Catseye by Andre Norton

This is the first book by Andre Norton I have read, and it was certainly intriguing.
Catseye is classed as Juvenile or Young Adult fiction, and it is a coming-of-age story about a young man named Troy Horan who is an orphan living in ghetto for subcitizens on an alien planet.
Young people may relate to Troy's thoughts on how to carve out a place for himself in the world. He manages to secure employment in a business selling offworld animals as pets, and he hopes to pursue a career there. But the chance discovery that he shares a telepathic link with certain animals imported from Earth derail his plans and turn him into a fugitive on the run from both the law and certain dangerous underworld figures.
Fleeing into the wild with five animals, Troy eventually enters a maze of subterranean tunnels under the remains of an ancient alien city where a scientific expedition was previously lost under mysterious and frightening circumstances. This part of the story reminded me a little of At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft.
Through all the danger and uncertainty, Troy is able to find a measure of true companionship with his animal friends, even though these look, think and feel differently than he does.
This novel was written in 1961, around sixty years ago, but clearly advocates the protection of the natural world and its resources. It also shows the need to be honorable in dealings with others, while maintaining a healthy wariness of their possibly sinister motives. Another theme which is emphasized is how wars and political machinations often selfishly set the wants of the few over the needs and rights of the many. Although Catseye is written in the style of an action adventure and thriller, all of the above elements are woven into a memorable narrative set in a convincingly realistic fictional society.
I think that a couple of complaints could be that the characters except for the protagonist are not very three-dimensional, and the expectations created by suggestive occurrences in the passages beneath the abandoned alien city are not brought to an entirely satisfying conclusion, but apart from these weaknesses the story is told in a competent and engaging manner.
I will certainly go on to read more books by Andre Norton.
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Another of my real favourites from my childhood. talking to animals and science fiction, and I never noticed that there were no female characters at all! ( )

Set on the pleasure world of Kowar, generally considered to be the jewel of the local sectors and one of the few planets that still thrived after the latest interstellar war had left it's trail of burnt off world and destroyed fleets, with Terra demoted in the subsequent peace treaties. And amongst the hordes of refugees from the worlds destroyed and traded between the victors. One such was Troy Horan who was stuck in the dipple, the refugee camp hidden away in corner where the rich and powerful couldn't see it. Troy's father had died in those wars and his mother in the despair of the camp leaving Troy to keep body and soul together by the occasional day job offered by the merchants of Korwar looking for temporary, and cheap, workers. Troy reckons he's got nearly the perfect job when he lands a week long contract with Kyger's Pet Shop, purveyor of rarities to the rich and powerful of Korwar and it's visitors. When Zul, Kyger's assistant is injured and the contract is extended until the strange man is fit enough to get back to work he's near enough in heaven as he looks after Kyger's pets, especially the imported fussel that only he could handle. A creature brought in from far Terra took his attention, however as he became aware of thoughts that could only eminate from the creature. But sold to a local potentate, he doesn't think anything of it until the creature is sent back to the shop after its owner dies in mysterious circumstances and in the meantime, more Terran creatures ended up in Kyger's shop and by this time, Troy realises there's something odd about Kyger and his setup but it isn't until the shopkeeper is killed only to be found by Troy with a strange device in his hands that the young man is made aware that Kyger is a member of a spy team trying to expand Tera's lost influence and he escaped retribution for the murder into the wilds of Korwar, overseen by the mysterious clans only to call up the mysteries of a lost alien civilisation.

Despite Troy's abilities to hear the thoughts of the Terran animals, this doesn't seem to be related to the Beats Master skills as described in that series of books, and is definitely not to be considered to be part of that series, as Earth is still an inhabited planet in this novel. It's particularly interesting in that the alien technology is a fairly minor part of the story, and it's probably the nearest that Andre Norton comes to writing a mystery novel. ( )

This was a middle-of-the-road read for me. I wasn’t engrossed by it, but I wasn’t bored either. It was a cute and moderately entertaining story that didn’t stand out to me in any way. I hardly even know what to write about in my review.

The story follows a young man named Troy who is unemployed and looking for work. He receives an unexpected job offer to work at an exotic pet shop, where he begins having unexplained telepathic communication with some of the animals.

To me it felt like the author had developed an interesting and detailed world to place her story in, but then she only skimmed the surface of it when she actually wrote the story. For example, I was very interested in the creepy alien ruins she introduced. We were given a hint of an interesting background story about the ruins and it served as a backdrop for part of the action, but the mystery surrounding that area remained a mystery. Even the main plot that Troy got caught up in wasn’t really fleshed out in much detail

I did enjoy Troy’s interaction with the animals, but there wasn’t a lot about this story that really grabbed me. It’s really short though, so it was a fast read. ( )

This is a short SF novel, which is one of those fantasy stories that disguise as SF.

There is a city called Tikil on the planet Korwar. It has its district for unfortunate, named Dipple. There only three ways out of it: legal employment in Tikil, work for the strictly illegal but flourishing and perilous Thieves’ Guild; or he could sign on as contract labor and be shipped off world in deep freeze with no beforehand knowledge of his destination or work. Here lives our protagonist, Troy Horan. He was initially from another planet, but old interstellar war forced his relocation. He is dirt poor and despised by both legal citizens and other Dipplers. A classic young misfit.

He gets a work contract with the seller of exotic creatures, including rare animals from Earth. The work already heavily relies on contraband, but is it the only crime? Troy finds himself bonded with Terran animals and on the run, with many different groups on his tail.

Fast easy yarn without a pretenses of being a groundbreaking SF, initially written as a juvenile or what is today called YA. Colorful in a nostalgic way, like Technicolor Wizard of Oz – you see that the colors are wrong, but it is still a pleasure for the eye.

“Men have used animals as tools,” Troy said slowly, trying to fit into words something he did not wholly understand himself. “Now some men, somewhere, have made better tools, tools so good they can turn and cut the maker. But that is not the fault of the tools—that they are no longer tools but—”
“Perhaps companions?”
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