The Book of Night with Moon

The secret lives of cats are revealed as modestly heroic in this enchanting blend of epic fantasy, horror and SF set in contemporary Manhattan. Reprising concepts from her young-adult Wizard trilogy (High Wizardry, etc.), Duane, best known for her Star Trek and other media tie-in novels, chronicles the adventures of an elite corps of human and animal sorcerers in league against the Lone Power, ruler of a dark dimension known as Downside. When worldgates in the subway system malfunction and threaten our world with an invasion of Downside's saurian monsters, four feline musketeers--even-tempered Rhiow, streetwise Saash, aging Urruah and impish young Arhu--infiltrate the Lone Power's realm to find the renegade wizard responsible for the mayhem. The cats' magical experience give Duane an opportunity to elaborate the complex structure of a secret cat civilization, which includes a detailed rationale for their nine lives and even a distinct language. The feline philosophy gets a bit thick at times, but Duane punctuates long stretches of exposition with over-the-top action scenes, including a memorable Central Park concert invaded by Downside dinosaurs who put the bite on Pavarotti in mid-solo. The novel's most enjoyable interludes, however, are those in which the heroes ponder the differences between human and cat cultures. Part quest adventure in the tradition of Watership Down and part comic commentary in the style of the Morris the Cat commercials, Duane's tale purrs with charms that even ailurophobes will find irresistible. (Dec.)