Dreamfall

If you love Cat and rooting for the underdog, you’ll want to add this to your collection. I don’t think the author was well as she wrote this one because it was pretty disjointed and ended very abruptly. I think she’d been in some kind of accident (I could be wrong though) and wasn’t able to focus on the storyline. The overarching story fell flat, and it was a big letdown from Catspaw. But if you love Cat, Jule and the Hydrans, you’ll read it.

I liked Psion and Catspaw very much, but I enjoyed Dreamfall the best of the 3. It is true that the end was disappointing, as one reviewer here points out. But that's the author's prerogative.Perhaps I enjoyed the 3rd book the most, because it builds on, and transforms, the character and world of the earlier books.Perhaps it is because I am starting to get older myself, just like Cat is...

I got my copy of Dreamfall on reserve and waited on pins and needles, and I wasn't disapointed. Another fine chapter in the dramatic life of Vinge's amazing character Cat. I was very curious to see how he would fare among Hydrans. Now the burning question - how would he react if he ever met another halfbreed like himself? (hint, hint, Ms Vinge) :-)

A work of art... written almost as if she were writing for herself rather than for her readers, as if she were concentrating on creating a good book as opposed to just a popular one...

Well, she's done it again! Joan Vinge, author of the first two Cat novels, Psion & Catspaw, has produced another gripping, heart-felt masterpiece. Cat once again finds himself the pawn of an ultra-powerful corporate-state. However, _Dreamfall_ delves more into psycho-social emotional issues, dealing with Cat's heritage as a hydran/human halfbreed, how this effects his life and his views, and the psychological and emotional damage he lives with due to the loss of his psi (read _Psion_ for more details), and the consequences of using drugs to reactivate it. Here, Cat comes to a point of self-realization, of having to decide what he believes and how he wants to live his life--as a human, or a hydran? Eventually, he realizes that both have their good points, and perhaps he should accept the gifts of each. And of course, *he falls in love*. _Dreamfall_ yet again (as with the previous Cat novels) leads the reader to ponder the nature of his or her own values and world view. This is a truly beautiful, moving novel, and I've come to expect no less from this very talented woman.

Dreamfall, the last one so far written of the "Cat" series, has left me desiring a quick fourth helping. Psion, the first book was good; Catspaw, the second, was intriguing. But - Dreamfall was so outstandingly entertaining yet so different... Being a telepath (who has somehow supressed his gift, without wanting to) and a halfbreed on his home planet was bad enough, but being on his non-human parents' planet and falling into "Murphy's Law" was excellent, add the uniqueness of the "cloudwhales" - now you have the spice! Ms. Vinge will be added to the special place in my library where I keep all the greats - McCaffery, Lackey, Bujold, Asimov, Hambley and Zimmerman-Bradley; and now Vinge. To be read and reread for years to come