Star Ka'ats

~ An Omnibus for the Star Ka'at Series by Andre Norton

star.kaats.omnibus

 

Contains ~

  • Star Ka`at (1976) Published by Walker, HC, 0-802-76250-6, LCCN 75036018, $6.85, 122pg ~ cover and illustrated by Bernard Colonna
  • Star Ka`at World (1978) Published by Walker, HC, 0-802-76300-6, LCCN 77079268, $6.95, 130pg ~ cover & illustrations by Jean Jenkins Loewer


Synopsis ~

Write-ups from a fan ~

Star Ka'at

Dorothy Madlee teamed up with Andre in 1976 to pen the first book in a four-book series about Ka'ats, telepathic alien star-faring cats. Washington DC during the "Cold War" with things heating up. Jim Evans orphan living with a foster family and still is depressed over the death of his parents several months ago. While hiding from his parents in an old condemned half-torn down house He meets a large black cat who he somehow knows is named Tiro. Then he meets Elly Mae Brown a young girl (my guess is that these kids were about eight) scavenging for bottles and other things to sell to help out her grandmother with whom she lived in a broken-down one-room shanty in a slum area. She is accompanied by a large, odd-looking cat named Mer.
These two cats (or Ka'ats) are scouts sent to Earth to rescue as many of their Earth cat kinfolk as they can before a possible world war that mankind seems to be heading for. Tiro and Mer have broken the prime rule of their kind by bonding with Jim and Elly May who can hear their thoughts. When Jim's foster father is recalled to military service and Elly Mae's grandmother dies, Jim and Elly Mae follow the Ka'ats to their shuttle craft and are taken to the Star Ka'ats' home world. Hope I haven't spoiled it for anyone. This is a fairly short book 118 pages with several full-page illustrations by Bernard Colonna. Easy read: I like it. ~ PG

Star Ka'at World

This book starts where Star Ka'at ends. Jim and Elly Mae have been taken to Zimmorah, the home planet of the Ka'ats, a telepathic race of highly intelligent cats. The Ka'ats have a high-tech civilization and use telepathy to control their robots and other machinery. They try to teach Jim and Elly Mae how to control the machines, but with limited success. Worst of all, they cannot master the food replicators. They went on field trips an on one were shown a forbidden city where once dwelled a humanoid race who were enemies of the Ka'ats. Fear of being too dependent on the Ka'ats for food and other necessities causes Jim to seek out the Forbidden City. He and Elly Mae stole a flyer and entered the city. They saw bunches of robots running around cleaning and guarding and other things. Tiro and Mer go to look for the kids and are captured by the robots who try to kill them. Jim and Elly Mae in an attempt to rescue them wind up shutting down the power plant for the entire city. The Ka'ats proclaim them to be heroes and kin-friends to the Ka'at race. ~ PG

Star Ka'ats and the Plant People

Several of the Ka'ats' machines are wearing out and Tiro and Mer take Jim and Elly Mae on a scouting expedition to discover the source of metal that the former rulers of the planet used in their machines. They discover a cargo train with some of the metal that they were looking for, but they went further looking for the source of the metal and they find a seaport with a warehouse containing ingots and various-sized balls of the same substance along with a smelter. Then, Elly Mae receives a distress call from something on an offshore island. Jim and Elly Mae take a flier and discover a force field dome over the island and no place to land. They go back and take a boat to the island. There they find sentient plants that are under attack by spider-legged crabs. They chase the crabs away. Along the bottoms of some of the leaves, they see the same metal nodules as they found on shore. But---how could that be? The kids find a way to lower the force field and the Ka'ats come to help solve the mysteries of this strange island. A very innovative and nifty yarn. ~ PG

Star Ka'ats and the Winged Warriors

In this last book in the series, there is trouble on Zimmorreh. Some of the cats transplanted from Earth have not acclimatized to the peaceful ways of the Ka'ats. They want to hunt and kill like they were used to doing. This behavior is illegal on Zimmorrah. The high council decides to take some of the dissidents to one of the many colony worlds settled by the Ka'ats many years ago. They take Jim and Elly Mae to serve as hands if necessary. When they get there, they are attacked by beetles the size of German Shepherds and wasps the size of turkeys along with many other insects of similar size. They finally locate the remnants of the colony which is in dire straits. They learn of a spaceship crash many years before that seemed to have caused all if the local wildlife to grow to immense proportions. Our intrepid band finds the wreckage an manage to stop the emanations that had caused the mutations. They hope that with time that the large insects will gradually revert to normal size. They leave the now-happy misfits to help guard the colony. The End. ~ PG


Bibliography of English Editions ~

  • (2020) Published by The Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency (Worldbuilders Press), DM, No ISBN, $5.99, 238pg ~ cover by Cynthia Lucas
  • (2020) Published by The Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency (Worldbuilders Press), TP, 978-1-68068-160-0, $12.99, 238pg ~ cover by Cynthia Lucas

For information on editions currently available visit the Book Store

 

 

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