Written by MOLLIE HUNT.
An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Literary Cat©, International Book Reviewer.
AUTHOR: MOLLIE HUNT
Cover art by: Roslyn McFarland
Published by: Independently published
Publication date Paperback: 19/12/2020
Paperback ISBN: 198 406 2247
Cover price for Paperback: £11.95 / $15
Kindle price: £4.73 / $5.99
Pages: 365
Age range: Adult
Any dogs or cats? As this is Mollie, there are lots and lots of cats, with some human companions/cohabiters
SPOILER ALERT
Some as to plot direction and characters.
Thank you to...
I treated Mrs H to this as I was keen to see what happened next. So, unusually, it is Mrs H thanking me!
As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have bought, received as gifts, or received in exchange for an impartial review.
First and foremost, the books we review are those we select to read, like, and feel our global readers deserve to know about and that we hope they, their family, friends and students will enjoy.
The plot
Our main protagonist is Slayter, an elegant and lithe black cat, who lives with another feline, Emma, in the home of their cohabiter human, Claire.
We also have Zaadkiel, an entity that had recently attained consciousness in the cosmic soup from which all life and planets began. In the beginning, we see how this entity changes over millennia, finally through curiosity reaching out across all of time and space to become informed.
It is the eve of a new season, Spring, and snow is in the air and on the ground. But it is also a moment in time called the Winter Verus, a time when winter stops still, literally suspended, and things can no longer be measured in time as we recognise it. Snowflakes are frozen mid-air, and a deafening silence swallows all who tread this space. During this period, nine feline emissaries of the council can slip between the seconds to execute the Rectification of the Variants and put to right the human wrongs, at least those they can impact. In doing so, they reset existence for Earth and every creature hereon.
The two cats head off on a mission; two of the nine cats chosen by a feline council to correct the wrongs that have happened. It is a given the wrongs or incidents that need correcting all involve humans. Incidents that, though seemingly trivial, if not corrected and the humans sent the right way, will lead to tragedy and travesty on a scale dangerous to all species and the planet. Simple choices that, when corrected, would stop an individual man from committing a second murder, which would have led to starting a dangerous cult, causing widespread death and fear.
Each of the nine cats chosen for this year's Verus has a connection to the events and humans that cause the variants. Each cat has come from afar and wouldn't, under normal circumstances, have worked in a group. They meet up, and after introduction, the adventure begins, but not without tensions evolving into blows. It is more than a quest and potentially far more perilous.
When Slayter's task differs from the others, things take a turn for the worse. He arrives in a place and amongst people, scientists and cosmologists, he does not know. It seems that all he had to do was awaken one of the astronomers from his sleep. In doing so, the man sees something in the night sky far away that otherwise he would have missed. But Slayter senses something terrible, a shadowy malevolence lurking beyond sight and mind. It is the same evil that Zaadkiel, the star-chameleon entity deep within its black hole, could feel, too. It was a poison in the new world he had so very recently discovered. The entity knew this disease must be cut out.
Lost in a daydream about his strange task, Slayter catches up with the others to discover one of the cats has arrived at their scene to find the human they needed to help was dead. A husk that, on touching, disintegrated with a curdling scream into dust and a small ashen pellet.
It is thought to be a freak coincidence, yet, in this suspended between-seconds world, there is only one true answer – a murderer is running amok.
Fearful of what may have happened or will happen to Claire, Slayter and Emma rush home. It is from here on that Claire becomes involved. Slayter's fears over what is happening, the scientist, and the malevolence he feels cause him to reveal the cats' ability to speak, the task and the dangers. If anyone can help the cats, Slayter feels it is Claire, which, indeed, she can. Having contacted the scientist, the three head off to meet him.
Now, from here on in, things ramp up. The malevolence gets a name, in fact, two, the first being 'the Other'. It is intent on consuming all things on a galactic and dimensional scale. But he has found adoration among the tiny worthless inhabitants of one of the many planets he seeks to destroy. He will spare them as he is vain and loves the adoration. He loves to watch how, when he turns one of their number to dust, they praise him more. Yet, on the same planet, there is an irritation, a force that can harm him. The Other is aware of Zaadkiel, too, and seeks to destroy it, to suck out its energy.
Zaadkiel needs help to remove the evil, which they realise they can't do themselves. Reaching out across time and space faster than light, it finds, or rather senses, an ally on Earth in the form of a small sentient being known as Slayter.
And so Earth becomes the battleground for two mighty opposing forces. Primordial good and evil incarnate. It becomes a place where the fight to save everything from the moment of creation forward will transcend time, space, and even life itself. All actions have consequences, and Slayter and his newfound friends have only one chance to put right the biggest variant of all. They also have a whole new earth-bound enemy, too!
So, what did we think?
I was half expecting this to be an extension of the first-in-series and wasn't entirely sure what 'new' could be brought to a previous all-encompassing and seemingly complete story. And for a moment, in the opening chapters, it seemed I was right. I really needn't have worried, as soon enough, with obligatory character introductions and scene setting complete, we ventured where no reader has boldly gone before. The cast of felines, naturally enough, have more than an inkling as to what must be done. Thankfully, they, too, were unprepared.
Like the best, and I do mean the best, sci-fi movies, we were enthralled by diving ever deeper and ultimately into an almost maelstrom of physical and astral planes through which our protagonists must travel. The text is rich, evocative, and full of terms that had Mrs H reaching for her science dictionary and brought added credence (though not needed for us) to the plot.
We both, after trying to draw comparisons to works we already know, especially movies/TV, which many more will be familiar with than sci-fi fantasy books. We came up with four: Inception, Contact (by the late great Carl Sagan), Interstellar, and Quantum Leap.
It is highly appealing that this book inhabits time and space, has earthy, earthly and unearthly characters, good and heinous, and has a spiritual flavour, something for everyone. And it does all that with so much aplomb. It became a seat-of-the-pants tale that was wholly satisfying.
Fear not; this story isn't spaceships and warp-speed antics. Though those have their place, elsewhere, for those who need them. This tale found its feet for us when we ventured to an earlier and brutal human civilisation.
I always hope to do a book justice without giving too much away. I can give away the fact that I just didn't see the end coming and that the build-up was intense, a volcano erupting tense. As I said, this is real seat-of-the-pants stuff.
So . . . .
Crunch time.
Molly has taken cat adventures to a whole new level, and our reading has never been more exciting or rewarding. It's an all-around delight and deliciously satisfyingly different. Onwards to book 3!
Want to buy a copy?
You don't have to transform into a feline to get a copy. Lovely though that would be, there is nowhere to carry change or credit cards. Just get yourself down to your local independent bookshop. Or order online. However or from wherever you buy, you support an independent author, fellow cat carer and member of the Cat Writers Association.
Mollie Hunt's web page can be found HERE or type this: https://molliehuntcatwriter.com/
We are joining the Sunday Selfies, hosted by the wonderful Kitties Blue and their mum, Janet Blue, from the Cat on My Head blog in America. Click this link to see Janet Blue's selfie page.
I shall leave you with a selfie of me doing a spot of light loitering for tickles in the doorway.
🙂 🙂
Till laters!
ERin
