Book Review: Catspaw

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Catspaw     Amazon US PB Amazon US TPB Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada TPB
Joan D. Vinge
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction
Series: Cat # 2
Tor, Dec 2002, $14.95, 352 pp.

Though an orphan street punk, Cat used his psionic abilities to save the galaxy from a peer (see PSION), but his reputation formed that has traveled light years to earth. When someone tries to kill Lady taMing, head of the wealthy and powerful family that runs Centaur Transport, her supporters abduct Cat to provide psionic protection to her.

His kidnappers drug Cat, so that the half-breed cannot use psychic powers against them, but provide an antidote so that he can protect Assembly member Lady taMing. However, while doing his new job keeping his client safe, Cat uncovers secrets about powerful individuals including taMing family members who will kill him to keep their skeletons in the closet.

CATSPAW is a powerful science fiction that describes an astonishing New York City in a few centuries. The well-designed plot provides a complex multiple helix of a political and social futurology that will stun readers on its realistic but different outlook. However, in building her lush realm, Joan D. Vinge pays a price as the massive particulars that serve as the theme’s center with its future’s profundity also keeping the story line from attaining light speed. Still, this sequel will please the author’s fans and anyone who relishes galaxy building as a key ingredient of a novel set several hundred years into the future.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner