Customer Reviews

Star Ka'at World (Star Ka'at, Bk. 2)

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For practical purposes, this picks up where _Star Ka'at_ left off. Jim and Elly Mae were adopted by Tiro and Mer, respectively, and rescued from the threat of atomic war on Earth along with refugee cats (descended from Ka'ats who were stranded on Earth thousands of years ago). These two children show potential for learning the abilities of Ka'ats - Elly Mae in particular has a greater talent for mind-send than humans have shown for hundreds of generations.

After being taken to Zimmorrah, the Ka'at homeworld, in suspended animation, they are processed much like the rest of the newcomers. They're decontaminated, given their own quarters, and sent to school. Here the curriculum is centered around learning to use psychic talent, something even Ka'ats have to be taught, and important facts about dangerous animals and the like on Zimmorrah - for instance, the abandoned city of the Hsi, another intelligent species that once shared the planet. Cause of death - xenophobia, which flared up at the discovery that Ka'ats were an intelligent species. All Ka'at technology was originally derived from Hsi technology (any questions about how Ka'ats manage a spacefaring civilization without hands are covered by this volume).

As it turns out, though, the machines that the Ka'ats now operate by thought will not work for the children. They are dependent on the older Ka'ats even for the food they eat. Then Jim has the idea of running away to explore the old Hsi city...

The children's rash decision to try to enter the old city can be explained (considering that they're only about 10 years old), and they quickly discover that it was *not* a good idea. There are other points that can't be explained away quite so easily, though. The senior Ka'ats explained very carefully to Mer and Tiro in _Star Ka'at_ that they would be held responsible for the children's actions, so the conclusion of this book seems too painless, even if you accept how easily some really dangerous situations were resolved. Also (nitpicking, now) why did the ship land, let the kids out, *then* call them back inside and move to the landing facility? Why not just go through decontamination in the first place?

All in all, this is an OK sequel to _Star Ka'at_ (which is the best book in the series to date).

Star Ka'at World
(1979)


This is the second book in the Star Ka'at series, following Star Ka'at.

The characters in this book that you met in the first book are:

Humans:
Jim, a recent orphan,
Elly Mae, a young girl who lives with her sickly Granny

Star Ka'ats:
Tiro, the team leader and first scout,
Mer an assistant scout.

In this book you'll read about:

Jim and Elly Mae transported to Tiro and Meran's world, Zimmorah.


Jim and Elly Mae attend Pre-School


Jim and Elly Mae learn about Psionics

The His

The City of the Dead


I recommend this book and series for Andre Norton fans and bright juveniles.

Gunner November, 2009

Then I re-read it. Yup, it's still a lovely classic about a world of telepathic cats, and the stray human children those cats adopted ("they followed me home! can I keep them?"). Xenophobic, extinct humanoids have left their mark on the ka'at world -- and it turns out that opposable thumbs can be handy in turning those ancient deathtraps *off*.