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Book Details

Cat-A-Lyst

57.1% complete
1991
2006
1 time
Book Cover
Has a genre Has a synopsis Has comments Has an extract Has a year read Has a rating In my library 
497
No series
Copyright © 1991 by Alan Dean Foster
This book is dedicated to Boris Gomez Luna, David Ricalde, and Charlie Munn, three men of very different background who recognize one simple fact: it is better to keep one's neighborhood clean that to dirty it.

And for the people of Peru, who have had the wisdom to preserve the jewel of the world's rainforests, the great Manú.

And for Mittens, Saturn, Orca, Dusty, Peaches, and Daylight, who helped in the writing.
None on file
None on file
Comments may contain spoilers
I read this book just after I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I ordered several more Doctor Who books from amazon.com and had to wait about three weeks to get them.  I picked this up from my garage, I got it from the Science Fiction book club as one of my automatic orders and just kept it.  I had never read it after ten years.  So it goes...
Synopsis (may contain spoilers)
Jason Carter is an actor at the tail end of a Civil War movie.  Some of his co-workers are having problems with the way the movie is being made and so cause a delay in the filming.  During this delay he finds a CD-ROM on the ground and puts it in his pocket.

An unknown entity called a Monitor muses about the fact that she can tell there is something wrong with the planet she is supposed to be watching.  She struggles with the idea that it could be in her mind but decides otherwise.

The movie shoot is finally finished and Jason returns his costume to wardrobe when the disk falls out of his pocket.  Marjorie, the lady in charge of wardrobe, puts it in her computer and is able to decrypt it and find the owner's location and that there is a $1000 reward if returned.  She convinces Jason to go with her to south Georgia to return it.

They head out to Peru and find a guide.  After several days of journeying they reach a rock wall and some caves.  There is nothing extraordinary about them so they plan to leave the next day.  That night they are confronted by Fewick and held at gun point so they would tell the world about the discovery.  They try to explain that they have no interest but to no avail.  Moe, Fewick's cat, chases Macha, a cat that Jason had found and brought along with them, into the forest.

Some archaeological treasures are found but before much more can be done da Ramini, a lady from the town Cuzco that Jason had talked to before, shows up with two men armed with AK-47's.  They tie Jason, Ashwood, Igor and Fewick up and start looking for treasure themselves.  They find hidden stores full of gold and the prisoners assume that they will be killed.  Suddenly a woman with a video shows up.  She is Tran Ho, a journalist that was asking Jason questions on the set of his last movie.  It becomes apparent that she is not out to rescue anyone, however, since she just wants a good story.

After a while of exploring the caves, da Ramini and her companions discover an egg-shaped item that they require Fewick to look into.  After he gets to the scene, his cat Moe shows up and decided to jump onto the egg.  The egg starts to glow and then a brilliant light envelops the group.  They soon discover that they have been teleported to Nazca, another ruin, about 200 miles away.

The group enters back into the cave there and place the cat back on the egg thinking that it will take them back to Paititi.  Instead they are transported to another world where they meet the descendants of the Incans. 

These people have advanced technologically with help from a race they call Those-Who-Came-Before.  These are the people that left the matter transmitters and they also left teaching machines.  The Incans decide that, since the matter transmitters are working again, they will return to Earth and take out their revenge on Spain who had conquered them.

After preparing their forces, the Incans load twelve cargo ships full of troops and send them along a different matter transporter.  The general and his entourage (along with the prisoners) take the smaller transmitter and follow.  When they get to Nazca, they find that the twelve troop transports have been filled with salt water and fish and there is no sign of their army.

That night Igor, Jason and Ashwood hear a cat in the transmitter room and the go to investigate.  It is Macha, the cat that Jason had found earlier.  They put her on the transmitter like they had Moe previously.  She starts the transmission and they find themselves back at Paititi.  Before the Incans can follow, Jason accidentally steps on Macha's tail and she jumps on the egg, clawing it.  The transmitter blows up keeping the Incans from following.

Outside Paititi, a spacecraft disguised as a palm tree, crashes and three vegetable shaped creatures emerge.  They tell Jason, Ashwood and Igor that they are Those-Who-Came-Before and that they are responding to the use of the gateway.  They agree to help them stop the Incans from taking over Europe and getting revenge on Spain because their gateway was not meant to be used for conquest.

The Incans fall back on a contingency plan that would have them use the teaching machines to help gain mind control of the European nations.  In order to do this they need to broadcast to at least 50% of the population.  They get help from Tran Ho, Fewick and the Fernandez brothers to do this by setting up a live broadcast of a science fiction soap opera using the gold they discovered in the ruins to fund it.

The new aliens neutralized the Contisuyans.  They decided that the only way the Contisuyans could attempt a take over without troops was to use the learning machine to take over peoples minds.  They set about trying to find out what they were up to.  They learned that they had been broadcasting in Europe and that they had been sending out signals to get people to hate Spain.  They also learn that England and Spain were to have a soccor tournament the day after a special presentation of the The Day Before Tomorrow, their show.  This would cause mass chaos sparking a global movement against the Spanish.

They find out from where they are broadcasting so determine that Those-Who-Came-Before (the Boojums) could modify the signal but that they would have to have a audible part with it.  Jason and Ashwood say that they will break into the studio long before anyone gets there and Jason would walk on at a specific time and start acting.  That would be the signal to the Boojums.  After some problems getting to the studio, everything eventually goes off as planned.  However, during the broadcast, Fewick's cat discovers what Jason is doing and attacks him to stop his plan from being destroyed.  Macha and the cat that came with the Boojums attack him because he revealed himself to them.  The cat is defeated and the studio burns down but none of the humans or Boojums are any the wiser about the true identity of their cats.

The Boojums shut down the gateway and leave Earth.  The Contisuyans are stranded there but they make due with their situation.  Much later, de Ramini and Fewick show up to offer Jason a part in a new movie.  They had become famous for their sci-fi soap opera and now had their own production company.  Just to show that there were no hard feelings, they were offering him a part and he accepted.

Extract (may contain spoilers)
Ashwood had found her own pack and extracted a second flashlight.  Now she played the beam over the ruins of the ovoid.
    "This sucker's not gonna be sendin' nobody nowhere for a long time.  We're safe."
    "I stepped on Macha's tail," Carter told her.  "You saw what happened after that.  She jumped on top of the transmitter and started pawing around.  Crossed some circuits somehow... I don't know."  He helped Igor bind his undershirt around his forehead.  "You're okay?"
    She nodded.  "I was farther down that you guys when it blew.  Notice the silence?"
    With a start Carter realized that the explosion had been soundless.  It seemed to him that like the build of a certain actress he knew, such a thing defied various natural laws, but then so did the transmitter itself.
    They found Macha lying stunned and apparently otherwise intact at the base of the far wall, her fur smoking slightly.  The cat responded to Carter's presence with a couple of uncertain meows.  She offered no resistance when he picked her up.  Slowly she began to preen herself.

 

Added: 24-Aug-2003
Last Updated: 30-Apr-2020

Publications

 01-Sep-1991
Ace
Hardback
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Sep-1991
Format:
Hardback
Pages*:
206
Read:
Once
Cover Link(s):
Internal ID:
312
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-727-84455-5
ISBN-13:
978-0-727-84455-2
Country:
United States
Language:
English
A sharp and sassy science fiction adventure that would have Indiana Jones begging for mercy!

CAT-A-LYST
by Alan Dean Foster


Shots ring out.  The black soldier throws himself forward, using his body as a shield to protect his Northern Captain and the beautiful Southern belle.  With the ex-slave lying in a rapidly spreading pool of blood, the Captain stoops down to hear the man's heroic last words.  But the soldier just looks up and says, "I can't do these lines, man!"

A whole new war begins as director and actor battle over artistic control, but despite such temperamental outbursts, filming is completed at last.  The Civil War officer, once again back to being just Jason Carter, civilian - at least until his agent lands him a part in some other grade-B epic - is walking off the set for the last time when he notices a glint in the dirt.  An unlabeled cd-rom.

With the aid of wardrobe mistress Marjorie Ashwood, a computer wiz who reads the cd for him, Jason learns that it belongs to a man named Fewick.  What's more, Fewick has offered a $1000 reward for its return.

Intrigued, Jason and Marjorie decide to visit Fewick's isolated Georgia mansion and return the cd in person.  But instead of gratitude and hospitality, the two receive a rather chilly welcome from the eccentric archaeologist and his tomcat, Moe.

When Fewick ends up cheating them out of the reward, Marjorie resolves to make use of the data on the cd contained - information curiosity had prompted her to decipher and copy.  Information that sends her and Jason to South America in search of a legendary Incan treasure.

In Cuzco they hire a native guide to lead them into the jungle... and unexpectedly acquire another companion as well - pleasant enough but of somewhat dubious value: a dainty, black-and-white Peruvian street cat named Macha.

Then, suspecting that Fewick and Moe may not be far behind, the expedition sets off with utmost speed, concentrating on their ultimate goal while negotiating the jungle's myriad dangers.

Yet when at last they reach their destination, they almost wish they hadn't.  For what the jungle has so successfully hidden for centuries is a secret which could unlock the way not just to treasure, but to a doom beyond imagining - a quit a few cosmic surprises.
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Book Cover
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Author(s)

Alan Dean Foster  
Birth: 18 Nov 1946 New York, New York, USA
Notes:
Alan Dean Foster (1946 - ) was born in New York City but was raised in Los Angeles, California.  He received a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and a Masters of Fine Arts in Cinema from UCLA.  He worked for a while as a copywriter for a small advertising firm.  His writing career began in 1968 and when a letter of his was published as a short story in the bi-annual magazine The Arkham Collector.  His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, was published by Ballantine Books in 1972.

Foster's work includes science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery and western fiction.  He has also written novelizations of many films including Star Wars and Alien.

His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990, the first time for a science fiction writing work.

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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