SciFi/ Fantasy novel about a girl who goes on a journey to discover herself, it has big cat-like beasts that can talk and she comes across a guy in a house that's on mechanical legs and it can move anywhere it likes.

[Tara]

So I remember very little details from this book except the above and that it's on a planet that's different to ours with no space travel, so it's kind of a SciFi/fantasy book.

If I recall correctly she comes across this "free" guy in the mechanical/walking house, runs away from him across some fields towards a mountain range and is chased by these cat-like beasts who she thinks is going to rip her apart and eat her because that's what she's always been told would happen to her in this particular place (almost like a badlands type area). Instead they turn out to be friendly and they can talk and they act as guides for her.

Everything she knew about her society, everything that she's been told, she discovers is a lie and she eventually decides to leave her society entirely and became a free woman of her own out in the wilds. I do know she doesn't decide to topple her society and fix it all or anything like that. I can't even remember why she sets out away from her home to begin with.

The cover of the book had her standing with her back to us the readers, with one of these cats beside her in a yellowish field looking up at a distant mountain range - it was in shades of yellows and purples.

I read it in the early 2000's, as an older teenager, but it's a much older book than that, I would say it dates back to the 70's or 80's easily, possibly the 90's. The person I borrowed it from had an extensive collection of SciFi authors so it was in amongst books from Heinlein, Terry Pratchett, Terry Goodkind, Anne McCaffrey and the like. To the best of my knowledge it was not by any of those authors, and it was a stand alone book not part of a series, but I could be wrong on that.

I have spent years searching through those authors and couldn't find this book. I've also tried google and the closet I seem to get is Howls Moving Castle, and while similar with the moving house, that's not the book I'm looking for. I'd appreciate any help thank you! If you need any more details that Ive missed I'm happy to provide further info if I can.

[Andy Phillips]

This is a total guess as I haven't read any of them, but Andre Norton wrote a lot of sci fi books featuring cats and could fit that timescale.

[Tara]

Andy Phillips wrote: "This is a total guess as I haven't read any of them, but Andre Norton wrote a lot of sci fi books featuring cats and could fit that timescale."

Thanks for that, I've just looked through all of Andre Norton's books but sadly none of them fit the storyline I'm looking for. I really appreciate the suggestion though!

[Florence]

With houses on legs it might be worth looking up retellings of babushka/baba yaga type stories

[Florence]

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... maybe something on this list?

[Tara]

Florence wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... maybe something on this list?"

Thank you, I'll take a look!

[Capn]

Any luck, Tara?

There's also:

Intelligent Cats: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

Talking Cats in Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

Magical & Mysterious Houses: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...

and

Big Cats: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

[Capn]

The more sci-fi/SFF end of things:

Animal Familiars: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

Best SF/F for Adults with Strong Female Main Characters: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

Awesome SF/F for Women: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Can you remember if there's any romance in the book (hetero. or other)? Is the society futuristic, medieval, or roughly equiv to ours in terms of technology (are the walking houses steampunkish, or meant to be advanced)?

Re: the cover: is the cat spotted or striped (if you can remember?), or a colour? And is it like old-school, fantasy-epic detailed? :)

[Capn]

...and did you rule out the Barque cats from Anne McCaffrey? Like Catacombs or Catalyst, The Rowan

[Becca]

I'm not sure if it would be counted as a space opera, but just in case, there's a Space Operas With Cats list.

[Capn]

is on Becca's recommended list. Are we getting any nearer, or is this way off base? :)

[Tara]

@Capn no none of those books. The cat-like beasts aren't the focus of the book at all, they're only in one or two chapters of the book.

It's not a modern society, technology isn't really a thing outside of the walking house, which if I remember correctly the main character is completely shocked it exists and to begin with is scared of it. But it's not like it's a Medieval society as well. Its not on par with ours, no cars, planes etc though. Hero's journey is all on foot.

The main part of the book is all about her journey and what she encounters along the way (the walking house, the man who owns it, the giant cat-like beasts) all of whom work to change her perspective on her society and allow her to grow as a person.

Her perspective of the cat-like beasts at first is fear because that's what she's been taught - if she goes in this area beasts will eat her. She thinks they're chasing her, and flees, but when they catch up to her, they don't eat her they just run alongside her. And when she stops running is when she realises they can communicate and then they talk and she comes to the realisation that she has been taught the wrong things about the beasts.

It's the same with the man with the walking house. She's been taught that only bandits live outside of the main society. But she comes to the realisation that he's just a person, like herself, not harmful just someone who lives free from societal rules and is happy. But at first she's scared of him. No explicit romance that I can recall, just a slow friendship developing helping to change her views.

I've been through as many Anne McCaffrey books as I can, and I'm pretty sure it's not one of hers. My friend had a lot of her works, but to the best of my knowledge he only had this one book by the author who wrote it (because if he had more books by the same author, I would've read them based on how good this book was). He was very into sci-fi and fantasy novels, and had lots by well known authors in those genres from the 80's and 90's.

As for the cover - the beasts themselves don't really have any details. It's more an outline of her standing there with her back showing, turned to a vast mountain range and two beasts standing at her side, also back towards us. Dusky purples for the mountain, a vast yellow field that they're standing right in the middle of. And they were small, like they were far away in the distance of the field looking towards the mountain range. Title at the top iirc correctly, printed over the pic of the mountains, author name down the bottom over the yellow field (I want to say it's wheat, or at least that's what it looked like in my mind - I just wish my mind would fill in the details of the book title and/or author name!!)

Hope that answers all the questions you asked! I

[Capn]

Yes, thanks! Great detail! :D

Unfortunately not my personal area of expertise, but I'm going to keep my eyes open - you have described it so well, someone who knows it will identify it immediately, I'm confident. :)

[Tara]

@Capn @Becca

I really appreciate the help you've given me! I'll keep searching and hopefully someone will recognise it eventually. Its seems to be a very obscure book. Even searching through covers on Google for fantasy novels with a woman on the cover from different decades isn't getting me any closer to narrowing it down lol. And of course who knows how many editions there are with different covers for it, so the cover I'm describing might not even be the original.

[Capn]

Do you remember if it was a male or female author? (I'm guessing not, since you ruled out both male and female authors already). But just in case there's a hunch. Got a feeling on the length of the author's name? Very short or long?

The more obscure, the sweeter it is when that poor, forgotten book gets dragged out into the light once more! :)

Recap: it's most likely not by:
Andre Norton
Ann McCaffrey
Heinlein Robert A.
Terry Pratchett
Terry Goodkind

and is NOT:
Howl’s Moving Castle

[Tara]

No, unfortunately I can't remember the length of the title or the author's name or gender.

I've checked all those authors, and then some, because I remember the bookcase having lots of books by Pratchett, McCaffrey, some Heinlein (I read Friday around the same time as this book) and Goodkind, Anne Rice - so definitely a book you'd find with those kind of authors, and along the same lines of sci-fi and fantasy, but clearly not as well known as those authors. Also confirmed with my mum who remembers all those authors on the bookshelf, and remembers this book but not the name or author either.

Definitely not Howls Moving Castle as that skews towards a younger audience and the person I borrowed it off was in his 40's and that would've been too simplistic for him, he didn't have anything like Ursula Let Guin, or C.S Lewis on the shelves as that all skewed too young for him as well. I saw the movie as my younger siblings were right in the age group for it when it released, and it's not the same.

Definitely not Mirror Mask either as that book was released after I would've read this book for the first time, I would've read 2001 at the earliest, Mirror Mask released in 2004.

I'll also add, the story is completely focused on the woman in the book, other characters are bought in to interact with her, but we don't see any of the story from their point of view - I remember that because as a teenage girl finding good books with a well written female protagonist that wasn't just a love interest for the main male character was incredibly rare outside of "mushy" romance at the time, even harder to find in sci-fi and fantasy at the time, which is why I think the story stuck with me. Most books tended to focus on the male characters as the leads, women were secondary.

[Capn]

Yeah, this book needs to be found!!! :) Needs to be added to the SF with Female Protags list.

Trackables, for the already ruled-out books and authors:
Anne Rice
Ursula Le Guin
C.S. Lewis
Friday - CONTEMPORARY
MirrorMask - PUBLISHED MUCH TOO RECENTLY

[Capn]

NOT it (I don't think), but it wasn't listed anywhere, and it gave me hope (I will add it to lists now!):


"Young Maia is fast approaching a turning point in her life. As a half-caste var, she must leave the clan home of her privileged half sisters and seek her fortune in the world. With her twin sister, Leie, she searches the docks of Port Sanger for an apprenticeship aboard the vessels that sail the trade routes of the Stratoin oceans.

On her far-reaching, perilous journey of discovery, Maia will endure hardship and hunger, imprisonment and loneliness, bloody battles with pirates and separation from her twin. And along the way, she will meet a traveler who has come an unimaginable distance--and who threatens the delicate balance of the Stratoins' carefully maintained, perfect society...."

[Capn]

Closer..?!

[Capn]

from a review: "complete with tall tripod-like vehicles dubbed 'spiders' by the surviving humans"

Was one of the few contenders I found in the "Forgotten Sci Fi of the 20th Cent." list. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Capn]

Diadem from the Stars has some similarities, but not seeing the right cover.