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ANNE MCCAFFREY WROTE A WHOLE BOOK ABOUT THE BARQUE CATS
SHE DID
IT'S CALLED "CATALYST"
OH NO WAIT IT'S A SERIES oh god
Barque cats - for those who didn't spend middle-school reading horrible science fiction novels about the love lives of space psychics - are large, intelligent telepathic cats who enjoy being in zero gravity and can warn you when there's a problem with your spaceship. I totally wanted one when I was twelve, though I unfortunately didn't have any zero gravity to keep it in.
This sentence is in the synopsis:
When corrupt government officials declare a plague and plan to destroy animals across the galaxy, including the Barque Cats, two young people (a veterinarian and a cat person), a clever Barque kitten and the boy who is its special person, an ancient Egyptian cat with mysterious powers and a hidden agenda, and a con man join forces to try to prevent the tragedy.
You know, I don't think that's a sufficiently rag-tag band of rebels. We still need, like, a disillusioned ex-cop with a drinking problem, a quick-witted halfling thief, a robot who wants to learn to love, and the Doctor. Get with the program, McCaffrey.
Actually, sorry - Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's name's on there as co-writer. Given McCaffrey's recent health problems, Scarborough may be the actual author of this excellent work. Especially considering the whole "an ancient Egyptian cat with mysterious powers and a hidden agenda" business. That is a very Scarborough kind of idea. Also, this is the sequel (which is called Catacombs):
The barque cats, mistaken for a public health hazard, flee Earth for the feline-dominated planet, Mau, with the help of Pshaw-Ra, a mysterious cat with his own spaceship. Oddly, no one--including the humans--is bothered that he plans to take over the universe on behalf of felinekind.
Yeah, I see the invisible hand of the Scarborough in that storyline. It sounds like it might actually attempt humor, a property which McCaffrey has always scorned.
...I admit at this point that I'm kind of thinking about reading these.
IT'S CALLED "CATALYST"
OH NO WAIT IT'S A SERIES oh god
Barque cats - for those who didn't spend middle-school reading horrible science fiction novels about the love lives of space psychics - are large, intelligent telepathic cats who enjoy being in zero gravity and can warn you when there's a problem with your spaceship. I totally wanted one when I was twelve, though I unfortunately didn't have any zero gravity to keep it in.
This sentence is in the synopsis:
When corrupt government officials declare a plague and plan to destroy animals across the galaxy, including the Barque Cats, two young people (a veterinarian and a cat person), a clever Barque kitten and the boy who is its special person, an ancient Egyptian cat with mysterious powers and a hidden agenda, and a con man join forces to try to prevent the tragedy.
You know, I don't think that's a sufficiently rag-tag band of rebels. We still need, like, a disillusioned ex-cop with a drinking problem, a quick-witted halfling thief, a robot who wants to learn to love, and the Doctor. Get with the program, McCaffrey.
Actually, sorry - Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's name's on there as co-writer. Given McCaffrey's recent health problems, Scarborough may be the actual author of this excellent work. Especially considering the whole "an ancient Egyptian cat with mysterious powers and a hidden agenda" business. That is a very Scarborough kind of idea. Also, this is the sequel (which is called Catacombs):
The barque cats, mistaken for a public health hazard, flee Earth for the feline-dominated planet, Mau, with the help of Pshaw-Ra, a mysterious cat with his own spaceship. Oddly, no one--including the humans--is bothered that he plans to take over the universe on behalf of felinekind.
Yeah, I see the invisible hand of the Scarborough in that storyline. It sounds like it might actually attempt humor, a property which McCaffrey has always scorned.
...I admit at this point that I'm kind of thinking about reading these.
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(Where oh where is all of the cheesy telepathic critter SF for dog people, damnit?)
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(Where oh where is all of the cheesy telepathic critter SF for dog people, damnit?)
I can't think of any SF, but for fantasy, Robin Hobb's Assassin series. Also, if wolves are acceptable, there's Jane Lindskold's Firekeeper series, or if the telepathy is optional, Lirael, by Garth Nix. Firekeeper is the cheesiest of these by several of whatever unit of measurement is appropriate to cheese measurement.
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And hee, yes, telepathy and cheesiness are both quite optional, and wolves are acceptable! But I'm somewhat more hair-triggery about bouncing off conventional medievaloid fantasy. Hobb, I've never read; Lindskold I've read the first book, was pretty meh about the world and the prose and most of the human characters and mostly wanted to see more of the wolves; Lirael I absolutely adored -- this icon's from a pic of Lirael and the Dog I commissioned from Pentapus on LJ. In SF, I loved the Tines in A Fire Upon The Deep, but haven't really come across much of anything comparable since...
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A Companion to Wolves - I quite enjoyed it ^^.
From what I remember the two decided they wanted to write a book that took the animal spiritual partner/sidekick/mascot/symbiont whose emotions the human partner shares ~ a la Valdemar companions or Anne McCaffrey's dragons, for example - to its logical conclusion.
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In general, my impression of Hobb's work is that she's drawn to stories about The Horrors Of Life Beating Down On Our Heroes And Destroying Their Spirit, And Then They Get Better. But the process by which they get better is slow, grinding, and frequently drenched in self-pity. Though Hobb's characters are more psychologically realistic than many in epic fantasy, they tend not to be people whose heads you want to spend much time in.