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Star Ka'at #2
Star Ka'at World
Book by Andre Norton
134 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1978
About the author
Andre Norton
734 books1,462 followersAndre Norton, born Alice Mary Norton, was a pioneering American author of science fiction and fantasy, widely regarded as the Grande Dame of those genres. She also wrote historical and contemporary fiction, publishing under the pen names Andre Alice Norton, Andrew North, and Allen Weston. She launched her career in 1934 with The Prince Commands, adopting the name “Andre” to appeal to a male readership. After working for the Cleveland Library System and the Library of Congress, she began publishing science fiction under “Andrew North” and fantasy under her own name. She became a full-time writer in 1958 and was known for her prolific output, including Star Man’s Son, 2250 A.D. and Witch World, the latter spawning a long-running series and shared universe. Norton was a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America and authored Quag Keep, the first novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons game. She influenced generations of writers, including Lois McMaster Bujold and Mercedes Lackey. Among her many honors were being the first woman named Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master. In her later years, she established the High Hallack Library to support research in genre fiction. Her legacy continues with the Andre Norton Award for young adult science fiction and fantasy.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 13, 2022
This is something I read many, many years ago. Probably when I was about 11 or 12. I remember enjoying it. I need to read it again to see if I like it as much now. I still have the very same book I read way back then!
January 30, 2018
1.5 out of 5
A bit better than the first book in the series: more plot, more action, more science, a stronger emphasis on the owner/pet role reversal… but I still didn’t care about the story or the characters and disliked the writing style/narrative voice. Also, a weak, rushed ending.
A bit better than the first book in the series: more plot, more action, more science, a stronger emphasis on the owner/pet role reversal… but I still didn’t care about the story or the characters and disliked the writing style/narrative voice. Also, a weak, rushed ending.
October 16, 2018
This was certainly a book. I think I definitely would have enjoyed this more when I was younger, but I still had a wonderful time reading it. It's smart in these incredibly subtle ways--such as how the machinery is built and used exactly as cats would use it, not to mention the fact that despite their best efforts, the humans are completely at a loss. Overall, this was just plain fun, and the illustrations only added to the distinctly 70s/80s vibe this book has.
Review cross-listed here!
Review cross-listed here!
February 6, 2020
I read the first Star Ka'at book back in the day. Now this one seems just a bit dated but I still enjoyed it. It's a juvie science fiction written when there wasn't a ton of that genre for that age group. Overall, it still holds up well.
October 3, 2016
I feel like I went a little insane reading this book. Jim and Elly Mae should have died so many times. First, when Jim decided he could fly the Ka'at's "flyer" because he'd seen someone fly a helicopter. Then, at least twice in the city. They probably would not have starved to death after losing their "cheese smears" where they marked the way back to the exit, but it would have made a satisfying ending. Oh yeah! ...and when Elly Mae decided to breach the containment bubble on an unknown power source right before the cheese smear maze. Maybe we don't break containment on the nuclear fusion/fission/alien-power-source. Maybe that wasn't a great idea, Elly Mae! Then their Ka'at companions should have killed them for entering the "no one comes back from here ever" evil city to start with looking for food (spoiler, they already had food). Instead, no one learns their lesson, there's a happy ending, and I have finished another cat book. Mow.
September 19, 2026
Star Ka'at World is the second book in Andre Norton and Dorothy Madlee's coauthored series of four Star Ka'at books for middle school kids. I didn't read the first one, but I didn't have a hard time figuring out what was going on starting on book two. Our action starts with two 10-year-old human kids (Jim and Elly Mae) on a spaceship with A LOT of cats from earth, plus a cadre of superintelligent, telepathic alien cats (Ka'ats) who have just rescued the whole lot from an impending human-caused Earth disaster. In the first book, Jim (an orphan) and Elly Mae (from a very poor family, currently living with her very sick gradma) become friends and notice that they are being followed around by a very intense black cat that they later learn is Tiro, the head of the Ka'at delegation, along with Mer, a female Ka'at that forms a strong bond with Elly Mae, including telepathy. It seems that thousands of years ago, Ka'ats sent a delegation to Earth, along with many other planets, to establish a settlement and mingle with the natives. They had telephathic bonds with some of the humans leading to things like the Egypitain worship of cats, but that faded over time. After Elly Mae's grandma dies, Tiro and Mer decide to rescue the kids as well as the domesticated cats, much to the chagrin of the other Ka'ats.
The worldbuilding on the new planet is really cool. The Ka'ats have a bunch of robots that they are able to control telepathically, including one that will make food for cats/ Ka'ats / and humans if Elly Mae can think of a human food and send it to Mer who sends it to the machine (but the machine makes it a little oddly). Jim has a telepathic bond with Tiro but it is much lighter and neither kid can send mind messages to the food robot. The kids go to Ka'at preschool and the teachers all think they are extremely dumb since their telepathic skills are so hard to develop. They go on some field trips in little flying rovers with the Ka'at teachers and domesticated cats, including one to a very human looking fortress city that the teachers tell them they can never ever go to since it is run by immortal robots that pull in Ka'ats and kill them -- apparently thousands of years ago human-like aliens lived there and that is where the Ka'ats got their fancy robots.
When Tiro and Mer get pulled away to other duties and forget to get food for the kids, they ask one of their Ka'at teachers to help but she just has the robot make them very gross kitten food since the humans are so stupid. Jim hatches a plan for the two of them to go to the forbidden city to see if they can get the human robots to make food for them, bringing along some approximation cheese and crackers that they got a domesticated cat to program into the food robot, since she would get them as a treat from the old lady who took care of her and knew what they were supposed to look and taste like (I loved that little bit). When Tiro and Mer come to rescue them, though, the Ka'ats get pulled into the killing room by the immortal robots and Jim and Elly Mae need to figure out how to rescue them.
I thought this was a fun read and the series would be great if you have a kid in your life that loves cats and sci fi. It also has very endearing illustrations. These were written in the late 1970s and it's great that it has a black character (Elly Mae) who has a lot of agency and, honestly, saves the day in the end, but not so great that her dialogue is all in a bit of a dialect. That does lighten up a tad as the book goes along. Definitely made me look a little bit differently at my cat Loretta after reading this one!
The worldbuilding on the new planet is really cool. The Ka'ats have a bunch of robots that they are able to control telepathically, including one that will make food for cats/ Ka'ats / and humans if Elly Mae can think of a human food and send it to Mer who sends it to the machine (but the machine makes it a little oddly). Jim has a telepathic bond with Tiro but it is much lighter and neither kid can send mind messages to the food robot. The kids go to Ka'at preschool and the teachers all think they are extremely dumb since their telepathic skills are so hard to develop. They go on some field trips in little flying rovers with the Ka'at teachers and domesticated cats, including one to a very human looking fortress city that the teachers tell them they can never ever go to since it is run by immortal robots that pull in Ka'ats and kill them -- apparently thousands of years ago human-like aliens lived there and that is where the Ka'ats got their fancy robots.
When Tiro and Mer get pulled away to other duties and forget to get food for the kids, they ask one of their Ka'at teachers to help but she just has the robot make them very gross kitten food since the humans are so stupid. Jim hatches a plan for the two of them to go to the forbidden city to see if they can get the human robots to make food for them, bringing along some approximation cheese and crackers that they got a domesticated cat to program into the food robot, since she would get them as a treat from the old lady who took care of her and knew what they were supposed to look and taste like (I loved that little bit). When Tiro and Mer come to rescue them, though, the Ka'ats get pulled into the killing room by the immortal robots and Jim and Elly Mae need to figure out how to rescue them.
I thought this was a fun read and the series would be great if you have a kid in your life that loves cats and sci fi. It also has very endearing illustrations. These were written in the late 1970s and it's great that it has a black character (Elly Mae) who has a lot of agency and, honestly, saves the day in the end, but not so great that her dialogue is all in a bit of a dialect. That does lighten up a tad as the book goes along. Definitely made me look a little bit differently at my cat Loretta after reading this one!
August 3, 2023
I got this book in 1979. Obviously my edition is much older than the one pictured. I got it through the periodic "book club" flyers at my elementary school. I think this one was "Troll Book Club". The cover caught my eye. A few months after I got the book, my family moved and I lost the book but never forgot about it. I found a used copy online (somehow!) and read it. I would have enjoyed it more when I was 9 yrs old. That's one of the many things that sucks about getting older - the inability to suspend disbelief when the facts don't add up. This book is a good example of many logical plot holes. I'm not going to lie - it was tough to finish the book. I'm glad I did read it, though.
Overall the story is kind of cool. Some orphaned kids end up on a planet of telepathic cats (Ka'ats). The Ka'ats put the kids right into training and developing their own telepathic powers so that the kids can communicate with all Ka'ats in fit in with Ka'at society. In spite of being well-treated, the kids (being human) get a sense they're "pets" for the Ka'ats, and they set off on they're own mini adventure. Their adventure takes them to a city run and populated entirely by autonomous robots. The mini adventure also gets them in trouble, some Ka'ats come to save them, but then THEY get trapped. Eventually, the kids find a way to shut down the mindless robot city using some kind of "energy stone", and the Ka'ats are free. Corny to the last drop! However, I can honestly say that, as a 9yr old, I would have devoured this book and my imagination would have gone off into a million directions with telepathic animals, robot cities, flying saucers, etc.
Overall the story is kind of cool. Some orphaned kids end up on a planet of telepathic cats (Ka'ats). The Ka'ats put the kids right into training and developing their own telepathic powers so that the kids can communicate with all Ka'ats in fit in with Ka'at society. In spite of being well-treated, the kids (being human) get a sense they're "pets" for the Ka'ats, and they set off on they're own mini adventure. Their adventure takes them to a city run and populated entirely by autonomous robots. The mini adventure also gets them in trouble, some Ka'ats come to save them, but then THEY get trapped. Eventually, the kids find a way to shut down the mindless robot city using some kind of "energy stone", and the Ka'ats are free. Corny to the last drop! However, I can honestly say that, as a 9yr old, I would have devoured this book and my imagination would have gone off into a million directions with telepathic animals, robot cities, flying saucers, etc.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2018
This only gets three stars. It is co-authored and I didn't feel the Norton touch in the book until the very last 2 chapters. Which was disappointing. Norton has used felines as foils in several other stories and pulled it off quite well, but as I said earlier, this one was disappointing. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the characterization of the ka'ats and the kids acted as you would expect kids to do. It just didn't have the magic I've come to expect in an Andre Norton novel.
October 26, 2023
This book was an easy but tough read. It doesn't read like as quickly as the newer childrens' books but that may be her writing style. This book is the second in the series of the Ka'ats. It's a story of a boy and girl that have left the 'real' world behind for an adventure into a world of felines. The little boy is a bit of an overthinker and doesn't seem to get opportunities to show how he knows what he knows. The little girl is a feeler. They work well together and save the day.
January 23, 2023
On the whole this is a nice continuation of the series, although I didn't like it quite as much as the first book due to several lore issues, some within the same paragraph! I guess younger readers aren't quite as sensitive to discrepancies, but IMHO it is vitally important that a fictional universe should remain internally consistent, regardless of how strange it may be.
August 26, 2025
Nice, quick and entertaining read. Intended for young adult audiences, it is perhaps not so interesting to older adults. But I had this book in my library for decades and never read it till 2024! Andre Norton is definitely a favorite science fiction/fantasy author of mine, and I enjoy the different writing styles she uses.
June 18, 2022
Starka'at World is a novella about a sentient race of cats who come to Earth to save some of their lost kindred and the two Earth children they take back with them to another world. Though this is not a kid's book, it seems like it would be suitable for children.
October 4, 2017
Ka'ats and Kids Win
Really nice story for young kids or anyone wanting to read a fast paced adventure that's also believable and clean
Really nice story for young kids or anyone wanting to read a fast paced adventure that's also believable and clean
June 21, 2020
a fun read. kids will enjoy it
January 11, 2021
Whew I was really worried!
Jim’s thoughts were different than Elly Mae, whereas she was Happy staying in the Ka’at’s home world, he was scared.. and that fear led him to explore a forbidden city! Apparently humanoid people’s loved there before and were the source of the Ka’ats aversion to Humans even though they claimed Jim & Elly Mae as kin. But an adventure and a rescue takes place and new door are opened between them to learn!
Jim’s thoughts were different than Elly Mae, whereas she was Happy staying in the Ka’at’s home world, he was scared.. and that fear led him to explore a forbidden city! Apparently humanoid people’s loved there before and were the source of the Ka’ats aversion to Humans even though they claimed Jim & Elly Mae as kin. But an adventure and a rescue takes place and new door are opened between them to learn!
February 2, 2019
This book set in an alternate world pits children against the mindset of a space faring group of cats, whose mission is to rescue their kindred on various worlds, including Earth. As part of the rescue, they pick up two youngsters who are lonely and unhappy in their new home, and afraid that if the Ka'ats decide not to continue to assist them that they could starve or be turned out in the wild.
Interesting, but not well fleshed out early adventure in space. It would be a good read for children, especially since it does not have just one race or type of beings.
Interesting, but not well fleshed out early adventure in space. It would be a good read for children, especially since it does not have just one race or type of beings.
Read
February 10, 2010In this sequel to Star Ka'at, the pet humans on the Star Ka'at homeworld begin to question their status as tolerated pets, discriminated against because they don't have the same kind of minds as their feline hosts.
Note that the last refuge of the Hsi on Zimmorah is typical of Norton's nightmare vision of cities. It's odd. So far as I know, there never has been a city on Earth resembling Norton's vision--why did she think such a thing was likely to happen?
Note that the last refuge of the Hsi on Zimmorah is typical of Norton's nightmare vision of cities. It's odd. So far as I know, there never has been a city on Earth resembling Norton's vision--why did she think such a thing was likely to happen?
June 28, 2012
Cute little sci-fi book from my childhood about kids coming to live with space-faring cats and exploring a city full of robots. One big editing error near the end; probably the result of multiple authors.
March 7, 2015
1980 grade B
2012 grade B-
Juvenile
Series book SK2
2012 grade B-
Juvenile
Series book SK2
November 13, 2015
I found Star Ka'at World a very quick read.
The story was fun and I would recommend it to a young reader, especially ones that like cats.
I rated this book a 7 out of 10.
The story was fun and I would recommend it to a young reader, especially ones that like cats.
I rated this book a 7 out of 10.
December 7, 2016
A children's book about 2 children that leave Earth with a group of intelligent space going cats. Adapting to a different culture is part of the problem resolved in the story
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews