What a deceiving title! I passed over this book many times on my recommendations list due to the title. We've all been tricked into reading self published fanfic, ficlit or whatever it's called. The poorly conceived, badly written crap that wants to be erotica romance but is actually not even porn. I'm also not partial to alien porn, which is what I thought this was. I was so completely and terribly wrong! I owe the chance to experience this amazing read to Goodreads and the reviewers who convinced me to take a chance. Such an amazing, lovely, enriching story!Temin is a space transport pilot carrying cargo between planets when his engines fail and he is forced to crash on an uninhabited planet that colonization had previously failed for unknown reasons centuries before. After surviving the crash he finds the engines sabotaged with no repair possible. Using solar charging he sets up a distress signal he feels has no real chance of reaching beyond the ionization fields surrounding the planet. I found Temins first attempt at hunting hilarious. A space pilot with no concept of roughing it trying to hunt an ape like creature on an alien planet did not turn out well to much amusement to the reader if not Temin. Suddenly Temin finds himself captured and knocked unconscious by a cat like creature and awakes to find himself a pet to an unknown race of creatures much like cheetahs of old earth but humanoid as they walk upright, have homes, families, jobs and a society.Temin, with no way to communicate, naked and much smaller and weaker than these creatures nearly dies more than once and makes himself a nuisance rather than being the curious pet they expect him to be. Because of this Kadit, his owner and matriarch of the clan gives Temin to her son Gredar.What follows is an amazing story of friendship, loyalty and honor. One of my favorite, yet under appreciated movies is called 'Enemy Mine' with Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. Two enemies crash land on a planet and for survival must learn to understand and trust each other to survive. There are elements of that here. Temin must learn to trust Gredar if he is to survive.The story of Temin and Gredar is told from both their points of view so we get to experience the growing relation between Temin, the alien curious new pet and Gredar the new owner of a nuisance oddity. After Temin is nearly killed by another clan member He is finally able to make Gredar understand he is a person with a language. The horror Gredar feels over what Temin has endured as a pet and oddity plus the savagery and betrayal of the other clan member is where the real relationship begins to build. We the readers learn the language of the Daiyne (cat people) with Temin while Gredar learns Standard (English). The world building is brilliant as Temin learns how to survive and trust in this alien landscape where everything is to big and dangerous. The characters are so well written you begin to feel as much a part of the clan as Temin does, from Kadit the matriarch, Jelin the clan medic and Gredars twin to Martek the clans historian.I could go on and on but I don't want to ruin the experience for other readers. There is drama, betrayal, danger and sex, all woven together with friendship, honor, loyalty and love. Real love, familial, friendship and in their own way romantic love. More than once I was brought to real tears that made it hard to continue reading!This is going up to the top of my 'to be read again' list right along with Anne McCafferys' Dragonriders of Pern series and Diane Gabaldon's Outlaner series for escapism of brilliant world building, fascinating characters and dramatic storytelling. I'm off to find more of this author's work! Hmmmm I can't decide if I like or hate this book but one thing I'm sure of was I wished I didn't came across this book and experienced the unnecessary heartache. Well it's done, can't do anything about it now, already fell in love with the cat aliens (whatever they are) and the human pet but I'll admit I was the stupid and stubborn one who can't accept the inevitable because as I was nearing the ending the title of the book kept taunting me and I still refused to believe . I was even kind of hoping there was an alternative ending or something but no I have to accept that that was it.
What do You think about I Was An Alien Cat Toy (2009)?
Just......interesting. Not great or earth-shattering but I enjoyed it.
—stefanie
