. I still feel that way. I'm sure nostalgia colors my view but I do...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Luke Baldock rated it 2 of 5 stars

I hate it when this happens. I pick up a book and it takes me over a month to complete it. This was just so boring, dull, and needlessly complex, that I dreaded having to pick it up. I was scared maybe the problem was with me, but just hours after finishing it I was a quarter of the way through another book. Tailchaser's Song is a story of a wildcat that goes in search of his missing childhood friend, only to uncover a nasty secret. The first part of the book is just a blur to me. I just couldn'...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Ruthie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked up "Tailchaser's Song" after reading Tad Williams "Otherland" series and being very impressed with the depth of writing, complexity, and imagination in those books. "Tailchaser's Song," while still being a great book, has a very different feel to it. Part of the difference is probably simply that this is the first book that he wrote, and every author evolves over time. Another huge difference is that, while his "Otherland" books are set in an extremely complex world, "Tailchaser's Song"...more I picked up "Tailchaser's Song" after reading Tad Williams "Otherland" series and being very impressed with the depth of writing, complexity, and imagination in those books. "Tailchaser's Song," while still being a great book, has a very different feel to it. Part of the difference is probably simply that this is the first book that he wrote, and every author evolves over time. Another huge difference is that, while his "Otherland" books are set in an extremely complex world, "Tailchaser's Song" is much simpler and takes a more direct route through it's story, which makes it a bit easier to read as well.

"Tailchaser's Song" is about a cat, Fritti Tailchaser, and his journey to find the cat that he loves. Cats, in this book at least, have a complex society with it's own language, conventions, mythology, and gods. To the cats we were originally just deformed versions of cats that served them, and eventually formed our own societyand became more independent, thinking the cats exist to serve us, which is obviously isn't the case to anyone who's ever owned a cat.

When Tailchaser's friend Hushpad disappear's there is M'an (man) stink everywhere, and he assumes something bad has happened to her because many other cats have been mysteriously disappearing. A counsel is sent to the Firsthome to try and get to the bottom of disappearances, but rightly concerned that they don't really care about Hushpad in particular, Tailchaser set's out on his own to find out what's going on.

Well he try's to set off on his own, he quickly realizes that Pouncequick, a kitten, is following him. It's too late to send Pouncequick home safely, so Tailchaser must search for Hushpad while keeping Pouncequick safe, and Tailchaser isn't that much older than a kitten himself. They meet up with a crazy cat named Eatbugs, and things just get weirder from there. In Firsthome, Tailchaser realizes that Hushpad isn't the only one in danger, that the very fabric of their society is threatened, and it's going to be up to him (with some help from friends old and new) to find a way to save everyone.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not a super-cat person (don't hate me, I'm allergic to them) but I do love animals in general, and it was a great animal story! I loved how complex the cat society was, and the journey Tailchaser went on kept me sucked in right until the very end.(less)

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May 06, 2011 Mykle added it

A lot of people -- several dozen of them, all excellent fine people -- are waiting for me to read their books. There's an unwieldily stack of these books, depressing in its height, even now crouching on a shelf behind me like some kind of mess-monster, mocking me and making me feel bad. I intend to read every one of these books. I promised I would. Slowly, I am reading them all.

How slowly? Well, in 1985 I received a hardback of Tailchaser's Song from Tad Williams himself. I finally got around t...more A lot of people -- several dozen of them, all excellent fine people -- are waiting for me to read their books. There's an unwieldily stack of these books, depressing in its height, even now crouching on a shelf behind me like some kind of mess-monster, mocking me and making me feel bad. I intend to read every one of these books. I promised I would. Slowly, I am reading them all.

How slowly? Well, in 1985 I received a hardback of Tailchaser's Song from Tad Williams himself. I finally got around to reading it last week. It's pretty good. But that's twenty-six years. In my defense I can say I don't think Tad was waiting to hear back from me; he didn't need a blurb or promotional assistance or my approval or anything. If you are one of those people waiting for me to get back to you with any of that stuff, I can confidently promise you that I will take less than twenty-six years to do so.

I remember Tailchaser's Song as an instant success that launched Tad's writing career. I was a friend of Tad's family; his brother and I used to sub for him on his paper route, his main source of extra-literary income back when he needed any. It was really great to see him succeed. It was my first ever view of an author "making it," so it left a big impression. He not only quit his paper route, I think he even bought a new car! How pimp is that?

But I must confess I'm not really drawn to epic fantasy/adventure stuff, which is probably why I didn't read this in 1985. I've cracked the pages of maybe a half-dozen other ThingQuest-style books that gave me a lot of eye-rolling but no sustained interest. Perhaps it's just my cynical ADHD nature: I find such fantasy epics ask a larger amount of belief-suspension than I can muster. But I'm thinking about writing a novel about cats, so it seemed like a good time to read one, just as a learning experience.

I found it humbling. This kind of fantasy novel requires a serious dedication to world-building, mythos-building, language-invention and landscape design before you can even write the first paragraph. And even after you get started you still have to constantly invent new characters and describe new places with each new chapter. I'm very impressed by such stuff -- it's exactly the kind of writing I'm bad at, and Tad pulled it off very smoothly in this, his very first book, when he was much younger than I am now.

He's also got an impressive sense of cats, which deflects the Catsploitation charges one could easily level at this book. Cat lovers are a vapidly exploited market, but if you were going to read any fantasy adventure story about magical cat quests, you probably could't do much better than this.(less)

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Feb 26, 2013 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, novels

The last time I read this was about 30 years ago, I do remember at the time that I had absolutely loved this book but didn't remember anything about the book itself. So, out of a nostalgic feeling, I decided to re-purchase it, I'd lost my original somewhere along the line, probably lent it to someone and it never came back, stuff happens.
Have you ever gotten that impression where the memory of a thing is better than the thing itself? A kind of you can't go back home kinda feeling? Well, that's p...more

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Nov 12, 2011 Jeff Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fantasy adventure with cats could easily go terribly wrong in so many ways This one went right in so many ways.

I was already a fan of Tad Williams from reading the Shadowmarch Quadrilogy an epic fantasy adventure I rate as one of the best. When I read that Tailchaser's Song was going to be made into a movie I looked up the book to find that it was Tad William's first novel. Besides I always need to read the book before seeing the movie so I can gripe about the resulting screenplay.

The story it...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Thomas Bambust rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-literature, horror, fantasy

I remember getting my hands on Tailchaser's song right after finishing The Otherworld saga for the first time, like an addict desperate for another fix of Tad Williams, no matter how small or childish it may be.

After the verbosity-fueled, description-induced high that can only be achieved by reading a series with a combined thickness that'd make Tolkien blush, I knew I needed something. And I got something. Writhing, pulsing and taking hold in that little corner of your mind you don't have any...more

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Jan 01, 2009 Jaymi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007, ebooks

While camping last month, a friend and I got into a conversation about books that we read over and over and over again. Mine was Watership Down, affectionately known as "the bunny book". It's one of those rare stories that never grow old for me. Last week, she loaned me Tailchaser's Song. This book, is the cat's version of Watership Down. It's the tale of Fritti Tailchaser, who's lost his friend from kittenhood; disturbed by this loss, he sets out to find her. The book describes his tour of the...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Libby added it

I really liked reading this book and I liked Tailchaser and how he was on a quest to find his missing friend and her name was Hushpad. I really like her and she was my favorite cat in the bookThis book was very different for me to read but I really liked it because instead of the characters being people they were all cats. I liked Hushpad because she was a very friendly cat and she was also very loyal to her friends. She also had an excellent idea of what the future would hold for her. Huspad he...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Rich Rosell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't think that my general dislike of cats is what colored my overall non-appreciation of Tailchaser's Song. Sure, I was apprehensive at the start, but I had no trouble falling in with the universe created here. It is more likely the author's buildup to some "catastrophic" battle that eventually takes place largely off-screen that is my biggest problem. The animal-centric journey there wasn't all that awful - not great, mind you, - but pretty typical of the largely tired cliched fantasy/quest...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Nikki rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Oh, I loved this. I've been wanting to read Tailchaser's Song for a long time, while not being quite sure whether I'd really like it. I tend to like Tad Williams' work, though if he layered on the worldbuilding and description any thicker in some of his work, you could eat it. Fortunately, he didn't do too much of that here: you're left to play catch-up a bit, at times, which I honestly prefer.

The cats are sweet, but they're also not just sweet. They felt like cats. They fight and they yowl and...more

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Dec 22, 2010 Sirr rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone, especially cat lovers.

One of my all-time favorites; I was so happy to find his other books are superb. All rate 4+ and come with my highest recommendations if you like fantasy.

Tailchaser's Song, however, is not fantasy per se. It is a wonderful story that all cat lovers must read. You will enjoy it tremendously and perhaps adventure into his other works. I always wished there was a follow up to Tailchaser's Song, so it was with great pleasure that I discovered his other works, and that they are often VOLUMES and THIC...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, fantasy, quest

Tailchaser's Song caught my eye on a friends list - I have read Tad Williams and decided to see how he made his start.
I'm glad I did. The protagonist is a young tom called Fritti, he meets and forms alliances with various species while on a quest to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of his friend Hushpad. The story follows a well-trod fantasy framework beyond the ultimate good vs evil battle to a point where Fritti recognises his quests end and his hearts desire are not the same things -...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, reviewed

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Oct 29, 2009 Christina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

It has been a while since I have read this book. . .probably 7 or more years. . .yet I still find myself comparing other books to it.

I believe some people are being overcritical of certain aspects of the book and are actually overlooking the fact that its supposed to be from a cat's point of view, not a human's. Not one of us can say that we know what cats think or know, so there's no point in getting upset with a book because it is speculating on such things. You will lose sight of the true me...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

So unusual!
Told in very similar vein to Richard Adams' "Watership Down", this book is about domesticated (and feral or partially feral) cats. There is some inventive cat-slang (and some squirrel-slang!), good character development, adventure, cat-mythology, and just a touch of that mythology coming to life. A very well created fantasy story, overall!
And not too long and drawn out, like Tad Williams' four book trilogy "The Dragonbone Chair".
One more point: Tad has a bit of a bad habit of naming...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Regina rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had forgotten to add this one to my list of read books until I saw a review of it listed on the site. I LOVED this book! I also read it when I was in high school and it was one of my first adventures with a "real" fantasy novel (i.e. one that was not strictly young adult). Unfortunately when I was growing up my family hated cats so I was forbidden from ever owning one (which explains why my whole adult life I have had at least one) so this book appealed to me for that reason as well. The forbi...more

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Jan 28, 2011 Tania rated it 5 of 5 stars

Okay, so I'm not sure why Juushika hated this book so much. Granted, I get it that the cats in the book might be somewhat fictionalized, but cats have basic traits shared with the cats in the book. Cats were once feral, and could always go back to being feral at any point. They certainly don't need humans to survive. I enjoyed the fictionalization of their society, and thought it brought a lot to the book. The plot is well-written, the book is interesting and absorbing, and the cats are fictiona...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Abigail rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommended-by-others, own, second-half-2009

This is a book I should have read years ago so that by now I would be re-reading it for the second or third time. I've run across recommendations for this book many times and it's kind of pathetic that it's taken me so long to acquire and read this book.

The only 'negative' comment on it was Lily's, who remarked that she liked it but that it was weird and probably not for everybody. ...I don't think she's aware that I grew up reading "Watership Down" and "Redwall."

Aside from all the fun cat char...more

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Apr 26, 2013 MsSherlocked rated it 3 of 5 stars

In short: a great way to while away an afternoon.

The problem with this book is that it is simultaneously too much like Watership Down and not enough like Watership Down.

Cats are going missing from the neighborhood, amongst them Fritti Tailchaser's beloved Hushpad. Fritti goes on a quest to find her, with tagalong Pouncequick and a mad old cat called Eatbugs.

They go to the cat kingdom, where there is a cat Queen and her Consort, and lots of talking and resting (you could think of it as the Lot...more In short: a great way to while away an afternoon.

The problem with this book is that it is simultaneously too much like Watership Down and not enough like Watership Down.

Cats are going missing from the neighborhood, amongst them Fritti Tailchaser's beloved Hushpad. Fritti goes on a quest to find her, with tagalong Pouncequick and a mad old cat called Eatbugs.

They go to the cat kingdom, where there is a cat Queen and her Consort, and lots of talking and resting (you could think of it as the Lothlorien phase of the book). Having picked up another companion in the form of Roofshadow, they journey on straight into some form of underground hell - the fallen prince of cats' lair, where his will is carried out by demon cats with blood-red claws.

There, many nasty things happen to Tailchaser and his companions, and there is a final confrontation which is rather poorly written (in short - the good God cat possesses one of Tailchaser's companions and battles the evil God cat). The final leg of the book, where Tailchaser finds Hushpad and realises that she has been tamed (and possibly spayed) by the humans was probably the most original, and was very moving.

This is a good story, but it was too similar to Watership Down to be a good cat story.

I know that feral cats sometimes congregate and live together in large groups, but the idea of a cat kingdom where duties are divided and some cats do the hunting and others stockpile food is too far removed from ordinary cat behavior to be believable.

Then there is the underground cat hell - again, too similar to Efrafa for readers to miss. Although it is understandable that a cat's worst nightmare would be to be stuffed underground and made to dig, it is nevertheless an unfortunate coincidence. It also makes it more difficult to believe that the cat Owsla are there willingly.

On the plus side, the cat mythology that is woven through the book is excellent - especially the part about the creation of Man. Kudos to the author, none of these tales seem similar to those of El-ahrairah.

There are some complaints in the reviews that the book is very anti-neutering/spaying. This does not seem like a very valid complaint - the main characters are cats. Do you really expect them to be grateful to humans for lopping off their reproductive organs? If any cat owner is so stupid as to read this book and use it as a basis to decide that they're not going to spay/neuter their cat, then they clearly are not ready to be taking care of themselves, much less another living being.

Despite the many, many problems outlined above, and the feeling that you'll get that this book could have been written better, it is still a very enjoyable read. Get it if you have cash to spare. (less)

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About Tad Williams

Tad Williams has held more jobs than any sane person should admit to—singing in a band, selling shoes, managing a financial institution, throwing newspapers, and designing military manuals, to name just a few. He also hosted a syndicated radio show for ten years, worked in theater and television production, taught both grade-school and college classes, and worked in multimedia for a major computer...more

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Books by Tad Williams

The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #1)

Stone of Farewell (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #2)

To Green Angel Tower (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3)

To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #3; Part 2)

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Quotes from Tailchaser's Song

“Tangaloor, fire-bright
Flame-foot, farthest walker
Your hunter speaks
In need he walks
In need, but never in fear.” — 2 people liked it

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