Thursday 13 September 2012

Book Review: CATRINA IN SPACE

I first met Princess Catrina back when she was called Princess Caitlin, and appeared in a Chrysalis Experiment story in 2011. Little did I know where Caitl-rina's journey would take her - across 53 episodes of the Catrina Chronicles and one complete Catrina novel, the one I'm talking about here! I haven't read all the episodes yet, but I'm up to episode #48 and slowly but surely getting all caught up!

It took me a while to get around to reading CATRINA IN SPACE, but now that I have, I can say I was not disappointed. There are so many things to love about this story - the kick-arse heroine Catrina herself, the space hamsters and occasional mentions of the hamster rock band Gerballica (classic!). Undeniable heroics with a towel, and the fact that there's a woodmouse with a Southern accent called Becky-Jane. As always, the evilness of Susan and how it was eclipsed by the evilness of Murphy. The almost teaming up of Catrina and Susan (I thought the universe really was going to break at that point). And the Pen of Creation? Genius. I also appreciated that the author had ultimate control (even if he can't necessarily control his characters' sassy backtalk. haha). I guess it reassures me as a writer myself that my characters do NOT have the final say...or at least I like to think so.

I also confess that I love that I got an acknowledgement as a loyal Catriniac in the back of the book. Thanks Michael, but the pleasure really has been all mine. ;)

What I really want to do now is go through the novel again and add some of my favourite quotes (of which there are way too many to count) to GoodReads, so that you guys can get a taste of Michael Atkinson's genius comedy.



Buy Catrina in Space from Amazon.com.

10 comments:

  1. sounds intense and fun! loved reading your review! must check it out.

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  2. Very cool that you were mentioned in the acknowledgements. :)

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  3. Hey, you totally deserved acknowledging; if it hadn't been for you and the Chrysalis Experiment, Catrina wouldn't have existed to begin with. :) Thanks so much for reviewing the story; I'm so very glad you weren't disappointed. One worries about one's stories; they're like small children growing up and going out into the wide world. *tear*. :P

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  4. Cool that you were mentioned in the back of the book. If you kept reading through all those, it must be a great story.

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  5. Ooo, sounds like a good book. I haven't heard of it before. Great review!

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  6. I have never been a sci-fi or fantasy fan, but I keep getting sucked into the genres by reviews like this. (smile) I do love a good bit of humor and the thought of a hamster rock band is almost too much to pass up. I may become a believer after all.

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  7. This sounds like a fun Science Fiction book. Thanks for the review!

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  8. Sounds intriguing and fun!

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  9. Neat! Looking forward to seeing the quotes.

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Thanks for your words, me hearties! and don't forget to leave a link to your blog somewhere I can find it!