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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Deeper and darker than her others, one well worth reading., November 6, 1997
By A Customer
Once again Diane Duane tells a story of good vs evil where the youngest has the most power and saves the day - or will he? This book is a step darker and more intricate than her others. Rhiow may be a cat, but she is also a wizard, the leader of a group of three that work together to keep the World Gates safe. The adventure begins when a gate suddenly needs a mysterious repair. The team gets on the job only to find a young wizard (cat) newly come into his powers and gravely injured. Before you can say "catfish", Rhiow and her team are dealing with an emotionally disturbed, physically injured, very powerful young male "tom", a plague of rats, the disablement of ALL the world gates and the disappearence of the supervisory wizzard for the entire North American continent. Those who have read "So You Want to be a Wizzard" or "Deep Wizardry" will enjoy seeing cameos of people already near and dear to our hearts. But the real heros in this book are the cats.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rattling good fantasy, July 7, 2001
This review is from: The Book of Night with Moon (Mass Market Paperback)
When an ancient evil invades our world, flooding it with surreal horror, it falls to four small wizards - feline champions - to fight this evil with every bit of magic at their disposal. Together they must cross the River of Fire and hunt the Children of the Serpent, spending many of their nine lives in a battle between the light of their world (and ours) and the darkness from another dimension. In "The Book of Night with Moon" Duane covers a lot of ground; her central characters are all cats, and this in itself is difficult enough, given that very few authors have done this genre as well as Richard Adams did with "Watership Down." She gives us a quest, which is a very potent plot in western literature, and she gives us a rattling good urban fantasy a la Charles de Lint. The plot is simple enough, and one that's done in a great many fantasy novels: Seemingly unstoppable evil must be faced and defeated by the hero(es) who are really just regular people (or cats) at bottom. Tolkien almost defined the genre with his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and since then, every fantasy author worth her/his salt has tried to ring an interesting change on the formula. And in fact, when it fails, this plot is just that, formulaic. But in Duane's hands this plot becomes quirky as a cat, "full of sass and vinegar" to quote Jane Yolen (from the back cover.) Feline character informs the plot, moves it and shapes it, and this is what makes the book so special. Duane's central character, Rhiow is well drawn, and - dare I say it? - very human as well as being very feline. All of her characters, human as well as cat, are well drawn, which is one of the great pleasures of this book. But it's Duane's craft which really makes this novel more interesting than a lot of others of its type. Too many authors could make the trappings of such a novel seem leaden, bogging the reader down in the created world. Duane, though she does create a feline vocabulary as well as other details of feline life, never allows these details to stop the smooth flow of her story. She remains comprehensible even while she is teaching you the cat word for such things as "human" or "person." (Ehhif, as in `my ehhif, my person.') Some writers might succumb to the temptation of making such a created world a little too precious or a little too facetious, but while her sense of humor is firmly in place, Duane never treats her creation with anything less than respect, knowing just how far to go with her details, never too far into territory that's over-cute or firmly in the nudge-nudge category. In short, she never throws you out of her story for the sake of a cool-sounding bit of detail. She never winks at her readers as if to say, "Look how clever I can be." She respects her work, her characters, and, I'm pleased to say, she respects her readers. If you're a cat lover as I am, this book will be a delight. If you're not, it's still a darn good read and I recommend it highly. One caveat: I wouldn't recommend you trying to speak Ailurin to your cats; you'll get it wrong and they'll laugh at you behind your back.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Purrfectly Enchanting Tale: Another Duane Classic!, January 12, 2001
This review is from: The Book of Night with Moon (Mass Market Paperback)
Diane Duane's 'The Book of Night With Moon' is worth the time to read. The plot needs more concentration on, since it is set quite deep. It is once again a book about a battle between good and evil. The book is slow to start with, but travels deeper as you turn the pages. Rhiow may seem like an ordinary cat to her owners, Hhuha and Iaehh [Ailurin, the cat language, for Susan and Mike,] but is also a wizard! She and her intelligent teammates, Saash and Urruah, are the guardians of the Gates. They are the ones' that keep the magical threads weaved together of the way between the worlds. Arhu, a young tom, is brought to the team to be looked after. While he's still going through his ordeal, a gate suddenly breaks down and is unable to respond to anything. Rhiow and her team, along with Arhu who is still getting used to his new power, go down the Downside to fix it. They return safe but that was just the fight. Now they have to go down the Downside again and fight the Lone One, the creator of death. Here they have the final battle with the Lone One in the Downside. Throughout 'The Book of Night With Moon', Rhiow, Saash, Urruah and Arhu, go through grief, adventure and happiness together. Duane describes each and every scene well, piecing the story wonderfully together. To understand the Lone One better, preferably read 'So You Want To Be A Wizard' or 'Deep Wizardry' first. But if not, it is fairly easy to pick up who the Lone One is. Cat-lovers, fantasy-lovers and fans of Diane Duane or Patricia C. Wrede, will find this book purrfectly enchanting. Another charming tale from Diane Duane!
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