To Visit the Queen [Mass Market Paperback]

Diane Duane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2000

Traveling back in time to 1874 London to prevent an assassination plot against Queen Victoria, the feline wizards of Grand Central Station -- leader Rhiow and her able partners Urrah and Arhu -- must summon their powers to avert disaster in Victorian England, or else their archenemy, the evil Lone One, will warp time and trigger Armageddon. Teamed with a young Arthur Conan Doyle, Queen Victoria herself, and other historical figures, the feline wizards set out to find the forgotten magic that will rewrite history -- or the cats who can save mankind will never have existed.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"A purr at the right time can do wonders," says Rhiow, the furry, black heroine of To Visit the Queen,. Diane Duane's mettlesome cats can work wonders with more than their purring: they're wizards, capable of casting spells, walking on air, traveling through space and time, and speaking to humans--if they choose to. In this sequel to the bestselling The Book of Night with Moon, Rhiow and her team are called in to troubleshoot a malfunctioning magical portal in the London underground. Gradually, they unravel a conspiracy that threatens to twist their reality into a nightmarish alternate history--one in which Victorian England gets a boost from future science and uses nuclear technology to terrorize the world. This perfidious design rests upon the assassination of Queen Victoria, and it's up to Rhiow, Arhu, Urruah, and the London cats to save the queen.

Duane has earned an enormous following with her stories of the unending battle between the evil Lone Power and the forces of life, here championed by Rhiow and the other wizard cats. Although her stories are usually lively reads, in To Visit the Queen, Duane takes a long time to build up to the action and burdens the narrative with large lumps of magic terminology that's more than reminiscent of computer programs or mathematical theorems. But there's a lot of fun to be had from the wheels-within-wheels universes going awry, in spotting tidbits of history, and in following the chain of events as the traitor in the pride reveals its claws. --Blaise Selby --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Duane returns to the engaging world of The Book of Night with Moon, where wizardly cats guard the magical Gates between worlds and protect Earth from those who would upset the delicate balance of space and time. Based in Manhattan's Grand Central Station, the cultured feline Rhiow and her colleagues, the street-wise Urruah and precocious young Arhu, are ordered to London to investigate a malfunctioning Gate. It turns out someone has sabotaged the portal, turning it into a dangerous "timeslide" that snatches folks from their own time and pushes them randomly into the future or the past. But this is merely the symptom of a bigger problem: the evil Lone One is overwriting history by creating a world set on an alternate timeline, one in which nuclear weapons introduced long before their true era are being used systematically to destroy civilization. The crux of events?the break where the alternate timeline begins?is the assassination of Queen Victoria. In order to save the universe, Rhiow and her compatriots must save the monarch and recreate a long-lost spell to stop the expanding disturbance in the timelines; a youthful Arthur Conan Doyle lends a hand. Duane presents her usual felicitous mix of magical high adventure and humor, avoiding much of the preciousness that can infect anthropomorphic fantasy. Even those who don't fancy felines should enjoy this purr of a tale.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446608556
• ISBN-13: 978-0446608558
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,192,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane Duane was born in New York City -- a descendant of New York's first mayor -- and worked there as a psychiatric nurse before leaving the profession for the only one she loved better, the business of writing. Since the publication of her first novel in 1981, she's written fifty more, not to mention numerous short stories, comics, computer games and screenplays for TV and film, and has picked up the occasional award here and there. (She has also worked with Star Trek in more media than anyone else alive.)

Right now she's probably best known for her "Young Wizards" series of young adult fantasy novels, featuring the New York-based wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan -- in business for twenty-five years now, their most recent adventure being described in the ninth YW novel, "A Wizard of Mars" (just released in paperback).

DD shares a two hundred-year-old cottage in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland with her husband, the Belfast-born novelist and screenwriter Peter Morwood, a laid-back white cat named Goodman, and various overworked computers... an odd but congenial environment for the staging of epic battles between good and evil and the leisurely pursuit of total galactic domination. (And a lot of ethnic cooking: her own favorite foods come from the cuisines of central Europe and the Mediterranean.) In her spare time she gardens (weeding, mostly), studies German and Italian, listens to shortwave and satellite radio, and dabbles in astronomy, computer graphics, iaido, amateur cartography, and desktop publishing ... while also trying to figure out how to make more spare time.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not "Boooring"!, March 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: To Visit the Queen (Cat Novel) (Paperback)

Another reader has stated that they found both books in the series `boooring' in comparison to the books for younger reader based in the same world. I disagree with this statement. The 'Nita and Kit' books were mostly children's books and were written for children and young adults, though I agree they are some of the most amazing books I have ever read, and the fact they were written for children does not in any way hamper my love of them. "To Visit the Queen", (or as it is titled in the UK "On Her Majesty's Wizardly Service"), and the earlier book in this series ' The Book of Night with Moon' are most certainly NOT children's books, they being deeper and on a different level than the series for younger readers. I would heartily recommend both the beautifully written books in this series as well as the 'Nita and Kit' books'. None of them are in any way boring, but I would recommend being sure to read `Book of Night with Moon' before this one: for though it is possible to understand and enjoy it without the history of the pervious book, in may leave the reader somewhat confused in several places.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ailurophiles will love it!, March 26, 2003

By 

H. Lowe "dragonwife" (Omaha, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Visit the Queen (Cat Novel) (Paperback)

I just finished reading the book about 10 minutes ago! What a great sequel to "Night With Moon"... it carries forward some of the unresolved feelings and events from the first book, and leaves you feeling a bit easier about them. I do disagree with some of the other reviews that found this book too drawn-out or some of the plot points contrived. The book built up slowly but steadily, not with as much action as "Night With Moon" but with more detective work on the part of Rhiow, her team, and their new allies -- more the literary equivalent of a good suspense movie than an action-hero one. And also unlike some other reviews, I didn't think the battle with the Lone One was "tacked on" or unnecessary. In fact, it was almost inevitable after the cats foil Her plans for Queen Victoria. Think about it -- if you were a selfish, vindictive Power who was absolutely sure you were going to win, and suddenly your scheme was stopped in its tracks, wouldn't you be furious and decide to rid yourself of the "obstacles" once and for all? The book even leaves room for another sequel (maybe the further adventures of Arhu and Siffha'h?) and more bliss for cat lovers. I'll be keeping my figurative whiskers attuned for it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cats and magic--who can ask for more?, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: To Visit the Queen (Cat Novel) (Paperback)

I'm puzzled by the comment left by the Reader from Kentucky--this book is not about a powerful girl at all, but about cat-wizards whose job it is to guard our world from evil. In this story they travel back to the time of Queen Victoria in order to save her from assassination (and save our own world at the same time). If you love cats, you'll love the way the author presents them here!