Subject: Gayle Greeno: The Ghatti's Tale

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1993 17:19:31 GMT

I assume Gayle Greeno's "The Ghatti's Tale" is a first novel (okay, trilogy).
It certainly has the earmarks (okay, clawmarks), including clumsy writing,
poor control, and the mistaking of angst for characterization.  

The telepathic bond between some people and giant cats should appeal to
readers who haven't been satiated by similar bonds with horses, dragons,
unicorns, birds or (any day now) silkworms.

The story itself?  Someone's been murdering Seekers (people who form
these bonds become Seekers and use telepathic powers to mediate disputes)
and Ghatti (the oversized intelligent cats).  Some evidence points to
rogue telepaths.  Other evidence points to medical researchers who might
have a motivation for needing to understand how telepathy works.  And still
other evidence doesn't seem to make sense.  So one pair is sent to follow
the same route as the last pair to be attacked.

It's not actively bad -- for readers who like this sort of thing, this
is the sort of thing they like -- but a combination of a lack of skill
and a lack of imagination relegate this to the stale-mind-candy level
of reading.  I read it while waiting for my car's timing belt to be
replaced, which is just the sort of circumstance under which you'd want
a book like this around.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

"The death of God left the angels in a strange position."
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