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A review by readerpants
Barbary by Vonda N. McIntyre
5.0
Around 2010, I got a random donation in the bookdrop at my library, a hardback picture book from the Weekly Reader Book Club circa 1952 called A Little Old Man by Natalie Norton. It's one of my favorite read alouds of all time, mostly because it's DEEPLY satisfying. A little old man lives by himself on a tiny island and wishes he had a cat bc he's lonely. One day there's a huge storm that washes his house away. But then an empty, furnished houseboat washes up on the island and inside are a cat and a litter of kittens. Nobody ever appears to claim the boat and the little old man and his cats are never lonely again. It's... so self contained. So profoundly satisfying. I love it.
So honestly this is satisfying in a very similar way, not just because of the cats! It's about a girl and her cat: that's the plot. I kept expecting macro twists and turns, for the adult action to take center stage, but nope.
Everything works out. There are pretty much only women in speaking roles, but matter-of-factly. All women of color, too. Like how Asimov has no ladies and you don't really notice because there's no misogyny and then are like, oh, huh, look, no ladies I guess?
There's science and also engineers who love cats. And at the end, the aliens are like, hey, we like your cat! It makes great music! And it all ends abruptly but kind of wonderfully, the kind of vignette that I don't know if I've ever seen in SF like this. Strangely delightful and highly recommended.
(Bonus, mine came with a bookstore receipt from March 1989.)
So honestly this is satisfying in a very similar way, not just because of the cats! It's about a girl and her cat: that's the plot. I kept expecting macro twists and turns, for the adult action to take center stage, but nope.
Everything works out. There are pretty much only women in speaking roles, but matter-of-factly. All women of color, too. Like how Asimov has no ladies and you don't really notice because there's no misogyny and then are like, oh, huh, look, no ladies I guess?
There's science and also engineers who love cats. And at the end, the aliens are like, hey, we like your cat! It makes great music! And it all ends abruptly but kind of wonderfully, the kind of vignette that I don't know if I've ever seen in SF like this. Strangely delightful and highly recommended.
(Bonus, mine came with a bookstore receipt from March 1989.)