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The Book of Night with Moon
(Feline Wizards #1)
by
Rhiow seems a perfectly ordinary New York City cat. Or so her humans think -- but she is much more than she appears. With her partners Saash and Urruah, she collaborates with human wizards to protect the earth from dark forces and maintain the network of magical gateways that connect to different realities. But amid this amazing secret animal world lies a danger that threa
...more
Mass Market Paperback, 464 pages
Published
March 1999
by Warner Books Inc
(first published 1997)
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Start your review of The Book of Night with Moon (Cats of Grand Central, #1)

Jul 28, 2011
Gwen
added it
I love Duane's "Young Wizards", but had only heard of this companion book once. But regardless, knowing how successful Duane is in writing I had to snag this book when I saw it for sale at a used book store. Seriously, $3.50 is a steal. The entire cat culture described in this book is phenomenal; so detailed and yet also not entirely fiction. Yes, this is a fantasy novel, but everything is so plausible. If cat wizards did exist, they would behave exactly like this. And the word crafting! Duane h
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This is a difficult one to rate, because on the one hand there's uneven pacing, randomly dropped plot threads (view spoiler) , and enough technobabble to fill a season of sci-fi TV.
And then on the other hand there are feline wizards, who are the best representation of what's going on inside a cat's head I've ever met in fiction and who I just want to ...more
And then on the other hand there are feline wizards, who are the best representation of what's going on inside a cat's head I've ever met in fiction and who I just want to ...more

I read l'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time at a similar time that I read Duane's So You Want to Be a Wizard, and they kinda blurred together in my memory. Having now watched the new movie last night, and read this book today, I begin to see why. Both books/series have a very similar focus: on the necessity of responding to hatred and fear with love, with mercy, with refusing to be ground down by despair, not because it is easy, but because it is the only thing that keeps life worth living. And both book
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Being owned by cats, it's always a reassuring pleasure to know that you aren't alone in this feline-run world. Diane Duane writes about felines from such an informed perspective - the book is told from the lead feline's POV - it's clear that she loves cats and is loved by cats in her home life. Only a cat "owner" would know to say, "Y'know the tuna wasn't all that bad" in a feline's attempt at an apology and be able to wring tears from her audience. Being read to via Audible was also a pleasure
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Anyone who has cats will love this book. It is obvious the author has lived with and observed cats for a long time. She captures their attitude and social structure while weaving a story of magic and myth that is captivating. Even the small nuances of cat behavior become a part of their language. Her technical descriptions of the cats work add depth the story and I love how her characters interact with each other and with other species. I also found her references to mythology to be a refreshing
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I realise that this makes me very late to the table, but I hadn't read this book until just a few days ago. I enjoyed the Young Wizards books when I was a teenager, but somehow never ran into this one - though I had heard of it.
A friend heard about this grievous error and gave us a second-hand copy for Christmas, which was excellent.
I thought it was very cool. A tale of wizards, who happen to be cats, saving the world from the forces of entropy.
I think The Book of Night With Moon is aimed at mor ...more
A friend heard about this grievous error and gave us a second-hand copy for Christmas, which was excellent.
I thought it was very cool. A tale of wizards, who happen to be cats, saving the world from the forces of entropy.
I think The Book of Night With Moon is aimed at mor ...more

This book has been standing on my shelf for 8 years before I got around to reading it...! I love the idea of the book - cats as wizards, working together with human wizards, trying to save humankind, from heat disaster but more urgently from about a billion dinosaurs trying to enter this world and eat us all! My favourite part in the book is when Pavarotti gets eaten by a dinosaur - how many other book does that happen in???
I liked the whole parallel universe ideas, where wizards are able to tra ...more
I liked the whole parallel universe ideas, where wizards are able to tra ...more

Throughout the Young Wizards books we hear about cat wizards. They are the only ones with the correct sort of vision to work the world gates at Grand Central Station. They have their own culture and their own ideas about wizardry and humanity. Obviously a book about that culture is enticing, but in execution, I found it hard to immerse myself in the story. Too much of this book is about explaining that culture. Words are repeated in the cat language. Puns in the cat language are explained after
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This is an amusing book, but it also has more depth to it than you'd expect from a book about cat wizards. It discusses silly things like how cats can seem to appear out of thin air, but also more serious things like entropy and choice and why even fights that seem hopeless are worth fighting.
That is actually what I like the most about this whole greater world... the Young Wizards series as well as the Feline Wizards series. It is a set of fun stories that tell deeper truths; YA novels that cont ...more
That is actually what I like the most about this whole greater world... the Young Wizards series as well as the Feline Wizards series. It is a set of fun stories that tell deeper truths; YA novels that cont ...more

May 03, 2011
Valerie
added it
I've never been the sort to believe that any vertebrate acts on 'instinct'. Frankly, I've had doubts about quite a few INvertebrates, as well. The characters of the cats in this book are well developed; subtle and complex.
I liked the scenes in the NYPL, which don't get mentioned much in reviews. I also liked the descriptions of cat politics/games. I liked the descriptions of the worldgates, which are often rather sketchily defined in other books in this series. And, since I hate opera, I have to ...more
I liked the scenes in the NYPL, which don't get mentioned much in reviews. I also liked the descriptions of cat politics/games. I liked the descriptions of the worldgates, which are often rather sketchily defined in other books in this series. And, since I hate opera, I have to ...more

I had forgotten how affecting this series can be! The long chapters made this one kind of a slog. I liked the cats' view of New York and its inhabitants. The dinosaurs were an unexpected bonus!
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just re-read this after finding it in B's room...amazing what books rotate into his room and off the main bookshelves...I was looking for a Terry Pratchett book and that is always a good place to find them. After reading this book again I recognize how I miss having cats in the house - yes, this book is better if you have lived with cats. And you'll never look at them the same way again. Not my favorite Diane Duane, but still a good read - and a continuation of the Young Wizards trilogy although
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This was...a lot of book. Really, so much book. The same extremely devout religious themes appear in this book as in the "So You Want to Be a Wizard" series I read growing up; but at a grander scale, because this was nearly 400 pages of culty superscience cats fighting dinosaurs, delivered completely sincerely. And also the dinosaurs are in a cult, too, and some of them are...magic clones?...and some of those are wizards, and cats are wizards, and people are pets, and it's weird. And weirdest of
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Cat wizards! Physics magic! Traversing NYC on invisible stairs high above the streets! Hidden populations of dinosaurs, gates to other worlds, epic battles between ancient powers... Wonderful premise and world-building; from now on I'm utterly convinced that many cats, with their inexplicable behaviors, are secretly wizards.
The book unfortunately had trouble keeping momentum at any point. About 60% of the way through it got exciting and then the climax was heart-stopping wonderful, but there wer ...more
The book unfortunately had trouble keeping momentum at any point. About 60% of the way through it got exciting and then the climax was heart-stopping wonderful, but there wer ...more

If you thought DD didn't pull her punches for YA, this will definitely be a bit of a shock. The worldbuilding is exquisite, and Rhiow is a great introduction to cat wizardry. (And the puns.)
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This book is the SHIT. I don't even LIKE cats and this book is, still, the SHIT.
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This was an interesting addition to the universe of my beloved childhood read So You Want to Be a Wizard. This time, the wizards in question are cats, which draws me to the book all the more, being the cat fanatic I am.
I thought that the cat culture was fairly well-designed in the book, and I could tell the author had done her research. It's true that, linguistically, cats only really meow when they're trying to communicate with humans and that they usually speak in body language and softer tri ...more
I thought that the cat culture was fairly well-designed in the book, and I could tell the author had done her research. It's true that, linguistically, cats only really meow when they're trying to communicate with humans and that they usually speak in body language and softer tri ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

To her humans, Rhiow is like any other cat. But to the world of wizards, she has an important role keeping the world gates in Grand Central Station running. Her and her partners get dropped a new kitten to take care of/guide through his ordeal in the midst of crisis after crisis with the gates. Can they solve the problems and keep their new kitten - and themselves - from losing another life?
First of all, if you haven't read the Young Wizards series, you have to. If you like YA sci fi/fantasy ...more
First of all, if you haven't read the Young Wizards series, you have to. If you like YA sci fi/fantasy ...more

Oh my. I am way out of my league here in this fantasy realm of cat wizards who rule the human world, well, the universe actually. Unseen and unacknowledged by any but a handful of human wizards they calmly go about the business of keeping the universe afloat and fighting evil. Grand Central Station in NYC and an inside out city in the Downside beneath it is the main setting for this one. Quantum Mechanics, magic, entropy, catenary gate matrices, millions of cannibalistic dinosaurs, and some fant
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Every species in the universes has its wizards. Human, alien, cetaceans... felines.
Rhiow is a wizard. She and her team, Saash and Urruah, help keep the worldgates (magical portals) in Grand Central station in New York City in working order. They work alongside human wizards to keep things humming along.
But something has started to interfere with the gates... something, or someone. Rhiow and her team, joined by Arhu, a youngster on Ordeal, must go Downside in order to get at the root of the probl ...more
Rhiow is a wizard. She and her team, Saash and Urruah, help keep the worldgates (magical portals) in Grand Central station in New York City in working order. They work alongside human wizards to keep things humming along.
But something has started to interfere with the gates... something, or someone. Rhiow and her team, joined by Arhu, a youngster on Ordeal, must go Downside in order to get at the root of the probl ...more

Another re-read. This is related to the Young Wizards series, but concerns the cats who maintain the world gates at Grand Central Station. When a major problem arises, the team of four must go "downside" to where the root of the gates is located. However, that area is filled with dinosaurs who are inimical to all other life - the Lone Power again, of course. The human wizards from the Young Wizards series make brief appearances, but the main characters are the four cats - three of whom have been
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Not bad, but not my favorite of Duane's works.
This book follows Duane's typical style, and it ties in well with the rest of her Young Wizards world. The downside is that there is a lot of the cat's language (mostly vowels), which can make it really hard to get through. Trying to remember the differences between auuh (stray), auw (energy), houff (dog), and Rhiow (the main character) is enough to give any ehhif a headache. It was enough that I actually put this book aside for a couple of weeks to ...more
This book follows Duane's typical style, and it ties in well with the rest of her Young Wizards world. The downside is that there is a lot of the cat's language (mostly vowels), which can make it really hard to get through. Trying to remember the differences between auuh (stray), auw (energy), houff (dog), and Rhiow (the main character) is enough to give any ehhif a headache. It was enough that I actually put this book aside for a couple of weeks to ...more

This book was so weird and I don't regret reading it at all, but parts of it were a slog and other parts were amazing. It is super uneven.
It goes full-on Watership Down with its own world of cat culture and language. And then adds magic on top of that. And dinosaurs. And cat mythology??
There is just so much going on with this book. There are things that I thought were foreshadowing, that are never brought up again. There is a lot of cat culture explained just for the heck of it. There are star ...more
It goes full-on Watership Down with its own world of cat culture and language. And then adds magic on top of that. And dinosaurs. And cat mythology??
There is just so much going on with this book. There are things that I thought were foreshadowing, that are never brought up again. There is a lot of cat culture explained just for the heck of it. There are star ...more

Sep 23, 2018
Monique
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
women-authors,
urban-fantasy
This book, while set in the Young Wizards universe, and using the same principles, mythological structure, and type of magic generally, though all adapted for cat use... manages to come off entirely differently in execution and tone. I mean this in the fondest and most excellent of ways, because following different characters of a different species even, it should feel different. Duane manages to ground it in familiarity, while also introducing a wide swath of variation that makes this book feel
...more

Memorable and unexpected. Way deeper than one might expect from the main characters being cats. Literally Epic. And the language involved in the mythology and related devotions *feels* right. Be warned, this is not a quick read - if you are a skimmer-for-plot like I am, you will need to slow down and pay attention, like with Pratchett.

I enjoyed this intricate story about a team of cat wizards. Sometimes I felt that some details of the magic were beyond my comprehension but I appreciated the complexity of the magic in this world. Diane Duane does a great job of writing the feline wizards and I look forward to reading more of their adventures.
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Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than forty years.
Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and an ...more
Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and an ...more
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Feline Wizards
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