Customer Reviews

The Book of Night with Moon

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

This book totally changed my feelings on the feline species. It is a true fantasy book with wizardry and unknown species and trips to the "downside". But I thought it was very well written, with its own way of making you never want to put it down! And the way Duane wove a seperate language, Ailurin, into the simple English language was most enjoyable.

This is the first book I have read by Diane Duane and I can't wait to buy the second in her feline wizardry novels, To Visit the Queen. This is truly a remarkable book with more than just magic. It shows the happiness of having ture friends and the struggles of getting new things thrust upon you with the expectancy of you not only not abandoning it, but helping and teaching it.

I highly recommend this novel to not only cat lovers, but anyone in for a gripping read.

"The Book of Night With Moon" is an epic adventure with cats. I put it this way because, as with "Tailchaser's Song" and "The Wild Road" - its antecedents in what seems to be a developing tradition of heroic feline storytelling - it helps to be a cat lover but it is far from being a prerequisite.

The four protagonists are ordinary New York cats: stealing pizza and pastrami, grooming their fur, getting into fights - but they also happen to be powerful wizards helping to save the world as part of a day's work. They do this with their wizardly skills, their good sense, their kindness and their commitment to life. And, when they become involved in a momentous battle between good and evil all of these help them in their struggle.

The four cats are enchanting, from their well-observed feline mannerisms, through their banter in "Ailurin", to their development into epic heroes - but with all their down-to-earth humour still intact.! The plot is funny, gripping, heart stopping and powerful by turn. And into this, Diane Duane skilfully works an enlightening discussion of the nature of good and evil in such a way that it seems a natural part of the story.

Cat lovers will adore Rhiow and her companions and recognise characteristics of their own cats: I am privileged to live with two feline gentlemen who have to be related to Urruah and Arhu! But this wonderful book should grip anyone who would enjoy a compassionate, exciting and thought-provoking read! Use your "One-Click" button to buy it now! You won't regret it.

This book is about a group of magical cats who are given, by the creators of the universe, the task of saving modern-day New York from being overrun by dinosaurs. Yes, that's right. As unlikely as it sounds, Diane Duane makes it seem not only sensible, but completely possible, with her ingenuity and utterly flawless style of writing. Although this book is awash in advanced theology and magical mumbo-jumbo that went way over my head (who knew there was a science to the Art?), it's absolutely unputdownable if you like fantasy even the least bit. As a side note, I absolutely relished in the fact that cats consider themselves the more dominant species and consider us "just dumb animals" (a direct quote.) I love everything by Diane Duane but this book ranks in my top five best books ever written, right after Watership Down and the His Dark Materials trilogy. Never has magic seemed more realistic!! PLEASE read this book and release yourself from the world of Harry Potter hangers-on!!!

I love Diane Duane for writing such a fantastic book on cats being wizards. A catlover, I just soaked myself in it and lost myself in Rhiow's world and when she lost her 'human' I cried along with her. A fantastic world also Diane Duane depicted in Downside. A must read for catlovers who have a penchant for magic as well.

In the late fall of 1999 I first found this book, and the talent Diane Duane along with it, in a bargain bin sale at my local library. I bought it for one dollar for no better reason than that I liked the title and the read on the back of the book sounded interesting. This is not, I understand the best way to choose your reading, but I find if you read two or three books a week, it doesn't matter, you'll find the good ones eventually.

I fell in love with Rhiow almost immediately, and from that grew an immense repect and enjoyment of Diane Duane's writing expertise. I am not a finicky reader, if you tell a good story and avoid glaring grammatical errors, I'll pass over a misspelled word or a small plot hole here and there with no comment. Diane tells an excellent story.

Her world is as deep and rich and real as the one you live in. It is one of those worlds that might just put a lie to that old saying "truth is stranger than fiction." Diane somehow manages to craft this world and make it believable while allowing a story to flow steadily forward that is engaging, dramatic, tear-jerking, humorous, and paced so evenly that coming back to the story after leaving it for a week is almost as natural as after a break of five minutes. The star of Diane's show in this wonderful book, though, is Rhiow.

Rhiow is a CAT, with all the character and temper that goes with that noble title. How can anyone, who a cat has for their own, not see that this story, while fantastic, is dangerously close to the truth, at least as far as cat's characters go. My cat loved this book. I read it aloud to her over a few weekends (I'm not sure if she liked it because I sat still and talked to her for hours on end or if she's been brushing up on her English) and then gave the book to a friend and coworker of mine. After my friend finished the book and put her stamp of approval on it (she's a bigger cat-person and fantasy fan than even I am), I started keeping a copy around to give to any of my friends who turned out to be cat lovers. Yes, this book is that good.

I expected straight fantasy, with cats performing adorable acts of magic. What I got was much deeper.

When I put down the book I took with me the lesson that we must accept those who are different from us, and attempt to understand them, even if we are at odds on the surface. This sounds like a big lesson to get from cats, but perhaps coming from the animal world it makes more sense than if it came from humans.

Character development was terrific. I often forgot that the main characters were cats, they were developed like human characters. Also, excellent use of setting, although there was a lot of techinical jargon that I'm not used to reading.

(Ok, sorry for the pun.) In an age where most anything you read nowawadays is a copy of something else (i.e. Tolkein, ahem...) this is a wonderful bit of originality mixing Stargate, Jurassic Park and Lillian Jackson Braun's 'Cat Who' series. This is the type of novel you seek out for a bit of fresh air in the fantasy genre. Anyone looking for anything more action-packed than this is going to have to read a Dick-Jane kiddy book where it's all action (because that's the only way they can keep kid's attention!). These book fully develops it characters and the repercusions of their actions in their everyday lives. Wonderful tale masterfully told.