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The Named: The Complete Series
All five books in one This fantasy epic about sentient prehistoric wild cats is “powerful, moving, and memorable” ( Booklist , starred review).
In this adventurous series by a PEN Award–winnning author, Ratha belongs to the Named, a clan of intelligent prehistoric cats who roam a primal landscape and battle for their lives against the savage enemies that stalk the territory.
Ratha’s Creature : Young Ratha is a herder, not a hunter. But when she’s exiled from her clan after mastering the power of fire, she must survive the unforgiving wild with only her blazing “creature” to aid her.
Clan Ground : Ratha’s ability to control fire could help her clan grow stronger and even dominant—or wreak havoc from within. Now, she must choose the correct path to prosperity, or the Named will surely be doomed.
Ratha and Thistle-Chaser : When Ratha clashes with a cat who guards an ocean and its creatures, the two discover a common bond—and unite against a demonic enemy.
Ratha’s Challenge : The Named encounter another tribe, and Ratha is torn between friendship and conquest. But her daughter may hold the solution—if she and Ratha can overcome their dark past.
Ratha’s Courage : When Ratha’s clan shares the power of fire with another tribe, a disastrous blaze ignites a clash between them, and it’s up to Ratha to end the carnage.
In this adventurous series by a PEN Award–winnning author, Ratha belongs to the Named, a clan of intelligent prehistoric cats who roam a primal landscape and battle for their lives against the savage enemies that stalk the territory.
Ratha’s Creature : Young Ratha is a herder, not a hunter. But when she’s exiled from her clan after mastering the power of fire, she must survive the unforgiving wild with only her blazing “creature” to aid her.
Clan Ground : Ratha’s ability to control fire could help her clan grow stronger and even dominant—or wreak havoc from within. Now, she must choose the correct path to prosperity, or the Named will surely be doomed.
Ratha and Thistle-Chaser : When Ratha clashes with a cat who guards an ocean and its creatures, the two discover a common bond—and unite against a demonic enemy.
Ratha’s Challenge : The Named encounter another tribe, and Ratha is torn between friendship and conquest. But her daughter may hold the solution—if she and Ratha can overcome their dark past.
Ratha’s Courage : When Ratha’s clan shares the power of fire with another tribe, a disastrous blaze ignites a clash between them, and it’s up to Ratha to end the carnage.
1013 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 3, 2017
44 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Clare Bell
37 books218 followersI've been really busy with the Ratha's Creature Graphic Novel project! The idea of adapting Ratha's Creature as a graphic novel is now moving much closer to reality. Our Kickstarter is 75% funded, with 5 days left.
http://bit.ly/rathakick
Tod, Dani, Ian, and Sheila have put together a real treat for Ratha fans -- a music video about how the artists are developing and visualizing Bonechewer for the Ratha graphic novel.
See it here at: http://youtu.be/CTJ_UilUX2A
To promote it, project artist Tod Wills
is doing a Livestreaming art marathon:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/icon-day
His info headquarters for the livestream is:
http://djinni.livejournal.com/475140....
Here is a graphic you are free to use to link to the kickstarter:
http://todwills.deviantart.com/art/Ra...
Quick Kickstarter link
http://bit.ly/rathakick
If you like what you see, please pledge on Kickstarter.
A sample page from the Graphic Novel and the promo image are in my Goodreads photos, so take a peek.
I've put more info in the blog below:
If this graphic novel takes off, I will also be further inspired to write more Ratha books!
Another good thing is happening! Imaginator Press and I are exploring the possibility of doing a Ratha's Creature graphic novel! To measure reader interest, we have a survey here, so please participate.
http://imaginatorpress.wufoo.com/form...
By filling out the survey, you'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate from the offline or online bookstore of your choice. Help us out and perhaps win something nice to read.
Many good things have happened since my last update. The first, and best is that Sheila Ruth of Imaginator Press worked with me to get all of the Ratha books back into print. You have probably seen them on this site, in trade format, and gorgeous new covers by artist Lew Lashmit, re-copyedited (though not word of the story changed!) and lovely new interior and graphic design by 1106 Design.
The books are also available in many formats from E-Reads, Amazon, and other sites. I've set up an online bookstore on my webpage so that people can by autographed editions.
I've been publicizing the series by attending many conventions and events. Sheila and I also ran a Ratha fan art contest on the Facebook series fan page ( http://www.facebook.com/rathaseries ) and Wildfire, which was great fun and the artists enjoyed it. We also showcased about 10 artists by posting interviews and images on my upgraded webpage, http://wwww.rathascourage.com.
Even though many of these activities took me away from Goodreads, I'm glad to be back and to support Imaginator Press's Ratha's Creature giveaway.
I've also been reading lots of good books and I will be cataloging and commenting on those as well.
Clare Bell
11/7/2011
Wow, it has been a great Spring 2009!
From March 14 to May 9, I posted an experimental Ratha novelette on Twitter, entitled "Ratha's Island", which kept me very busy. You can find the entire story archived here:
First archive for Ratha's Island on the Forum http://forum.rathascourage.com/index....
While visiting the Forum, check out the Named role-play at: http://forum.rathascourage.com/index....
Ratha's Courage was a finalist for the Ursa Major Awards, and is still in the running for the ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award/
In January, I attended Further Confusion 09 in San Jose as a Guest of Honor and had a great time. I plan to go again to FurCon 2010.
Ratha's Courage is on the Ursa Major Awards Recommended Reading List for Novels. The Ursa Major Awards are the furry/anthropomorphic community's equivalent of the SF world's Hugo Awards http://www.ursamajorawards.org/ReadLi...
Ratha and the Named on Twitter! See the ClanChirps, http://www.twitter.com/rat
http://bit.ly/rathakick
Tod, Dani, Ian, and Sheila have put together a real treat for Ratha fans -- a music video about how the artists are developing and visualizing Bonechewer for the Ratha graphic novel.
See it here at: http://youtu.be/CTJ_UilUX2A
To promote it, project artist Tod Wills
is doing a Livestreaming art marathon:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/icon-day
His info headquarters for the livestream is:
http://djinni.livejournal.com/475140....
Here is a graphic you are free to use to link to the kickstarter:
http://todwills.deviantart.com/art/Ra...
Quick Kickstarter link
http://bit.ly/rathakick
If you like what you see, please pledge on Kickstarter.
A sample page from the Graphic Novel and the promo image are in my Goodreads photos, so take a peek.
I've put more info in the blog below:
If this graphic novel takes off, I will also be further inspired to write more Ratha books!
Another good thing is happening! Imaginator Press and I are exploring the possibility of doing a Ratha's Creature graphic novel! To measure reader interest, we have a survey here, so please participate.
http://imaginatorpress.wufoo.com/form...
By filling out the survey, you'll be entered to win a $25 gift certificate from the offline or online bookstore of your choice. Help us out and perhaps win something nice to read.
Many good things have happened since my last update. The first, and best is that Sheila Ruth of Imaginator Press worked with me to get all of the Ratha books back into print. You have probably seen them on this site, in trade format, and gorgeous new covers by artist Lew Lashmit, re-copyedited (though not word of the story changed!) and lovely new interior and graphic design by 1106 Design.
The books are also available in many formats from E-Reads, Amazon, and other sites. I've set up an online bookstore on my webpage so that people can by autographed editions.
I've been publicizing the series by attending many conventions and events. Sheila and I also ran a Ratha fan art contest on the Facebook series fan page ( http://www.facebook.com/rathaseries ) and Wildfire, which was great fun and the artists enjoyed it. We also showcased about 10 artists by posting interviews and images on my upgraded webpage, http://wwww.rathascourage.com.
Even though many of these activities took me away from Goodreads, I'm glad to be back and to support Imaginator Press's Ratha's Creature giveaway.
I've also been reading lots of good books and I will be cataloging and commenting on those as well.
Clare Bell
11/7/2011
Wow, it has been a great Spring 2009!
From March 14 to May 9, I posted an experimental Ratha novelette on Twitter, entitled "Ratha's Island", which kept me very busy. You can find the entire story archived here:
First archive for Ratha's Island on the Forum http://forum.rathascourage.com/index....
While visiting the Forum, check out the Named role-play at: http://forum.rathascourage.com/index....
Ratha's Courage was a finalist for the Ursa Major Awards, and is still in the running for the ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award/
In January, I attended Further Confusion 09 in San Jose as a Guest of Honor and had a great time. I plan to go again to FurCon 2010.
Ratha's Courage is on the Ursa Major Awards Recommended Reading List for Novels. The Ursa Major Awards are the furry/anthropomorphic community's equivalent of the SF world's Hugo Awards http://www.ursamajorawards.org/ReadLi...
Ratha and the Named on Twitter! See the ClanChirps, http://www.twitter.com/rat
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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January 6, 2025DNF at 30%
I found this book underwhelming after all the good things I had heard about it. The story follows the life of Ratha an intelligent prehistoric cat who discovers the secrets of fire.
From what I did read Ratha seems to follow the standard heroes journey. The story is fine. The prose is tedious and hard to follow. There is a detachment in the writing that meant I never really connected with any of the characters are events. Ratha endures some truly horrific abuse in the first novel and none of it left any kind of impression on me.
This book does tend to fall into the trap these types of books fall into- in that the animal protagonist acts more like a human than a cat.
And the conflict of intelligent cats v unintelligent cats really rubbed me the wrong way. Ratha 's reaction to ,what is in essence her own disabled child, really soured any sympathy I had towards her to begin with.
It's a fair enough children's book for 1993, unfortunately it really does show its age in some respects. Pair that with uninteresting prose and an unsympathetic protagonist and it failed to hit the mark for me.
I found this book underwhelming after all the good things I had heard about it. The story follows the life of Ratha an intelligent prehistoric cat who discovers the secrets of fire.
From what I did read Ratha seems to follow the standard heroes journey. The story is fine. The prose is tedious and hard to follow. There is a detachment in the writing that meant I never really connected with any of the characters are events. Ratha endures some truly horrific abuse in the first novel and none of it left any kind of impression on me.
This book does tend to fall into the trap these types of books fall into- in that the animal protagonist acts more like a human than a cat.
And the conflict of intelligent cats v unintelligent cats really rubbed me the wrong way. Ratha 's reaction to ,what is in essence her own disabled child, really soured any sympathy I had towards her to begin with.
It's a fair enough children's book for 1993, unfortunately it really does show its age in some respects. Pair that with uninteresting prose and an unsympathetic protagonist and it failed to hit the mark for me.
September 4, 2022
I know I love a series when it ends and I'm disappointed that it did. I couldn't wait to read each of these books and I thoroughly enjoyed all 5 of them. Bell's development of the characters and plot of each of the books was brilliant, and I found myself loving Ratha, Fessran and Thakur from the beginning. Bonechewer and Thistle are 2 of my favourites and I find myself wanting to know what will become of Thistle and Quiet Hunter. What will their cubs be like? Will Ratha have another litter? So many frustratingly satisfying questions left as the series ended. If I'm to be very hard, in Ratha's Courage, there were too many repetitions of Ratha's missing her cubs which hinted very strongly of what was to happen later. Other than that, I loved this series. If you get your hands on these books, I'm sure you will too.
May 13, 2019
Smart cats
A very good read about smart cats. She develops the intelligence of cats and how they figure out how to be smarter.
A very good read about smart cats. She develops the intelligence of cats and how they figure out how to be smarter.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews