Catacombs

Tales of the Barque Cats #2

by Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

In Catalyst, award-winning authors Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough introduced readers to the beguiling Barque spacefaring felines who serve aboard starships as full-fledged members of the crew. Highly evolved, the cats share an almost telepathic bond with their minders, or Cat Persons—until, suddenly, there is no “almost” about it, and a particular Barque Cat, Chester, learns to exchange thoughts with his human friend, Jubal. Other cats soon gain the same ability. 

Behind the seeming miracle is a mysterious cat named Pshaw-Ra, who possesses knowledge and technology far beyond anything the Barque Cats—or their humans—have ever seen. When fear of a virulent plague leads the government first to quarantine and then to kill all animals suspected of infection, Pshaw-Ra—with the help of Chester, Jubal, and the crew of the starship Ranzo —activates a “mousehole” in space that carries the refugees to a place of Pshaw-Ra’s home planet of Mau, where godlike cats are worshiped by human slaves. 

But Pshaw-Ra’s actions are less noble than they appear. The scheming cat plans to mate the Barque Cats with his own feline stock, creating a hybrid race of superior cats—a race destined to conquer the universe. Yet right from the start, his plans go awry.

For one thing, there’s a new queen on Pshaw-Ra’s daughter Nefure, a spoiled brat—er, cat—with a temper as short as her attention span. Pshaw-Ra’s other daughter, the rightful queen Renpet, is exiled, running for her life in the only direction available to her—down into the vast catacombs beneath the Mauan desert. Far from receiving the hero’s welcome he expected, Pshaw-Ra must use every bit of his considerable cleverness just to survive.

Meanwhile, as usual, Chester and Jubal stumble right into the middle of things, in the process uncovering the lost secrets of the Mauan civilization. But that’s not all they uncover. In the forgotten catacombs deep below the Mauan capital, something has awakened. Something as old as the universe. Something that hungers to devour all light and life—and that bears an undying hatred for cats.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Cats, Fiction, Animals, Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult

236 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, Weyr Search, 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, Dragonrider, 1969). Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.
In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first one.

EDIT: I enjoyed it more the third time around; hence, the higher score.

[Sarah B · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want smart and intelligent warrior cats, this is it! And these cats, some just being kittens, have to save the galaxy! How is that for excitement? Throw in a very mysterious vizier with magical abilities and a planet full of stuff straight out of ancient Egypt...and you have an exciting action packed story.

I had fun reading this and even more surprising was the fact this story was so good I was able to read it and keep my mind on it after I had a very distressing day. And as you probably know it can be very hard to read on those days as your mind tends to wander a lot. Still this story about the Barque Cats kept me reading.

This one was different than the original. No longer was it about the threat of a disease but about how to get the cats back out into the galaxy. And a lot of it took place on a desert planet that was full of Egyptian stuff. I admit I felt unsure about the intentions of the cats on this planet: were they allies or foes? And there were other creepy stuff lurking in dark spots too. Lots of old underground tunnels, pyramids, mummies, etc. Plus another huge threat too...and it's rather hungry with glowing eyes!

Of course anyone who loves the mental pairing of humans with dragons that the author is famous for gets that in here too: cats and humans. It seems that without our feline friends we are very lost. There's lots of it in here, including the main pair of Chester and his boy Jubal. This mainly is an adventure story and a very good one too. Fast moving.

And cats really do want to rule the galaxy.

[Jenni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this is not the most intellectual comment, but it's the most honest way of stating how I feel. This book was 'eh' ... normally I am swept away in McCaffrey's books and can't put them down, but this book just never really engaged me.

[William Bentrim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Catacombs: A Tale of the Barque Cats by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough

This is apparently a story that is part of a larger series. The protagonists are all cats with some sidebar humans. This story returns the Barque Cats to their normal environment.

This book needs more back story. I felt like I had started on page 150 and had no way to get caught up. The story really never caught my interest and I am truly fond of anthropomorphism.

The cats see humans as some what dull servants which actually seem pretty much the way my cats always treated me. I found that aspect quite believable. I was disappointed overall as I could never get into the book. Sad to say I found it shallow and I have many books by McCaffrey and Scarborough. I am sure I have never characterized a book by either as shallow.

Die hard cat lovers will and probably should read the book but for the rest of the world, it may not be their cup of catnip.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing space cat story. Not too bad. Definitely not my favorite though.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

Very enjoyable read. Fun to follow the plot lines before being finally exposed to the master plan. I won’t look at my cats the same again.

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad I was able to pick this up from my local electronic library, both the Kindle and the audio versions. I'm also glad I was able to purchase and read the first book in this series. It made this book easier to understand to know what happened before. But I think it might've been understandable to read it without the first book and still get it. Oh, how I miss Anne McCaffrey!

My favorite parts were the polydactyl cats who are proven to be the earliest space explorers landing in Egypt helping with the engineering of the pyramids, etc. With so many fingers and toes, and trained to use them in the ways humans use their fingers they were able to do far more than humans could.

This is my kind of space travel sci-fi getting to know other planets at the creatures. Getting to know the process of being in outer space for long periods of time. Done the way only Anne McCaffrey could.

If you get the chance please read these two books they may seem silly on the surface but they are deeper than they seem.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up the prior book thinking that it would based on the Barque Cats of Anne McCaffrey's Talent series, but found that it was wildly different in it's backstory alone, to say nothing of there being no Talents (other than an organically induced telepathy between some cats and some humans).

I continued the series to see if there ended up being a tie in somehow. Perhaps a multi-universe shift or something. But no, this series still has NOTHING to do with the origins of Barque Cats in the Talent series. There is absolutely nothing that these books have in common with those books except the name "Barque Cat." Do not read these thinking you will get any glimpse whatsoever of Talents, the Rowan family, or anything else connected to those series.

Apart from those complaints about tie ins, the book was barely passable. The characters are basically caricatures, time jumps forward erratically (in one chapter, kittens become cats while one human is hiding away from the surface pilfering fuel from grave sites), and people just sit around and accept things that are ridiculous.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just had to read this one as it was the sequel to Catalyst. It's quite uneven going from desperate situation to a cat's nonchalance, but I guess that's the point. Chester and his human Jabal return to his parents and ships. But the evil Apep or snake follows them out and the kittens that they have brought with them have to save the day when the snake (or millions of mini snakes that the big snake has transformed into) surrounds a sun causing all kinds of havoc for the solar system (not ours). Not much is made of Pshaw Ra the vizar cat from Mau and how he was going to save the day -- as if that was his plan along -- why did he go back to Mau. I might have missed it. Anyway it's fun to have cats telepathically linked to humans and to have it all happening in outer space. Fun read, but sometimes I just didn't get it.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I finished this book, so there's that. While not horrible, it wasn't good either. I felt like it was written for children, not adults in the way that it was written and the simplistic stories and characters. The writing was juvenile and simple, not at all like a sci-fi book written for adults or even for young adults. The characters and plot were all over the place, lots of introducing random characters to never see them again. I can't recommend this book for adults of any kind, it definitely felt like a book written for children. 2 out of 5 stars.

[Krista Walsh-Guy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was nice to return to the universe of Damia and the Rowan, even if these events happened a long time before them. However, I found that the books were just ok. I wasn't invested in the characters, they didn't draw me in. And the back story of Mau just wasn't interesting enough to capture my imagination. An ok read, but not to the level of the Tower and the Hive books.

[Squeaky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first one, then I read this one. An OK story. The writing seemed uneven. I think I'll go back and re-read some of McCaffrey's early stuff. I remember The Ship Who Sang made me cry back in the 60s.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt a bit disjointed, definitely not Anne at her best; though nice for a diversion read.

[Wise Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again I feel compelled to write a review, even though I rarely write them now. I really wanted to like this book and was sure it'd be better than the first, or I hoped it would be. For some reason, I thought this duology would be like Battlestar Galactica, but with anthropomorphized cats---no humans.

To start, it's very poorly written and doesn't seem as if it's for adults. It's not even catalogued by the library as YA. I don't want to say it's like YA, because I love the genre and have read many books in it that were written REALLY well. It's just written badly. There's a lack of continuity and it kept changing direction as to what the plot is supposed to be.

There's too many humans in it, and all of them were two-dimensional characters that I didn't care about or decide if I like/dislike them. I just liked Jubal and his cat Chester, as well as Chessie.

I kept getting Chester and Chessie mixed up at first, along with two captains the rest of the book. Too many characters, too many ships I kept getting mixed up, ships landing inside other ships, too many planets, too many spacecraft terms I couldn't visualize, even the feline characters were many---with it hard to keep up with all of them. Since they were anthropomorphized, there could have been character development on them as well.

Docking bay, pyramid ship, etc., what was the difference between all of them? And what's a mousehole? A black hole?

There's some hard to read stuff about cats being sold, hurt, or just looked down upon because they are not "royalty". One of the protagonists, Janina, turned out to be in her early 20's but she acted like she was no older than 16 or 17. I figured if her cat was in her life 10 years, more than half her life, she'd be about 16..with 8 years being half her life. Sometimes she was like a 14 year old.

Some names were too similar, such as Pshaw-Ra and Ra-Harahkty. And Mau and Mau-Maat. It was hard at times to tell if a character was human or a cat, since there's dialogue between both the cats among themselves and between some humans and their cats.

Giving it 2 stars because I like the connection between Jubal and Chester. It took me almost 4 weeks to read about 235 pages. It was a chore to finish, but I did because I wanted to see if it redeemed itself. It ends as if there's a sequel, but this is just a duology. Maybe I would have enjoyed it better if I read about the origins of the Barque cats first, which it seems I was "supposed" to. I like cats and sci-fi, so hope to read a better books with cats in outer space someday.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

"In Catalyst award-winning authors Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough introduced readers to the beguiling Barque Cats: spacefaring felines who serve aboard starships as full-fledged member of the crew. Highly evolved, the cats share an almost telepathic bond with their minders, or Cat Persons -- until Suddenly, there is no 'almost' about it, and a particular Barque Cat, Chester, learns to exchange thoughts with his human friend, Jubal. Other cats soon gain the same ability.

"Behind the seeming miracle is a mysterious cat named Pshaw-Ra, who possesses knowledge and technology far beyond anything the Barque Cats -- or their humans -- have ever seen. When fear of a virulent plague leads the government first to quarantine and then kill all animals suspected of infection, Pshaw-Ra -- with the help of Chester, Jubal, and the crew of the starship Ranzo -- activates a 'mousehole' in space that carries the refugees to a place of safety: Pshaw-Ra's home planet of Mau, where godlike cats are worshiped by humans.

"But Pshaw-Ra's actions are less noble than they appear. The scheming cat plans to mate Barque Cats with his own feline stock, creating a hybrid race of superior cats -- a race destined to conquer the universe. Yet right from the start his plans go awry.

"For one thing, there's a new queen on Mau: Pshaw-Ra's daughter Nefune, a spoiled brat -- er, cat -- with a temper as short as her attention span. Pshaw-Ra's other daughter, the rightful queen Renpet, is exiled, running for her life in the only direction available to her -- down into the vast catacombs beneath the Mauan desert. Far from receivi9ng the hero's welcome he expected, Pshaw-Ra must use every bit of his considerable cleverness just to survive.

"Meanwhile, as usual, Chester and Jubal stumble right into the middle of things, in the process uncovering the lost secrets of the Mauan civilization. But that's not all they uncover. In the forgotten catacombs deep below the Mauan capital, something has awakened. Something as old as the universe. Something that hungers to devour all light and life -- and that bears an undying hatred for cats."

I didn't enjoy this book at all. It was disjointed, too complex -- it was hard to follow the plot. I'm sure there will be a sequel, but I won't be reading it.

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This second, and final, book of the Barque Cats, tells how Pshaw-Ra trains all the new kittens, born from the breeding of the Barque Cats that he had lured to Mau, and the feline stock, mostly of his own progeny, that had survived on that planet.

His plans for Universal domination was well in hand but, when a whole solar system is threatened by a strange alien type of snake, that was covering the sun as it soaked up the power being given out, Pshaw-Ra calls to his feline friends. - and sometime enemies - to show humanity just how much they needed their furry friends.

This was a good ending to the story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a cat lover myself, I was envious of all that furry cuteness 😻

[Rachel Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book continues on with the same characters as the first book. The first half to 3/4 of the book has a good story and plot.... Then things get weird. The plot on this one is a little thin but the characters are still enjoyable and I liked most of the new ones introduced. but as I said it got really weird. It is also plagued with the same continuity errors that the first book suffered from. It would have been better if the two books where put together and cut off the end part of this book. The last section was well.... odd. If you liked the first one give it a try, but for me this one didn't hit the mark as much as the first one. They also really needed a copy editor to go through the books before publishing.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A continuation of Catalyst, human boy Jubal, and cat Chester have a bond where they can communicate via their minds. They (and other cats) are brought to planet Mau by Pshaw-Ra, who is royalty on that planet. Pshaw-Ra has plans to rule the universe. Little does everyone know, but Pshaw-Ra is planning to find a way to use all these cats to his advantage.

It was ok. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book. I’m not a big fan of the space-stuff, but I enjoyed the cats themselves when the focus was on them and their behaviours and their links to their humans.

[Vickey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was vaguely ashamed of myself while reading the first book because it was so incredibly stupid, and this book is worse. Nothing really happens, and at one point the author chooses to state that someone who had been banished is "persona non CATta." Ugh. It is short, so I got to 80% but gave up in disgust. I think the people who are 5-starring these have a particularly aggressive form of toxoplasmosis.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catalyst was just okay. The sequel is no improvement. There are major gaps in logic, even for a person that reads scads of SF and fantasy.
The Barque Cats aren't thrilled living on a world where cats are worshipped, because it is intensely hot and the cats have very long fur. The current queen also considers the Barque cats' extra appendages ugly. Plus there is this gigantic reptile sliding around underground.

[Ann Minton · Rating 1 out of 5]

A long cat nap

I have read books by Anne McCaffrey that I really enjoyed. This is not one of them.I found it boring and hard to follow. The plot seemed to jump around and I would have to force myself to reread sections in order to try to understand the characters and plot. Eventually I gave up there is so many good books to enjoy and I refuse to wast my time on this one. I'm sure there are many who enjoyed this book but I'm not one.

[Katherynne Boham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read. I wasn't sure how I would enjoy a story where psychic cats also piloted tiny spaceships but I did. It's truly lighthearted escapism.
The collaborations between Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough are such that the next books in the series pick up where the last left off. As I haven't read the 1st in this series, I was a bit confused as to what was happening. The book quickly brought me up to speed though and I enjoyed what is a silky but well-written story.

[Penny lurkykitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cats-in-space fun continues in Catacombs the Barque cats sequel to Catalyst. Definitely read Catalyst first if you want to full comprehend and enjoy Catacombs. The cats and their humans fend off an evil snake being called Apep. There are lots of kittens, Egyptian mythology and adventures. The audiobook is great for long trips and the story and characters will appeal to younger listeners.

[Mike. Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book of great reading

As always I find myself thinking I should slow down and make it last longer but cannot do so,her characters are so alive and personal they are like old friends. I recommend starting with the White Dragon and Pern saga and read the Tower series as a dessert.The Barque Cats are the wine to go with dinner.God how I miss the Dragon Lady.

[Linda George · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second installment of the Tales of the Barque Cats follows the cats as they escape the government groups attempting to isolate and test the cats suspected of causing an epidemic among the local animals. An alien cat leads them to his planet where cats are the rulers and humans are their caretakers. However there is a plot afoot by the wily alien cat who wants to dominate the universe.

[Janell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anne McCaffrey has always been one of my favorite authors, so it's disappointing to find one of her books (or at least collaborations) that I just couldn't get into. Everything and every character seemed really flat, the relationships that showed promise in Catalyst went nowhere, and I considered not even finishing the book.

[Tricia Fraser · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a LOT of Anne McCaffrey's books.... all the Pern books, the Acorna series, the Crystal Singer series, etc. Out of all of them, I think I enjoyed this one the least. Maybe it would have been better if the middle portion had been shortened considerably. I don't know. The first book of this series, Catalyst, was enjoyable though, and I wish I had just stopped there.

[A.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat lovers and fans of Andre Norton will enjoy this YA-suitable "cozy space opera" tale involving cats and their humans, with hints of an alien influence (shades of THE ZERO STONE, my favorite Andre Norton title from the 1970s). Light reading for the cat lover. Second in series - read CATALYST first.

[Myra · Rating 2 out of 5]

2019 Popsugar - A book by two female authors

I could maybe go as high as 2.5 stars, but I just didn't feel the connection to this one that I did to the first in the series. This one felt like it was scattered, although maybe I just waited to long after reading the first one to read this.

[charles p. foley sr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rest

Great book Me McCaffery is my all time favorite author. I'm glad her haunted has been picked up. Even so the style is not the same. Her personality is greatly missed by her followers.