Eye of Cat

Zelazny is one of my favorite authors, but I have to admit I struggled to finish this one. The entire first quarter or so of the book is a strange stream-of-consciousness ramble, the actual plot seems very unfocused, the group of hivemind psychics don't contribute anything worthwhile to the plot, and in general this feels like it badly needed an editing pass to tighten it up and remove unnecessary text. Would have been an amazing novella rather than a novel - generally the stories that got expanded by Zelazny to novel-length like The Dream Master and Damnation Alley were better in the more focused format.

Zelazny is one of those authors who I was impressed with early and decided I wanted to read everything he wrote. Unfortunately, most of his novels I've read over the past 5 - 10 years have been getting about 2 stars and one got 1 star. This one is no exception. About 30-40 percent of the time I felt like I was just looking at random words on the page and grinding through it to get to the action. It was an interesting idea and I liked that he included a bunch of American Indian mythology, but it just got so surreal, so often that I couldn't enjoy it.

Eye of Cat is a science fiction novel featuring one of Zelazny's best-ever characters. Billy Blackhorse Singers is a Navajo tracker so far removed from his time and people that he finally strikes a terminal bargain; he offers his own life in sacrifice because he finds little reason to live it.

He does this to gain the help of an extremely dangerous extra terrestrial lifeform (named Cat) he once captured for an interstellar zoo. He suspects the animal is intelligent, and when it turns out he is intelligent (and vicious, and bent on revenge), Singer offers Cat his freedom in return for help - and a chance to kill Singer.

Singer recruits Cat to help him stop an alien assassin, and after the two successfully prevent the assassination, the show more book kicks into high gear.

Singer offers Cat his life, but Cat doesn't kill him, instead insisting on a hunt.

Singer decides he's not finished, and the two begin a cat and mouse game that finishes in the half-real, half-mystical badlands canyons of Singer's youth.

Rich in imagery and stunningly characterized, the book's only flaw is the growing reliance on symbols, which renders the last quarter of the book somewhat difficult to decipher.

Still, a brilliant - and often underrated - book from Zelazny. show less

Eye of Cat is a work that is hard to define, with much mystical and spiritual observances by the protagonist, a Navaho who hunts aliens. Billy enlists the assistance of "Cat", a shapechanger, to find another alien loose on Earth. Cat is a extraterrestrial creature Billy successfully hunted years before, who agrees to assist but for a deadly price.

I liked quite a bit of this story, especially the game between Cat and Billy, but the mystical interludes dragged it down for me.

Eye of Cat by Roger Zelazny is an interesting work by an author I was introduced to long ago and was the “out of the bag” choice for my RL book club in June. The book is dedicated to Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn, and their creator, Tony Hillerman. It is essentially a chase on several levels—literal through travel doors from place to place—visceral through the emotions of the characters—visual through the poetry and language—of one man, Billy Singer, a hunter, and his once-prey called Cat, who is now hunting him. This is not a reading for the faint of heart, but not because of blood and guts. Instead, the reader must be able to focus on the storyline through the Navajo religious themes and folklore and the interruptions caused by a show more group of psychics trying to save Billy. The plot starts simply enough—Billy, a celebrated hunter who has managed to catch most of the zoological examples of life in the known universe, is asked to help save the life of an alien diplomat threatened by an assassin from his planet. Psychic humans are also recruited for the job, but Billy is extremely reluctant to take on the task, believing that his best bet to catch the shapeshifting assassin is with the assistance of another shapeshifter Billy caught years before, Cat. Cat has been presumed to be non-sentient, but Billy is suspicious that he captured a thinking being and locked it up. Billy is alienated from his Navajo heritage merely by being the last of his family and Cat’s planet was destroyed. Cat wants revenge and agrees to help Billy provided that Cat can then hunt Billy down. That deal is struck, and two-thirds of the novel is the chase after the assassin is caught. This is an extremely difficult book to read because of its style, but if you can get into the rhythm, I think it can be enjoyed for the language and greater question of who are we at our core. show less

I don't normally care for stories with pure Native American Indians in the space age of the future who use their in-born skills to track aliens & such. Kind of hoakey & goes against my philosophy that we'll merge into one race (the sooner, the better), but that's the plot here & it's done as well as any I've ever read. Zelazny put his unique touch on it, which is all that saves it from 2 stars.

How did this get on my to-read shelf?

Is Zelazny Navajo?

I tried the first few pages anyway... and... Ugh.