Troy Horan lives in the Dipple, where the refugees of the war were dumped -- and left when the peace treaty signed away their worlds. His father had enlisted in the war, and his mother died when the Big Cough struck. Troy is still trying to eke out a living as casual labor, rather than sign a contract that lets him be shipped off in cold sleep, or join the Thieves' Guild.Luck strikes. His rural background lets him get a job at Kyger's an animal store catering, like so many businesses on this world, to the wealthy and powerful of many worlds. Even if his first task on the job has him spotting a man he knows joined the Thieves' Guild, and their vehicle being attacked as they returned to the job with their exotic pets -- Terran cats. And there had been something odd about those cats during the attack.He needs the job. He keeps his head down, doing, for instance, nothing more than notice that not all the spacers who came to see Kyger had brought an exotic animal to sell. But he learns more, and more, about what happens here.The rest of the tale involves foxes as well as cats, a location where an alien civilization had lived, a three-way quarrel where Troy asks which rule will be applied to him, the immense importance of promises and the little consideration owing to an oath-breaker, a large offer to Troy, a man who was poisoned and his pet, and falconry. Among other things.
Troy Horan is a Dippleman, a refugee living in a restricted area on a planet after his own world was "appropriated" as a military base during an interstellar war. He gets a short contract working with a luxury pet shop and finds himself slowly dragged into a murky web of plots and subterfuge in which imported Terran animals seem to play a central role.I felt that this was quite sophisticated for a children's book. The world building was quite good, with a lot of depth and the characters were all quite interesting. A large portion of the pleasure planet that the book happens on is a preserved wilderness, and the protagonist is from a similar area and the impression is that these are things that the author cares about and recur in Norton's work a lot.
What do You think about Catseye (1984)?
Old school Sci Fi, originally published in 1961. Andre Norton writes with the lightest touch, and that is evident here. Unpretentious, fun, unique, and charming are the first adjectives that come to mind. The ending was a bit pat, but the section from pages 120-200 was excellent. The story centers on human/animal communication, which of course also shows up in The Beast Master, a 1959 novel by Norton.I should also add that anyone who loves animals will probably enjoy this. If we could talk to our pets, would we have pets? We might have animal friends, but pets? I doubt it.
—Morris Nelms
Norton's classic outsider story. Norton's early books are almost completely romance-free and sex-free - the main characters never show any sign of interest, and there's only the slightest hints that anyone ever does (usually the vaguest allusions to pleasure girls). This one, however, is also known as "the one with the gay subtext". There's no definite romance, but you can certainly see Troy/Rerne following many of the standard romance beats - the meet cute, the getting to know, the estrangement, the reconciliation.It's also a great example of constantly changing the situation up so that the reader's interest never flags.
—Andrea
