Catseye

"Catseye" is one of the first Andre Norton books I read when I was a kid and it has stuck with me all these years. It's a classic book of its era and VERY Andre Norton. Short and to the point - SF paperbacks then were generally 180 pages - the author sets the stage and populates it in a few words while she moves quickly into the plot. People used to today's doorstop books will be surprised.

"Catseye" is the first of the books set or beginning in the "Dipple" an urban refugee camp on the planet Korwar. Refugees from many planets destroyed in the War of the Two Sectors were dumped there and few have found a way out, even though the war ended years ago. Troy Horan, whose family were range riders tending the vast herds on Nordon, a planet show more long gone, is one of the countless thousands scratching out a living in the Dipple. Then one day his experience with animals lands him a short-term gig at a pet store where he discovers that he can communicate mentally with some of the very exotic and very expensive animals - ones from Earth. The pet shop is robbed and the owner murdered and Troy becomes the one fighting to protect the animals who would surely be destroyed if their mental abilities become known.

The book has everything for the young reader - animals, ESP, a young man (they were all men back then) winning free from hardship. It'd make a great early reading book for a teen girl. show less

Catseye by Andre Norton

This is the first book by Andre Norton I have read, and it was certainly intriguing.
Catseye is classed as Juvenile or Young Adult fiction, and it is a coming-of-age story about a young man named Troy Horan who is an orphan living in ghetto for subcitizens on an alien planet.
Young people may relate to Troy's thoughts on how to carve out a place for himself in the world. He manages to secure employment in a business selling offworld animals as pets, and he hopes to pursue a career there. But the chance discovery that he shares a telepathic link with certain animals imported from Earth derail his plans and turn him into a fugitive on the run from both the law and certain dangerous underworld figures.
Fleeing into show more the wild with five animals, Troy eventually enters a maze of subterranean tunnels under the remains of an ancient alien city where a scientific expedition was previously lost under mysterious and frightening circumstances. This part of the story reminded me a little of At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft.
Through all the danger and uncertainty, Troy is able to find a measure of true companionship with his animal friends, even though these look, think and feel differently than he does.
This novel was written in 1961, around sixty years ago, but clearly advocates the protection of the natural world and its resources. It also shows the need to be honorable in dealings with others, while maintaining a healthy wariness of their possibly sinister motives. Another theme which is emphasized is how wars and political machinations often selfishly set the wants of the few over the needs and rights of the many. Although Catseye is written in the style of an action adventure and thriller, all of the above elements are woven into a memorable narrative set in a convincingly realistic fictional society.
I think that a couple of complaints could be that the characters except for the protagonist are not very three-dimensional, and the expectations created by suggestive occurrences in the passages beneath the abandoned alien city are not brought to an entirely satisfying conclusion, but apart from these weaknesses the story is told in a competent and engaging manner.
I will certainly go on to read more books by Andre Norton. show less

Catseye by Andre Norton is an older story but just as good the second time around! I loved it as a young girl and love it now. It brings out the need to fight for the underdog, or cat, and whoever else is downcast in this society despite species, skin, fur, or colors and to make things right for them. An orphan is with many animal species, esp. cat-like creatures, and traders with no good intentions. An exciting story with an excellent plot, great dialogue, and well developed, unique characters. A thriller, adventure, and yet fun novel of befriending animals while trying not to get caught. Loved it. I received this book for a honest review and it in no way effected my review or rating.

Read for SFFBC.

I too had trouble with the style. All storytelling, all adventure, very little character development. Maybe if it were *L*iterature I would expect things to be alluded to, expect things to be oblique, expect loose ends... but it's just an adventure and I don't feel like I should have to work to get more out of it.

I agree that it was 'flat' and 'dry' and had more potential than what was delivered.

I think that I would have liked it more if it were told in first person. After all, we only know one character's perspective and it's basically his story....

I'm glad it was short and I will not be reading more by the author.

(Giving it two stars, not one, because I do like the concept of a team of *six* animals.)

This is a short SF novel, which is one of those fantasy stories that disguise as SF.

There is a city called Tikil on the planet Korwar. It has its district for unfortunate, named Dipple. There only three ways out of it: legal employment in Tikil, work for the strictly illegal but flourishing and perilous Thieves’ Guild; or he could sign on as contract labor and be shipped off world in deep freeze with no beforehand knowledge of his destination or work. Here lives our protagonist, Troy Horan. He was initially from another planet, but old interstellar war forced his relocation. He is dirt poor and despised by both legal citizens and other Dipplers. A classic young misfit.

He gets a work contract with the seller of exotic creatures, show more including rare animals from Earth. The work already heavily relies on contraband, but is it the only crime? Troy finds himself bonded with Terran animals and on the run, with many different groups on his tail.

Fast easy yarn without a pretenses of being a groundbreaking SF, initially written as a juvenile or what is today called YA. Colorful in a nostalgic way, like Technicolor Wizard of Oz – you see that the colors are wrong, but it is still a pleasure for the eye.

“Men have used animals as tools,” Troy said slowly, trying to fit into words something he did not wholly understand himself. “Now some men, somewhere, have made better tools, tools so good they can turn and cut the maker. But that is not the fault of the tools—that they are no longer tools but—”
“Perhaps companions?” show less

Set on the pleasure world of Kowar, generally considered to be the jewel of the local sectors and one of the few planets that still thrived after the latest interstellar war had left it's trail of burnt off world and destroyed fleets, with Terra demoted in the subsequent peace treaties. And amongst the hordes of refugees from the worlds destroyed and traded between the victors. One such was Troy Horan who was stuck in the dipple, the refugee camp hidden away in corner where the rich and powerful couldn't see it. Troy's father had died in those wars and his mother in the despair of the camp leaving Troy to keep body and soul together by the occasional day job offered by the merchants of Korwar looking for temporary, and cheap, workers. show more Troy reckons he's got nearly the perfect job when he lands a week long contract with Kyger's Pet Shop, purveyor of rarities to the rich and powerful of Korwar and it's visitors. When Zul, Kyger's assistant is injured and the contract is extended until the strange man is fit enough to get back to work he's near enough in heaven as he looks after Kyger's pets, especially the imported fussel that only he could handle. A creature brought in from far Terra took his attention, however as he became aware of thoughts that could only eminate from the creature. But sold to a local potentate, he doesn't think anything of it until the creature is sent back to the shop after its owner dies in mysterious circumstances and in the meantime, more Terran creatures ended up in Kyger's shop and by this time, Troy realises there's something odd about Kyger and his setup but it isn't until the shopkeeper is killed only to be found by Troy with a strange device in his hands that the young man is made aware that Kyger is a member of a spy team trying to expand Tera's lost influence and he escaped retribution for the murder into the wilds of Korwar, overseen by the mysterious clans only to call up the mysteries of a lost alien civilisation.

Despite Troy's abilities to hear the thoughts of the Terran animals, this doesn't seem to be related to the Beats Master skills as described in that series of books, and is definitely not to be considered to be part of that series, as Earth is still an inhabited planet in this novel. It's particularly interesting in that the alien technology is a fairly minor part of the story, and it's probably the nearest that Andre Norton comes to writing a mystery novel. show less

Can see why this is a beloved classic. Don’t give five stars to many and it doesn’t quite achieve that level but I bought a copy when I returned this to the library. Know I’ll want to read it again.