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A review by erica_s
Varjak Paw by SF Said
3.0
George Guidall's audio recording of this story is super. The voices of the various cat characters are distinct enough that it is always clear who is speaking. The reading has a good pacing & dramatic tension.
As for the story, it's a great junior-hero journey story. I loved the fact that Varjak gets all his lessons during sleep or unconsciousness after getting the sense knocked out of him. The lessons are from his long-dead ancestor, and they are a reasonable mix of fancy cat-magic and useful (although pretty standard) self-awareness & self-control practices.
Despite several gaping logic holes in the plot, the story nevertheless comes together in a way many young readers of talking-animal-adventures will appreciate. Here's one example; Varjak, Molly, and Tam are walking together when Tam tries to talk them into going into a dangerous neighborhood. Molly says they "can't" and they "must keep going", so they leave her to explore the dangerous area alone, and they continue on. In fact, they have nowhere to go, and with no other action occurring, suddenly they haven't seen her for 24 hours, & she's the latest victim of The Vanishings. This is a crucial moment, and it's completely implausible. I think many readers would have been shouting, "Don't let her go alone!" so nobody will be surprised that harm comes to her.
Later, there seem to be doll-like clones of Tam heaped up in a box, but later still, Tam herself is alive & in a cage. Some doll-cats are cats under the power of a collar, some seem to be brainless clones. There is no explanation of what the men intended to do with all of them - they are never sold or seen in a human's possession - or why the Contessa's house is their special holding place, or why the one family of Mesopotamian Blues are not caged while the others are.
The logical inconsistencies & general predictability don't actually ruin it entirely - they do, however, make it more suitable for younger independent readers - 8- to 10-year-olds, who mostly won't get obsessed with these details. It could be read *before* the Erin Hunter cat-based read-alikes.
The illustrations (seen in another edition) are striking but I didn't miss them much when I was listening to the book on CD.
As for the story, it's a great junior-hero journey story. I loved the fact that Varjak gets all his lessons during sleep or unconsciousness after getting the sense knocked out of him. The lessons are from his long-dead ancestor, and they are a reasonable mix of fancy cat-magic and useful (although pretty standard) self-awareness & self-control practices.
Despite several gaping logic holes in the plot, the story nevertheless comes together in a way many young readers of talking-animal-adventures will appreciate. Here's one example; Varjak, Molly, and Tam are walking together when Tam tries to talk them into going into a dangerous neighborhood. Molly says they "can't" and they "must keep going", so they leave her to explore the dangerous area alone, and they continue on. In fact, they have nowhere to go, and with no other action occurring, suddenly they haven't seen her for 24 hours, & she's the latest victim of The Vanishings. This is a crucial moment, and it's completely implausible. I think many readers would have been shouting, "Don't let her go alone!" so nobody will be surprised that harm comes to her.
Later, there seem to be doll-like clones of Tam heaped up in a box, but later still, Tam herself is alive & in a cage. Some doll-cats are cats under the power of a collar, some seem to be brainless clones. There is no explanation of what the men intended to do with all of them - they are never sold or seen in a human's possession - or why the Contessa's house is their special holding place, or why the one family of Mesopotamian Blues are not caged while the others are.
The logical inconsistencies & general predictability don't actually ruin it entirely - they do, however, make it more suitable for younger independent readers - 8- to 10-year-olds, who mostly won't get obsessed with these details. It could be read *before* the Erin Hunter cat-based read-alikes.
The illustrations (seen in another edition) are striking but I didn't miss them much when I was listening to the book on CD.