CAT AUTUMN, Now Finally Available
A mysterious portal.
A race of techno-medical felines.
An alien war fought with felid robo-soldiers.
Only Niva and her three psychic shelter kittens can save the multiverse from annihilation.
It’s been a long time coming. Over twenty years, to be precise. But it’s finally here, the third book in the Cat Seasons Tetralogy, Cat Autumn. There will be one more, Cat Spring, eventually, which will complete the Four Seasons.
From the back cover:
In the wild coastal forest lies a mysterious portal.
Neither Niva nor her three psychic rescue cats have seen the like. Though Niva and kits Axtel and Flaxrud tremble in fear, shy Sandstrom is mesmerized by the phenomenon. When Sandstrom leaps in and disappears, Niva has no choice but to save him.
The portal leads to another universe where a race of techno-medical felines is fighting a bloody land war. Sandstrom, swayed by propaganda, is eager to join their alien army, but soon he learns he has a higher duty. When Niva is captured and sent to a gruesome surgical ward, Sandstrom must be the one to do the saving.
Aided by a sympathetic alien and a powerful shadow-panther, Sandstrom sets out to rescue Niva, but there is more at stake than he knows. Niva’s presence in the alternate universe has tipped a precarious balance. One wrong move could mean annihilation for all.
Niva didn’t recognize the small clearing, well-hidden behind a glossy macrame of huckleberry leaves. Even in the red cast of her new vision, it was marvelous. The floor, carpeted with thick moss and lichen, resembled a Gulliver’s landscape, tiny mushrooms with hair stems and caps like gnomes’ hats pushing up through the plush. The center of the clearing dipped down toward what seemed to be a shallow pool. Niva couldn’t be sure, however—when she tried to look closer, her gaze averted of its own accord, and she would find herself staring up at the pines or out at the near-bare alders.
“Can you see it?” asked Flaxrud.
“I can see the clearing, but the thing in the middle… I can’t make it out. What is it?”
“They call it a mirror well,” he replied, softly ominous. It was Niva’s turn to wonder who they were, but she didn’t ask.
Axtel pressed close. “We were hoping you could tell us.”
Niva squinted again at the illusive vortex, this time finding her gaze shifted to the black clouds directly above. As a drop of water hit her eyelid, she realized it had started to rain.
“Why can’t I focus on it?” she cursed in frustration.
“Keep trying,” Axtel bade her. “You have to believe.”
Niva wasn’t sure what the little cat meant by ‘believe,’ but she tried again. This time, her vision held a few moments longer.
The enigma began to brighten.
“What’s happening…?” Niva began, watching the eerie light unfurl like a lotus flower.
No one answered, nor had she expected them to.
The mirror well shimmered, iridescent silver like mercury, and like mercury, it seemed to have a life of its own. Pulsing and expanding, its luminosity was becoming greater than the organic eye could endure. Even so, Niva could not look away.
Murky shapes writhed within the circle of light, great serpent shadows that rose and died inside the throbbing radiance. Then one of the shapes broke free of its lucent bondage, emerging with the violence of a hard birth. It squirmed upon the wet ground, the nebulous form changing into something understandable, something Niva recognized even before it had solidified: a cat.
This was no new-born kitten, however. This was a full grown beast. With a shiver of fear, Niva placed it. Like the ones who had accosted her in her garden, this one was big. She knew as it opened its eyes that they would be fluorescent orange.
The orange glare turned as if seeking.
The stare stopped. The huge orbs focused.
Niva watched the black pupils telescope into hunting mode. Their stare, alive with malice, was trained directly on her.
Other shapes were laboring from out of the mirror well, their amorphous forms solidifying, their orange eyes opening. Niva held her breath, but the felids cast their gaze in different directions. Maybe she was not a target after all.
With a low moan that sounded at once vicious and sickly, they began to rise. Flexing powerful muscles, working lethal sets of claws, stretching magnificent jaws wide, they readied themselves. Then, one by one, they moved out. Single file, nose to tail, they made off through the woods toward who-knows-where. Niva didn’t care as long as it was away.
Four books. Cats save the world. Each book contains a fresh cast of characters facing new challenges. A deadly evil, a vengeful space anomaly, an enemy from an alternate universe, and a plague that doesn’t just kill—it annihilates!
Be glad the cats are on our side.
You can purchase Cat Autumn at this link, or check the whole series at this link. Books need not be read in order.
