About the Author

Former singer, shoe-seller and radio show host, Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, and Otherland series have established him as one of the most internationally popular fantasy authors of recent years.

Reviews

YA Animal epics are popular with YAs, and this one should prove no exception. Tailchaser, an orange-and-white striped cat, journeys to find his female friend Hushpad. She, like many of the other cats, has disappeared and the Folk (cats) are worried that something is amiss. Tailchaser realizes the severety of the problem when he is captured by several large cat-like creatures and forced into slavery in a subterranean world. Tailchaser's adventures are often violent but always exciting. Williams has used the language of the animals, both the ``Common Language'' and the ``Higher Singing,'' but he has included two appendixesa glossary of terms and a descriptive list of characters. A map showing Tailchaser's route will also be of great help to readers. Fantasy lovers will lose their heart to Tailchaser and his companions Pouncequick and Roofshadow. Pam Spencer, Mount Vernon High School Library, Fairfax, Va.

Fritti Tailchaser a young ginger tom not yet a full grown hunter, is the main catamong a host of appropriately named feline peersin this extravagantly detailed fantasy. When his best friend, Hushpad, vanishes, Fritti embarks on a quest to find her, and so enters the list of jousters against the evils of the world. His many trials and adventures bring him into contact with a veritable galaxy of cats, who speak a language for which a glossary is provided. This feline epic culminates in a decisive battle with an evil cat god. Creating as fully realized a habitat as that of Watership Down and other imaginative animal communities, California radio personality Williams's first novel should engage the fancy of cat lovers. November 21