The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats

by Mary E. Lowd

An angry cat who discovers the techno-mystical ability to raise mice from the dead...

A starving kitten who discovers a secret hidden in the San Francisco bay...

A witch's cat, a scientist's cat, and a cat who recognizes no owner...

In this collection, follow the adventures of the beloved tabby cat Shreddy as he faces off with zombies, ghosts, gryphons, foolhardy dogs, and all sorts of household appliances.

Then meet a series of cats whose stories will take you from heartbreak to joy, showing the magic in our own world through the reflection of a cat's eyes.

Necromouser contains four all new stories and five Ursa Major nominated stories, including "Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant."

Contains the following stories by Mary

The Necromouser
Shreddy and the Zomb-dogs
Shreddy and the Silver Egg
Shreddy and the Christmas Ghost
Shreddy and the Dancing Dragon
Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant
Songs of Fish and Flowers
Katelynn the Mythic Mouser
The Wharf Cat’s Mermaid
Magtwilla and the Mouse
Cold Tail and the Eyes
All the Cats of the Rainbow
In a Cat’s Eyes

Genres: Fantasy, Cats

198 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Mary E. Lowd is a prolific science-fiction and furry writer in Oregon. She's had more than 180 short stories and a half dozen novels published, always with more on the way. Her work has won numerous awards, and she's been nominated for the Ursa Major Awards more than any other individual. She is also the founder and editor of Zooscape. She lives in a crashed spaceship, disguised as a house and hidden behind a rose garden, with a large collection of animals, both real and imaginary, who collectively serve as her muse.

Reviews

[PJ]

This was seriously fun. The first 60 or 70% of the book Follows Shreddy and his adventures with zombies, ghost mice, and killer plants. The stories are so ridiculous it makes you think about how crazy the world must look through a pets eyes. The remaining content of the book is filled with stories of various different cats all around town. I really enjoyed the silliness that this book provided.

[Frances]

Beautifully edited and highly entertaining

A delightful collection of short tales featuring cats of all purr-suasions. I found the Shreddy stories were my absolute favorites, but the whole book is well written, beautifully edited and highly entertaining. There are sweet stories, funny stories, slightly...

[Alice]

Do you like cat stories? You don't?? What the hell's wrong with you!?

Ahem. The first group of stories in this collection feature Shreddy, a large, greedy tabby pet who lives in a state of uneasy truce with his two canine housemates and their owner, and is, from time to time, presented with weird supernatural problems and perils, usually brought on by Shreddy trying to be too mean and/or clever for his own good.

The Shreddy tales are fun but light; I'd have enjoyed coming across them one at a time in different anthologies, but found them slightly heavy going taken all together.

The 'other magical cats' of the title are a varied bunch, and it is this variety that made their portion of the book, for me, the more enjoyable one. Some have sweet stories, some sad, some funny. There's the stray who temporarily gives up her liberty for her kittens' safety; the witch's cat who sings songs to the enchanted roses in her garden; the cat of the San Franciscan wharves who meets a mermaid (perhaps my favourite); and many more.

Mary E. Lowd's cats are very feline in their actions and personalities, but with a world of busy, secret thought processes going on in their little cat heads. They are magical indeed.

[Jay]

Funny! Fantastic! A series of misadventures starring Shreddy (short for Shroedinger), a foul tempered pet cat. Shreddy works hard to keep his life within his exact preferences even as his owner attempts to expand her little family with other pets and objects of interest. Starting all problems himself, Shreddy goes on to save the household from zombies and technologies gone awry. He embraces hallucinations, confronts dragons, passes out on catnip. He successfully raises more than one monster who presumably remain thankful to him. Then, in part 2, we get glimpses of other cats going about their separate adventures. So we get the best of both worlds, a veritable spectrum of cat personalities indoors and outdoors. This is what I call a great ‘snack’ read for ailurophiles.

[Stephanie Davenport]

This was pure summer fluff in the absolute best way. The first half of the collection follows the same cat (Shreddy) through a series of connected stories and then the second half shifts into independent short stories, each offering its own little dose of feline magic and charm.
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It’s cozy, imaginative, and easy to pick up and put down. I’d recommend it to middle graders, teens, and adults who want something lighthearted and fun.
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Favorite line: “She might not always have the best taste - bringing home Susie, Cooper, all sorts of haunted electronics, and now Sweet Tooth - but at least she understood that Shreddy was a criminal mastermind."

[Katie]

I am having a bit of a cat book binge at the moment. This is a collection of short stories, the first 6 are about 'Shreddy', a cat with attitude and a strange ability involving the misuse of electricity. These are amusing tales, but the 7 short stories in part 2 titled 'Other Magical Cats' range from the amusing to the positively beautiful and sad. Songs of Fish and Flowers and The Wharf Cat's Mermaid are particularly lovely stories.

[Scott]

An Emotional Rollercoaster

"The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats" caught me completely off guard. I was expecting pure comedy. No. Not so much. While parts of this book are amusing, parts also made me cry. Other sections tugged firmly at my heartstrings.

But the book is very well done, and intelligent. I highly recommend reading "The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats"!

[Carol]

I read most of the book, hoping it would get better, then gave up. Thought it might be a book for one of my grandkids, but I wouldn't want to give it to anyone really. Such a horrible nasty cat, and the other characters weren't very likeable either.

[Melissa Scholes]

Wonderful collection

This was a wonderful collection of stories of the lives of different cats. I have never wanted to be a cat more! Awesome read. I couldn't put it down. Would highly recommend.

[Charles E. Butler Jr]

Cool cats

This was a fun read. The first set of stories are interrelated and very cool, it's fun how the owners phone apps are involved. The rest are unrelated cat stories, but very well written, like the first half. The last story I liked the best.

[Sara Sidwell]

3.5 ⭐️'s

Just a cute book full of short stories around magical cats and beings. the first half, we follow Shreddy the cat, and the second half follows different cats each chapter. Fun and light-hearted. 🥹 🐈

[Searska GreyRaven]

These were awesome. Great way to spend an afternoon. ^_^

[Johnathan]

It was a well written book on magical cats. While some of the stories were good, quite a few of them I feel needed some more work with them. However, still a nice read.

[Sarah Kelderman]

Absolutely delightful read! Recommend for all cat lovers. :)

[Anni Cameron]

suitable for tweens

The description looked good for this, but I think it missed the mark. If you miss the stories from 80s girls weekly magazines, then these will be right for you.

[Bette Wilcock]

Superb

Delightfully imaginative. Enchanting escapism for a cat owner. If you have ever had a cat, you can almost believe the stories and secretly wish they were real.

[Lynda Boots]

Magical cats

A twisting journey into the fantastic world of cats. Some stories bring tears, and some stories bring cheers, while some bring wishes unfulfillable.

[Hilton Alligood]

Wonderful

I'm so glad I decided to read this book. I'm a cat lover. The stories resonated with me. I'm eager to read more of the author's work.

[Paraskevi]

DNF. This book was not for me. I read the first two stories with Shreddy and stopped. I wanted to like this book, because... cats. But I did not like Shreddy, the story did not make sense at all...

[Christine]

collection of short stories

The Shreddy stories make up a large part of the book. They are the best part. Good characters and interesting plots.

[J.F.R. Coates]

A collection of wonderful short stories, all brilliantly portraying the perspective of many different cats. Each main character was amazing, and the stories ranged from light-hearted and fun, to utterly devastating and heart-breaking.
Definitely recommend this to any cat-lover!

[Ted Mowery]

A very cute and fun, funny read. I don't like spoilers of any sort, but if you like pets and fiction, even a bit of detective work, this is a good lighthearted read.