I love Duane's "Young Wizards", but had only heard of this companion book once. But regardless, knowing how successful Duane is in writing I had to snag this book when I saw it for sale at a used book store. Seriously, $3.50 is a steal. The entire cat culture described in this book is phenomenal; so detailed and yet also not entirely fiction. Yes, this is a fantasy novel, but everything is so plausible. If cat wizards did exist, they would behave exactly like this. And the word crafting! Duane has this wonderful ability to write about about magic in terms of science, blending the two together that I'm absolutely convinced most of this stuff could really happen. Comparing the infrastructure of portals to other worlds to plant physiology gives everything this advanced and mystical feeling that maybe, just maybe such things can actually be true. And the meshing of different stories from a variety of cultures is superbly done. It's impossible to read this book, or any others by her, with out stopping to think of how it relates to the world as you perceive it. Definitely something not only to re-read, but save for you kids.





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