Catseye

by

Paperback, 176 pages

English language

Published Nov. 24, 1967 by Ace Books.

OCLC Number:
85845803

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4 stars (1 review)

Deported from his own planet in a galactic war, Tony Horan was permitted to hire out as a daily laborer on Korwar, where he had been relocated. Temporary work in a strange interplanetary pet shop led Troy to the realization that with certain animals, he could hold wordless communication. Why were these animals being brought to Korwar? Who was the controlling agent they feared and hated? The night on which the pet-shop owner was killed, a few of the pieces in the puzzle fell into place. Just enough to involve Tony personally, and force his escape to a dead underground city and a bid for freedom that challenged time itself and the plans of mighty planetary rulers.

8 editions

reviewed Catseye by Andre Norton (Dipple #1)

The repression of women writers

4 stars

This book was always on the shelf in the school library, but I didn't get around to reading it for several decades. It tells the story of a boy from the refugee class who takes on his exploiters with the help of his animal friends, with whom he has a telepathic link. It's a fine story. I wish I had read it when I was 13.

Andre Norton was one of several male pseudonyms of Alice Mary Norton, and I pay tribute to her contribution to the genre. I can't help thinking how much better it would have been if she could have been out and proud from the start, as a woman in SF. We are poorer for the sexism which has pervaded the genre and so many other parts of our society.