ANTHRO's index of anthropomorphic literature

A Bibliography of Feline Fantasy & SF Novels for Adults
Compiled by Fred Patten

Note: This is a fraction of the entire listing. If you’re on broadband, try the high speed version instead.

This is a list of adult novels, and those Young Adult novels that are mature enough that adults will enjoy reading them, which feature intelligent/talking cats. They range from fantasies with talking ‘natural’ cats to science-fiction novels about felinoid aliens and bioengineered intelligent cats.

Not included are novels in which intelligent cats are only minor background characters, or SF novels with alien cats that are not anthropomorphized such as Alan Dean Foster’s Cat-A-Lyst and Jack Lovejoy’s Outworld Cats, or “cat lovers’ mystery” novels in which the cats are normal cats which do not detect. (Koko, in Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who series, may be an abnormal cat, but he is not an anthropomorphized cat.) Also omitted are the many anthologies of cat fantasy or mystery short stories, since usually less than 50% of those stories feature intelligent cats.

These listings are of first editions; many of the titles are out-of-print. When a book is currently available, its title is an Amazon.com link via which that current edition may be purchased, if desired.


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Reed, Christopher

A Manx McCatty Adventure: The Big Scratch
Illus. by Tom Newson
Ballantine Books
Nov 1988
117 p.
A feline pastiche of hard-boiled P.I. novels. Manx McCatty, the streetwise San Francisco P.I., is hired by ‘respectable cream-lickers’ to break up Gato Nostro crimelord Tabby Tonelli’s racket of snatching gentle, comely female housecats to sell into prostitution abroad.
Der Fluch der Weißen Katze: Ein Katzenkrimi mit Manx McCatty
Bastei Lübbe Verlag
1996
Sequel to The Big Scratch, thus far published only in Germany.

Richardson, Bill

Waiting for Gertrude: A Graveyard Gothic
Illus. by Bill Pechet
Douglas & McIntyre
October 2001
[vi] + 184 p.
Celebrities buried in Paris’ famous Père-Lachaise cemetary (Chopin, Bizet, Oscar Wilde, Proust, many others) are reborn as the feral cats in the cemetary. They continue their intellectual lives in cat bodies. Alice B. Toklas feeds the cats aphrodesiacs to increase the kittens so Gertrude Stein will be reincarnated.

Rogers, Mark E.

The Samurai Cat series
The Adventures of Samurai Cat
Illus. by the author
Donald M. Grant, Publisher
May 1984
1 vol. [128 p]
Mighty Miaowara Tomokato quests throughout the world (with his bratty nephew Shiro) for vengeance against the slayers of his lord. His exploits are parodies of stereotypical adventure fantasy: Tolkien, Lovecraft, Howard, the Norse Ragnarok.
More Adventures of Samurai Cat
Illus. by the author
Tor Books
Nov 1986
127 p.
Tomokato’s continued quest leads him into parodies of Arthurian England (with an ‘Indiana Jones’), Burroughs’ Barsoom, and Star Wars. Tomokato’s brother Shimura, sister-in-law Hanako, and nephews Shiro, Huki, Duki, Luki, & Agamemnon briefly reappear.
Samurai Cat in the Real World
Illus. by the author
Tor Books
Oct 1989
128 p.
Tomokato and Shiro get involved in Prohibition-Chicago gangland wars; in helping Santa Claus lead a commando raid into Berlin, Xmas eve, 1944; and in the triple-cross werewolf killings of Stalin, Beria, & Hitler[!] in Moscow, 1953.
The Sword of Samurai Cat
Illus. by the author
Tor Books
Apr 1991
307 p.
Tomokato and Shiro’s trail of vengeance leads them to movie parodies: carnivorous zombie-mob flicks, Stephen King adaptations, Indiana Jones, sci-fi evil vegetables (pods & triffids), and generic sleazy Tinseltown mega-studio production practices.
Samurai Cat Goes to the Movies
Illus. by the author
Tor Books
Oct 1994
286 p.
Tomokato and Shiro segue into ultra-violent combo-parodies: The Wizard of Oz + Mad Max; ‘The Magnificent Seven Samurai Cats’ + spaghetti Westerns; Alien + third-season Star Trek; It’s a Wonderful Life + Terminator-style killer-robot sci-fi.
Samurai Cat Goes to Hell
Illus. by the author
Tor Books
Jun 1998
317 p.
Tomokato and Shiro and Genghis Khan’s horde mutually slaughter each other and end up on different levels of Dante’s Inferno. Tomokato seeks to slay Satan, while Shiro just wants to escape. Among the characters they meet in their pun-filled adventures are Ubersaurus Rex’s Nazi tyrannosaur troops, and Shiro’s family.

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Said, S. F.

Varjak Paw
Illus. by Dave McKean
David Fickling Books
Jan 2003
256 p.
Varjak Paw is a pedigreed Mesapotamian Blue cat living with his family in the home of the Contessa. When an ominous Gentleman takes over the house, Varjak must journey into the city and learn to live and fight among the feral alley cats while seeking a dog powerful enough to defeat the Gentleman and his deadly cats.
The Outlaw Varjak Paw
Illus. by Dave McKean
David Fickling Books
Nov 2005
266 p.
Varjak Paw and his alley cat friends Holly & Tam are content to live free by themselves. But brutal Sally Bones forces all the feral cats in the city to join her gang, and proclaims Varjak Paw an outlaw for refusing to accept her rule. Varjak finds himself the inadvertent leader of all the rebel free cats.

Sarrantonio, Al

The Haydn of Mars trilogy
Haydn of Mars
Ace Books
Dec 2004
262 p.
Mars is inhabited by evolved cats millions of years in the future. Haydn, daughter of the last king, is threatened when the F’rar clan proclaims their leader Frane the new queen. During Haydn’s flight to her supporters, she learns that Mars’ terraforming is breaking down and the planet may soon become lifeless.
Sebastian of Mars
Ace Books
Oct 2005
214 p.
A generation later, Haydn’s son Sebastian is crowned; but Frane leads a new rebellion. Sebastian, a sickly youth, flees in disguise. Among the new friends he finds are the Downers, who live in caverns under Olympus Mons and look like feline Morlocks. The Science Guild supports him when he promises to help them restore Mars’ atmosphere.
Queen of Mars
Ace Books
Jun 2006
232 p.
Clara, granddaughter of Haydn, is ready to assume Mars’ throne, but Frane strikes again. Clara must rebuild her loyalist forces while disguised as a farmer, with some old supporters and Copernicus, the protégé of the Science Guild. Frane has a doomsday weapon and threatens to destroy Mars if she cannot rule it.

Schaeffer, Susan Fromberg

The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat
Alfred A. Knopf
Sep 1997
166 p.
The autobiography of a normal suburban housecat. Foudini reports conversations and some planning with the other family pets, Sam the dog and Grace the Cat. He has dream conversations with Snow White’s cat and Freud’s cat.

Shetterly, Will

Chimera
Tom Doherty Associates/Tor Books
Jun 2000
285 p.
Human P.I. Chase Maxwell is hired by bioengineered Jaguar girl Zoe Domingo to find who murdered Zoe’s owner, a Machine Intelligence expert involved in the chimera (artificial animal people) rights movement. A hard-boiled thriller set in an explosive 21st-century America facing a human-chimera-AI civil war.

Smith, Agnes

An Edge of the Forest
Decorations by Roberta Moynihan
Viking Press
Apr 1959
192 p.
A lyrical, rather Kiplingesque story of a young leopardess who adopts an orphaned lamb for reasons of her own, with the aid of an exasperated owl and a frightened doe, and how this comes to affect the lives of all the animals in an ancient forest.

Smith, Cordwainer (pseudonym of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger)

The Planet Buyer
Pyramid Books
Oct 1964
156 p.
Rod McBan the 151st, the richest boy in the galaxy, must flee from Norstrilia to Old Old Earth to escape a deadly enemy. He is disguised as a cat-man, one of the bioengineered animal Underpeople who are the new enslaved working classes.
The Underpeople
Pyramid Books
Nov 1968
159 p.
Rod McBan is disguised as the mate of C’Mell, the most beautiful girlygirl serving the human Lords. Rod learns that she is really an agent for an illegal civil rights movement for the Underpeople. Various bear-men, dog-men, and others are met.
Norstrilia
Ballantine/del Rey Books
Feb 1975
277 p.
The original 1960 version of the novel first published in two parts as The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople.

Smith, Nick

Milk Treading
Luath Press Ltd.
May 2002
196 p.
Julius Kyle, reporter & mystery novelist in the feline city of Bast, is asked by Moira Marti to save her brother from the Wildcat street gang. Julius discovers a conspiracy to create a crime wave and blame it on dogs. When he exposes the plot despite a coverup by the city’s leaders, Bast explodes into violence.
The Kitty Killer Cult
Luath Press Ltd.
Oct 2004
192 p.
In Julius Kyle’s novel, someone is killing cats all over Nub City. Washed-up P.I. Tiger Straight is asked by Connie Hant to catch her brothers’ killers. Two rival sleuths confuse the scene; dilettante amateur detective Cole Tiddle, and Inspector Bix Mortis, the token mouse on Nub City’s feline police force.

Stevenson, Florence

Ophelia
New American Library
Apr 1968
179 p.
Rich Miss Margaret Brewster leaves everything to her cat Ophelia. Lawyer Daniel Dillon kills the cat, who is transformed into a beautiful woman. Feigning amnesia, Ophelia becomes a femme fatale playing off Daniel against Miss Margaret’s next heir, innocent nephew Julian Brewster, to regain possession of her home.

Stewart, Linda

The Sam the Cat Mysteries series
Sam the Cat: Detective
Scholastic, Inc.
Feb 1993
130 p.
Skillful pastiche of Chandleresque P.I. style. When three flats in a New York apartment house are robbed, housecat Sugary hires Sam, resident cat of a mystery-theme bookshop, to find the real human burglar to keep Max, the custodian (and friend of all the local cats) from being framed. An MWA Edgar Award nominee.
The Big Catnap: A Sam the Cat Mystery
Cheshire House Books
Aug 2000
136 p.
Sandy, a star of TV catfood commercials, disappears. There are two human suspects; one demands a ransom while the other wants to replace Sandy with his own cat actor. Sam must find which is the actual kidnapper, and enlist the help of the neighborhood cats to rescue Sandy before the villain can dispose of him.
The Maltese Kitten
Cheshire House Books
Dec 2002
135 p.
Sexy, slinkly Miss Wonderful asks Sam to retrieve her beloved kitten whom her human companion gave away for adoption. Sam guesses the truth is more complex when the trail leads to burglarized houses, unconscious humans lying next to empty cat carriers, and a tough cat gang orders Sam to drop the case.

Swann, S. Andrew (pseudonym of Steven Swiniarski)

The Moreau series
Forests of the Night
DAW Books
Jul 1993
284 p.
In the mid-21st century, ‘moreaus’ (bioengineered animal people) are the new lower classes. Nohar Rajasthan, a cynical tiger private detective in Cleveland’s moreau ghetto, gets involved in a deadly murder mystery and romance with a human.
Fearful Symmetries; The Return of Nohar Rajasthan
DAW Books
Apr 1999
280 p.
Rajasthan, the long-retired tiger P.I., is asked to find a missing felinoid teen. He refuses, but his home is firebombed. Rajasthan must find Manuel to learn who wants him and all associated with him dead, and is willing to commit genocide on the whole ’morph population of Los Angeles to get them.

Swiniarski, Steven

Author who writes under the pen-name of S. Andrew Swann

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Taiz, Lincoln, & Taiz, Lee

Libra, the Cat Who Saved Silicon Valley
Illus. by Lee Taiz
Music CD featuring Amanda Shelby & the AmSea Group
AmSea Group Publishing
Dec 2002
x + 326 p. + music CD
Commander Libra Shimagrimica of the planet of cats, Gatos, and her intelligent spaceship Voca come to Earth on a scouting mission. Voca is damaged, and Libra has to educate two Earth cats, Hank & Pinny, and save their human companions Adele & Cathy Cameron of Cameron Computers from a deadly takeover by Dogma Computer Co., to repair Voca to return home.

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Westall, Robert

The Cats of Seroster
Macmillan Children’s Books
Oct 1984
288 p.
A sullen medieval European city is inhabited by men and Miw, telepathic golden cats who worship an Egyptian god. When a sadistic, cat-hating usurper seizes the city, the Miw (led by Sehtek, Smerdis, and Amon) must turn a young human, Cam, into a hero to overthrow him.

Williams, Tad

Tailchaser’s Song
Map by the author
DAW Books
Nov 1985
333 p.
Cats are disappearing or being hideously slain. Fritti Tailchaser and Pounce-quick, a young tom and a kitten, venture forth to find Tailchaser’s missing friend. They and a mad cat, Eatbugs, find and battle demon cats from feline mythology.

Willits, Malcolm

Shakespeare’s Cat: A Play in Three Acts
Illus. by Bonnie Callahan
Hypostyle Hall
Sep 2004, [vi] + 117 + [i] p.
A play in Shakespearean blank verse. When old Amelia Carson dies and leaves her fortune to her pet cats, greedy humans attack. Cat Collette escapes to Twilight Town, a slum home of abandoned cats and dogs, and persuades brave Tomcat to join her surrealistic quest to find Shakespeare’s Cat who can save the Carson cats.

Wilson, A. N.

Stray
Walker Books Ltd.
Apr 1987, 176 p.
Pufftail (but he rejects any human-assigned name), an old British urban cat, tells his grandkit his life story, from pampered kitten to castout, to dominated member of an alley pack, then a test subject in a brutal animal experimental lab, finally an independent stray.

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Yermakov, Nikolai

Author who writes under the pen-name of Simon Hawke

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This listing was compiled for the Are There Too Many Cats in Science Fiction? panel
at L.A.con IV, the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention
Anaheim, CA, 23–27 August 2006

Please send recommendations for additions to this bibliography to Fred Patten

Please send review copies of books to: Fred Patten, c/o Golden State Colonial Convalescent Hospital
10830 Oxnard Street, North Hollywood, California 91606


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