Mark of the Cat and Year of the Rat

Mark of the Cat/Year of the Rat (2002) is an omnibus edition of the Outer Regions novels, including Mark of the Cat and Year of the Rat. The second novel has never been published prior to this volume. The Five Queendoms of the Outer Regions are each associated with a particular gemstone: Vapala with the Diamond, Kahulawe with the Sapphire, Thnossis with the Ruby, Azhengir with the Topaz, and Twahilic with the Emerald. Each queendom varies in its terrain, customs and products, but all are ruled by a Queen and owe allegiance to the Emperor. Vapala is the richest queendom in water -- thus having much more vegetation -- and considers itself to be the only civilized queendom in the Outer Regions. The Emperor has grown frail and his death seems imminent. Haban-ji has ruled long and peacefully, but his passing will lead to dissension among the Queendoms. His son, Shank-ji, has openly expressed his intention to undertake the trials to be the next Emperor, thus keeping the office within the queendom of Vapala. This break with customs has irritated many traditionalists, especially in the other four queendoms. The people of the Outer Regions have a religion similar to Druidism, but they do not have gods and goddesses per se. Rather they have aware and intelligent Essences that guide each queendom and have aspects peculiar to that specific queendom. A greater Essence guides the Five Queendoms as a whole. Each child is taught how to communicate with the Essences, but some persons have greater abilities to contact and receive information from them. In Mark of the Cat (1992), Klaverel-va-Hynkkel is a native of the Queendom of Kahulawe. He is the second son of the last full commander of the queendom's forces. Hynkkel is not a warrior, showing little talent with traditional weapons. He is skillful with sling and staff, but these are considered to be merely tools of the common folk. He excels in the maintenance of the algae ponds, is talented with animals, and surpasses all others in trading with merchants, so he has been allowed to work as a servant to the House of Klaverel. Yet his father Meguiel treats him with disdain and his brother Kalikku openly calls him a weakling and tries to bully him. Hynkkel goes to market one day and is summoned to a sick animal belonging to Ravinga, the doll maker. He calms the animal and searches the mane for the salsuckers that frequently torment yaksen. Instead, he finds an evil amulet -- a desert rat tooth with strange markings -- that Ravinga knocks from his hands and ritually destroys. She then gives him a round pendant fashioned with the head of a Sand Cat by a master craftsman. When Hynkkel comes home from the market, he is met by his brother and sister. Kalikku immediately notices the pendant and tries to take it, but Melora-Kura, his sister, blocks this effort and asks to make a drawing of it for her files. Hynkkel learns that they have come to fetch him for the choosing feast of Siggura, his othe

Ms. Norton's tales in this instance (two full length novels bound into 1 volume) are set in Karen Kuykendall's Outer Regions, which previously appeared only in artwork, without actual books to provide a backstory (to the best of my knowledge). Yes, we finally have here not only a reprint of _Mark of the Cat_, but its long-awaited sequel. I'd provide separate reviews of both, but the sequel has so far appeared only in this volume, and a detailed discussion of the sequel presupposes knowledge _Mark of the Cat_.Overview: The Outer Regions are desert country, mostly lacking open water, where life depends on occasional algae pools, where in a famine year (mercifully, rather rare) the Ministers of Balance may be called out to decide which animals live, and which die - and even which people. The great sandcats of the desert are greatly feared, and are hunted despite their intelligence. Paradoxically, the great leopards forming the Emperor's guard are much revered, and as for ordinary cats, killing a 'kotti' is a capital crime.The people depend on trade between the 5 queendoms: Kahulawe, Thnossis, Azhengir, and Vapala, which have roughly similar governments (all ultimately answering to the Emperor) but somewhat different cultures. These aren't purely hereditary offices; an Emperor competes in various deadly trials to win the office, designed not only to ensure fitness but an acquaintance with the lives of his people. Even to be recognized as an adult, a youngster must pass his or her 'Solo': the youngster is knocked out and stranded in the desert, and must find his or her way back to civilization alone.Both books alternate between 2 narrators: Hynkkel of Kahulawe, and Allitta, last survivor of a fallen noble house of Vapala. Allita provides us with a close-up view of the capital in the last days of the dying emperor Shank-ji, whose son (against tradition) intends to try to win his father's office. Allitta is also apprentice to the doll-maker Ravinga, whose enchanting miniatures aren't the most magical thing about her. Primarily, though, this is Hynkkel's story.As a herder and the least-respected member of a warrior clan in Kahulawe, Hynkkel comes to his Solo late since his father doesn't think he amounts to much. The lonely rock 'island' where he awakens isn't entirely deserted, however: a swarm of the vicious rats of the desert occupy it in such numbers that they've killed one sandcat, and would have pulled down another if Hynkkel hadn't intervened with his slingshot. So it is that Hynkkel not only sees the sandcats' dance and song, but gains a blood-brother: Murri, the half-grown cub of the sandcat he rescued. So it is that Hynkkel doesn't return to his clan after his trial, but seeks a new life, leading him eventually to the capital and the dollmaker's shop._Year of the Cat_ picks up shortly after the first book, during the preparations for the coronation of the new emperor - when a fallen house such as Allitta's can request reinstatement, if she come