A Cat of Silvery Hue

This fourth installment continues Robert Adams' dense narrative. The antagonists are portrayed as "Christians turned crazed homosexuals bent on human sacrifice." Bili and Milo continue the quenching of the rebellion (which is still left unresolved...in mid-battle no less).

Disappointingly, the main characters consume the spotlight but do not perform much with their powers other than mindspeak (telepathy). A Cat of Silvery Hue really is about the average Geros, who rises to the occasion to perform heroic deeds that hundreds of nearby veteran warriors fail to address. Geros exhibits more "character" than any of the main characters, and the title is named in honor of his exploits. However, he is a marginal character whose presence is show more sparse.

I am left with the same feeling I get when I order a greasy hamburger to-go from a fast food joint, leave the drive though, and discover that I was given a chicken sandwich by mistake. I'll curse the restaurant, claim I will never come back, but will anyway after some time.

+ Geros is developed nicely
+ The fight scenes deliver as expected.
+ The Horseclans is very much like fast food.

- The main characters did not develop or perform exciting roles
- All the bad guys are blundering idiots with the exception of Drehkos
- Occasional erotica scenes are out-of-place and laughable
- The Horseclans is very much like fast food. show less

Unfortunately I have been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic novels lately, all of them set in the USA, and Adam's Horseclan's series is just another one of those. At times these books are entertaining, at other times they drag a bit. Worth reading, but if you want to read similar books, S.M Stirling and David Brin's 'The Postman' are better.

This is a standard Horseclans cutemup but more than most, it has Adams recycling previous books in large chunks. One of Adams' least loveable traits was that when he suffered writers block, he'd have a PoV character say "this reminds me of.." and cut in ten pages of What Had Gone Before.

I do like some of the Horseclans stories - this one and the memory ones. Geros is great. It does make me want to read the book before this, but not very much - I remember just how nasty and bloody it is. It does have the start of Geros' story, but the story is retold enough in Cat that I can do without Revenge of the Horseclans. Had read this, and the other Horseclans books, but not in several years at least.

I first read these many, many years ago, as a teenager. They don't really hold up, alas.

I still like Geros Lahvoheetos, though.

Bili "The Axe" Morghun, and his Prairie Cat, quell an uprising among his serfs, instigated by the ugly Ehleen Church. An ordinary Horseclanner.