Breed to Come

Okay, so my step-grandfather got me hooked on sci-fi books.  It was an attempt to get me away from some of the more serious books that aren't actually stories (like 'Myth, Morality, and Religion' or 'The Philosophy of Tolkien') but it didn't work, because in one of books the author was talking about the relation between The Lord of the Rings and sci-fi books, so they were good examples :)


I am so glad I found the cool cover
not the creepy one.

'Breed to Come' by Andre Norton (that's a nom-de-plume, her real name is Mary Norton) is a post-apocalyptic story, which is basically what you would get if you took evolution, Humans leaving earth, very advanced technology, cats, and rolled them all into one.  Humans have been gone from our good planet Earth for quite some time.  In those long, long years Cats, Dogs, Wild Boars, and Rats have evolved and become the four dominant species, all capable of reasoning and at the very least, using simple tools.  The first three species are living very primitively near the ruins of a Human university.  Cats have developed the ability to walk constantly on two legs, and they are able to use primitive tools and weapons.  The Rats live in the ruins of the city, and not much is learned about them until the end of the book.  They are very similar to Cats, though. 

The hero of the story is a Cat named Furtig, whose ancestor Gammage left the Clans to live in the ruins of the Human university and discover their secrets.  Furtig, after losing his chance at the Trials (a contest between the males so the females have a chance to choose their mate), decides to follow Gammage and the many Cats who followed him.  When he finally arrives, Furtig discovers that Gammage and the Cats under him have made tremendous progress discovering how to use the Human's technology, and why the Humans left in the first place.  Even so, Gammage is very concerned that the Humans will return, and soon, to reclaim their home planet.

The story is very complex, and there is so much about the technology of the Humans that is never explained.  There is an extremely interesting plot twist, which I never really expected, but probably should have.  I wish I could rant about it, but I'm going to restrain myself.  There is not much conversation throughout the book, which is usually what it takes to keep me occupied with a  book, otherwise I will read through three full pages without actually registering what was happening, then I have to go back and re-read.  But the book kept my attention the whole way through!  I absolutely could not put it down.  If it was possible to read all the time (literally) I would have read this book while I slept!


I give this book an: A-
The book was really good, and I love, love, love the plot, however, nothing really relevant to the plot happens until you're almost half way through the book.  Okay, stuff happens, it's just very slow.  After reading more Andre Norton books I find this rather typical of her.  There is also not a whole lot of character development, which in NOT typical of Andre Norton.

I would TOTALLY recommend this book!

Oh, and one thing I LOVE about Andre Norton's books is that she proves that romance is not required to make a good book :D