Subject: Murphy: The Catswold Portal (spoilers)

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: 20 Aug 92 18:47:01 GMT

Shirley Rousseau Murphey is the author of a number of competent, but not
exceptional, young-adult fantasies, including the Dragonbards Trilogy and
the Ring of Fire Quintology.  The cover describes "The Catswold Portal" as
her first adult novel, but it isn't.  It's juvenile fiction with some
adult fiction plot elements.

The Netherworlds are a group of subterranean lands where magic works,
modern technology doesn't, and the denizens are Elves, Dwarves, Harpies,
Griffons (no, it's not Xanth)...and a race of were-cats called the
Catswold.  There lives our heroine, a girl with a mysterious past, adopted
by an enigmatic Wise Woman, and hidden from the Evil Queen.  Amazingly,
it turns out that the girl spoilerspoilerdontsayididntwarnyouohtoolate
is the Lost Princess of the Catswold, and has the potential power to
destroy the Evil Queen.

The adult portions of the book are located at the other end of the tunnel
linking the Netherworlds to California, where dwells a recently bereaved
artist (did I mention casually, in passing, that the Evil Queen absolutely
forbids the creation of any images of herself?) who finds himself adopted
by a young cat.  (The wish-fulfillment possibilities inherent in being
able to deal with a man sometimes as a young woman and sometimes as a cat,
without his knowing it, are obvious and, for Murphy at any rate,
irrestistable.)

Will the Lost Princess regain her throne and overthrow the Evil Queen?  Will
the Artist regain his lost Art?  Will they find True Love?  That would be
telling (the obvious).  It's not a bad book.  Those of you who have enough
free time to spend four hours reading "not bad" books may want to read
this one.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

   If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down.  It's going to be the
   best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills
   you! -- Dorothy Parker