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Outworld Cats
When two extraterrestrial felines are stranded aboard a space station, they are captured and brought to Earth, where they use their skill as telepaths to stop an industrial mogul from taking over the planet. Original.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 2, 2017
[This review features some minor spoilers. A warning in case some weirdo is looking to read this book strictly for the plot.]
Overall, what this book really needs is more cats. That is what the title promised and then didn't deliver on. 2 out of 5 stars.
First off, for being a book called Outworld Cats, this book does not focus on the cats nearly as much as it could, instead focusing on a myriad of characters like Tim Waverly, a bodybuilder with little defining qualities except that his mom bullies him, Verna Malmrose, a woman who was captured and tortured by the EVIL CORP™, and is a mostly competent character until the end of the book when she turns into a clutz to add some dramatic tension by tripping occasionally, Professor Tedworth Vey, a specialist in the occult who also just happens to have all of the right connections to figure out what is going on, and Rhoda Dawn, a little white girl, who was raised by Native Americans and has psychic powers, so it totes cool that she just runs around in buckskin fringe the whole book.
Why I am listing all of these characters? Mainly because I am mad they aren't cats. It is established early on that the cats are intelligent enough to be POV characters, by making them POV characters, and then never returning to that POV again for the rest of the book, and instead focusing on all of the other characters in the book. And to make matters worst, this author writes the corniest dialogue coming out of the mouths of every character, except for the cats, who despite being highly intelligent cats, can't speak English.
The villain of the story is the B.I.T.E. corporation and its leader Benton Ingles, who, despite being the mastermind of the plot of the book and being a super evil international corporation (who presumably became so large and influential through competency), are surprisingly incompetent at combating the protagonists.
One last thing, I think this book is trying hard not to be sexist, by having female characters who do things. However, the fact that all of the female characters have to mention some critique of the their physical body, is really bothersome. Verna Malmrose escapes from the medical center of the B.I.T.E. corporation, where they were torturing her, one of her first thoughts is "Wow, my tummy is looking a little doughy." And then later on in the book, despite having been described previously as a bodybuilder, she has to get back in shape using aerobics videos that Tim got for, despite the fact that she is surrounded by male bodybuilders who brought their own weightlifting equipment on the journey to fight the evil corporation. Because women can't lift weights. If they pick up a weight, bam! they instantly become roided out men. And we can't have that for our love interest. So unsexy and unbecoming.
Overall, what this book really needs is more cats. That is what the title promised and then didn't deliver on. 2 out of 5 stars.
June 4, 2016
This book disappointed me. It wasn't particularly easy to find, though I did manage to grab a copy from eBay for pretty cheap, considering it's out of print and even Amazon didn't have any when I was looking for it. I love cats, so any books about cats get my attention. Thing is, this book isn't really about the cats...
The story involves a couple of body builders, an occultist, a psychic child, some washed up old actress, and some of the most stereotypical villains you'll ever meet. Granted, when you look at your cast, it's kind of unique, but when you get down to their personalities, they're about as stale as two week old bread.
There's little to no character development. There's an acceptable amount of world building, but at the same time, because the book has aged very poorly and most of the tech references and such are horribly obsolete, that ends up falling flat, too. I mean, for goodness sake, they're playing Nintendo! The original 8-bit system. And they watch videos on a VCR. I'm more than old enough to remember these things fondly, but at the same time, it's a little disappointing to be reading a sci-fi with such absolutely dated material in it.
As I mentioned, the cats don't show up much. They're more of a plot device that is used here and there than they are any truly essential part of the story. You wouldn't think so by the cover or even really by the description on the back of the book.
The book is okay, I guess, and it goes by pretty fast, so it's decent if you just want to read something you won't feel like you should take seriously. And believe me, you shouldn't! If nothing else, this is an interesting little oddity for my book collection, so I'm not sorry I purchased and read it.
The story involves a couple of body builders, an occultist, a psychic child, some washed up old actress, and some of the most stereotypical villains you'll ever meet. Granted, when you look at your cast, it's kind of unique, but when you get down to their personalities, they're about as stale as two week old bread.
There's little to no character development. There's an acceptable amount of world building, but at the same time, because the book has aged very poorly and most of the tech references and such are horribly obsolete, that ends up falling flat, too. I mean, for goodness sake, they're playing Nintendo! The original 8-bit system. And they watch videos on a VCR. I'm more than old enough to remember these things fondly, but at the same time, it's a little disappointing to be reading a sci-fi with such absolutely dated material in it.
As I mentioned, the cats don't show up much. They're more of a plot device that is used here and there than they are any truly essential part of the story. You wouldn't think so by the cover or even really by the description on the back of the book.
The book is okay, I guess, and it goes by pretty fast, so it's decent if you just want to read something you won't feel like you should take seriously. And believe me, you shouldn't! If nothing else, this is an interesting little oddity for my book collection, so I'm not sorry I purchased and read it.
April 21, 2013
Benton Ingles is a crazy, eccentric, egocentric, billionaire who wants to remake the world into his twisted ideal. The first step in his plan is to discredit NASA and the space program. He sends a team of his own into space to sabotage the UN communications satellite. When the satellite malfunctions NASA will be to blame. Ingles will lobby to privatize space travel and through that he will have sole control of communication satellites and therefore media. He can then spread or retain the news as he sees fit and slowly take over the world. Except while on the satellite his team finds two cats and brings them back to earth to be studied. Ingles is extremely paranoid about germs, diseases, and assassination plots and assumes the cats are being used as such. Actually the cats are aliens, genetically modified to serve the needs of their Masters living in space traveling vehicles. These two cats are accidentally abandoned when they are found. Possessing more intelligence than most people, superior dexterity, telepathic powers, and natural curiosity, the cats quickly escape the bad guys and make friends with a bodybuilder who is a student at the local college and working as a security guard in Ingles company. Add in a female bodybuilder who was captured and almost lobotomized for her meddling, and occult professor, a whole pack of bodybuilder environments (the bodybuilder things really is a strong point for the author), and a former silent movie star gone senile, you get some wacky fun. All in all this story is over done evil plot, contrived rescue plans, ridiculously dramatic scenarios, and overdone, one dimensional characters. But hey, alien cats!
May 31, 2015
Didn't finish. Couldn't bring myself to finish. Didn't even get very far. I mean, two super intelligent cats with telepathic powers from outer space. Yep. Captured by humans, only to escape with the help of bodybuilders. I'm not making this up. There's one review on Goodreads which is moderately interesting, but even then, they only gave it two stars. I don't know why I bought this book. I'm a moron.
April 12, 2020
The story starts where a race of intelligent telepathic cats, non-anthropomorphic but with human-like hands, have a team explore an Earthian satellite. Unexpectedly, however, a spaceship comes from Earth to this satellite, and the cats abandon it in a hurry-but two are left behind. A crew of some sort of villains come and sabotage the satellite-and when the villains return to Earth, the stranded cats jump in and ride along with them, escaping afterward and finding a home among some college students.
The story focuses mostly on a corporation run by a maniacal businessman whose underlings are mostly stupid brutes, yet somehow they are poised to take over the world (I guess) by the corporation launching its own satellite. The alien cats have only a crude understanding of what is going on, and they only appear and act in the story intermittently, almost randomly. The human heroes, two college students allied with a motley crew of people such as a half-senile former actress, an Indian shaman, and other types, do what they can to stop this plot.
Unfortunately, the characters range from dull to cartoonish, and what might have been intriguing ends up being random and silly instead. Maybe if it were played for laughs at least, it might have had some entertainment value. But the story isn't even humorous. Not recommended.
The story focuses mostly on a corporation run by a maniacal businessman whose underlings are mostly stupid brutes, yet somehow they are poised to take over the world (I guess) by the corporation launching its own satellite. The alien cats have only a crude understanding of what is going on, and they only appear and act in the story intermittently, almost randomly. The human heroes, two college students allied with a motley crew of people such as a half-senile former actress, an Indian shaman, and other types, do what they can to stop this plot.
Unfortunately, the characters range from dull to cartoonish, and what might have been intriguing ends up being random and silly instead. Maybe if it were played for laughs at least, it might have had some entertainment value. But the story isn't even humorous. Not recommended.
October 26, 2019
The concept is great and what I could glean about the two
cat characters from their point of view was interesting.
It was just a little, okay a lot, hard to follow.
From the first dialogue with the humans who are
sabotaging the space station, I felt that I was missing
CRITICAL NEED TO KNOW NARRATION.
I checked, this isn't a sequel.
Maybe I'm wrong, the idea and plot that thought might
eventually start developing was solid.
That being said, I would not be against this being translated
into a movie, probably animated.
Hugely superior idea to the land of remakes we have going on now.
cat characters from their point of view was interesting.
It was just a little, okay a lot, hard to follow.
From the first dialogue with the humans who are
sabotaging the space station, I felt that I was missing
CRITICAL NEED TO KNOW NARRATION.
I checked, this isn't a sequel.
Maybe I'm wrong, the idea and plot that thought might
eventually start developing was solid.
That being said, I would not be against this being translated
into a movie, probably animated.
Hugely superior idea to the land of remakes we have going on now.
February 10, 2019
Interesting concept. This is definitely apart of a larger store. Though the writing style reminds me of a radio show. Over stated.
September 21, 2015
This is not a serious book in any way shape or form. But it is an amusing romp with memorable characters like the aging fans of a silver screen idol. Then there are the cats.
January 22, 2016
Alien cats (extraterrestrial felines) end up on earth and save the planet. It was a hoot and a half!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews