Cathouse

Man-Kzin Wars #complies material from 1 and 2

by Dean Ing

This is a fixup of Kzinti stories by Ing set (with permission) in Larry Niven's Known Space universe.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

Dean Charles Ing was an American author, who usually wrote in the science fiction and techno-thriller genres.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master’s degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon (1974). It was his work in communication theory at the University of Oregon that prompted him to turn to writing in the 1970s.

Dean Ing was a veteran of the United States Air Force, an aerospace engineer, and a university professor who holds a doctorate in communications theory. He became professional writer in 1977. Ing and his wife lived in Oregon.

Much of Ing's fiction includes detailed, practical descriptions of techniques and methods which would be useful in an individual or group survival situation, including instructions for the manufacture of tools and other implements, the recovery of stuck vehicles and avoidance of disease and injury.

In addition to his fiction writing, Ing wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan. Following in the footsteps of sci-fi novelist Pat Frank, Ing included a lengthy nonfiction appendix to his nuclear war survival novel Pulling Through.

In Ing’s fiction, his characters are involved with scientific or engineering solutions and entrepreneurial innovation, elements drawn from his own experience. A lifelong tinkerer, designer, and builder, he was an Air Force crew chief and a senior engineer for United Technologies and Lockheed. His characters know how things work, and they use ingenuity and engineering to solve situational challenges. Ing's work reflects the Oregon traditions of self-reliant independence and suspicion of authority.

“Since I deplore the voracious appetite of the public for entertainment-for-entertainment’s sake,” he told an interviewer in 1982, “most of my work has a clear didactic element. . . . I believe that Jefferson’s ideal of the independent yeoman farmer should be familiar to every generation because I mistrust a technological society in which most members are thoroughly incompetent to maintain the hardware or the software.”

Reviews

[Snood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one’s difficult to rate since the two novellas vary in quality so much.

The titular Cathouse was probably a 4 or 5. Dean Ing can write action scenes masterfully, and the protagonist’s struggle with learning primitive Kzin culture is fun for the slower portions.

Briar Patch, the second novella, feels like a retread of the first just with a different primitive culture and the sexual aspects get really uncomfortable. He throws a fit that this totally unknown culture doesn’t follow his views on monogamy, constantly denigrates his partner’s looks, and repeatedly comments on the attractiveness of a 12 year old child and how he can’t wait until she’s 18. What happened to the scrawny ethnologist turned action hero from the last story? It does get better as Ing returns to his element introducing suspense and action, but it never totally gets the nasty taste of the previous section out of your mouth.

[Uri Kurlianchik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is borderline furry porn with a Mary Sue protagonist and only a vague semblance of a plot. However, it's not boring most of the time. Embarrassing, sure, but not boring.

[Chris Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cathouse is the scifi equivalent of a 'stranded in the wilderness' fiction book. There's some intriguing setup for the setting and hints at some possible mystery, but it's mostly brushed aside for the survivals story line. It's all well done, and the characters are really good, but I couldn't help feel that the plot never really went anywhere.

At the conclusion of the story they're pretty much right back where they were about 1/3 of the way in.

[Casey Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I.... have to admit that I enjoyed this book much, much more than I expected. I'm embarrassed for it, both the book and the enjoyment, but here we are. Honestly, it has *such* good bones. The concept of the zoo plant is really quiet cool. Unfortunately, the main character is a horny John Doe and nearly every decision he makes revolves around sex.

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite man-kzin war story.

The story is well written with thought and detail given to each of the characters but it was the relationship amongst the characters that makes the story for me.

There is a youtube with an AI reading of the story (along with the other stories contained in "Man Kzin Wars I" book) that can be found but i would recommend against it for all the usual reasons people do not generally like AI book readings. I will give one example. There is a character that the protagonist nicknames "Brickshitter". The AI, having obviously learned past, hard lessons, calls him "Bricks-Hitter".

[Andrew Willson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book, fitting very much into the early 90s science fiction. The characters are quite strongly archetypal and while they change over the story its more learning who they are than changing from one type to another. There is sexual content bits generally presented in a humorous manner, or at least I thought it was.

I believe the two pieces were originally novellas and were then combined into a single volume to create this book, it lists the the concept of the Man-Kzin wars as created by Larry Niven

[Leelan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am almost positive I have read this book before. But I saw this at the library just when I was needing something else to read so . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finished yesterday, 15th November.

I enjoyed it very much. It has been a long time since I read a Kzin novel and this one had everything I could ask for. I recommend it!

BTW I think I did read the first part before. It must have been in an old collection of Kzin stories.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow Ing does not quite succeed in this story line. Well told but somehow never transcends the nagging doubts laid down by other authors of the qualities of man and kzin. A good tale but not transcendent nor even, I suspect, enduring in the genre. Given his mastery of WW3, disappointing on his part.

[Lisa Hannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of Ing's best, but not bad.