Tailchaser's Song

Full review, as always, over at the SFF Book Review.

I wish I could say something more positive, but other than creating likeable characters and making them have an average Tolkien-esque adventure, there isn't much to redeem this book. If you can't get enough of the Lord of the Rings and would like to read a cat-version of a generic fantasy adventure, this is for you.
Tad Williams is a good writer but in this debut novel of his, he clearly hadn't found his own style yet. This is not a bad book at all, it's just not enough for somebody who reads mostly fantasy and can thusly predict the outcome of the plot by chapter 3.

Personally, the ending was a bit too much deus ex machina. And then we were still not finished. I like the style and I cared about Fritti Tailchaser, that orange cat with the star-shaped white spot on his forehead, but I would have preferred more character-development and more interactions with the great side characters, instead of following a generic plot.

6/10 points

While camping last month, a friend and I got into a conversation about books that we read over and over and over again. Mine was Watership Down, affectionately known as “the bunny book”. It's one of those rare stories that never grow old for me. Last week, she loaned me Tailchaser's Song. This book, is the cat's version of Watership Down. It's the tale of Fritti Tailchaser, who's lost his friend from kittenhood; disturbed by this loss, he sets out to find her. The book describes his tour of the countryside as he learns the importance of freedom, friendship and what it means to be a independant cat. The ending, while very fitting, has left my eyes filling with some tears of happy-sadness and I know that after the pages ran out, Fritti discovered where he really wanted his life to roam. This book, helps add another fiction novel to my growing list of books for the summer. Yay!