“The Big Meow” by Diane Duane

This is the last book in the feline wizards series from Duane. I thought the first two were mostly ok, and this was… more of the same. 

The plot centers around Rhiow’s team who get called to help with a gate in Los Angelos California. While there a gate mechanic from the past comes to get their help, and they head to 1940s LA. Before heading, they meet Helen Walks Softly, an Indigenous wizard who comes with them. While there, they meet the Silent Man, a man who writes stories and keeps a house full of stray cats. He just ran into this scary dark lady, and since she seems to be a part of this the cats reveal themselves to him and he starts taking them around town. They learn that one of the big LA people is running some sort of cult and that the Lone Power made a deal with an ancient Aztec evil and that this is destabilizing the gate. Meanwhile, their contact for the LA gate from the past, Hwaith, reveals to Rhiow that he would like to be her mate, which she is unable to process for a while. In the end, Rhiow has to channel the Lone Power in the fight against the ancient Aztec deity, there’s huge earthquakes and such, but they emerge victorious. Rhiow finally accepts Hwaith and they unfortunately have to part soon after. But upon returning, Rhiow finds Hwaith waiting for her at home! The Lone Power pulled a few strings to get him to reincarnate near Rhiow, and Rhiow then reveals herself to her human by asking him if they can keep Hwaith.

Alright so this book does have some good stuff in it. Helen Walks Softly is a gem of a character where her being Indigenous and a shaman are portrayed very respectfully and integral to her character. I really loved her addition to the book. But some characters get a little looked over, for example the LA gate cat from modern times did not get blessed with a real personality or anything like that. I kept forgetting he was there.

But it also felt so similar to the previous one in the series. There’s the assistance with another group’s gate, the time travel, and the end of the world or whatever. There’s also the fact that in the previous book they made a big fuss over not being able to stay in the past for very long, but in this one they stay in the 40s for days.

My biggest gripe though is that the stakes just did not make sense to me. They’re there to fix a gate, I’m still not sure how that connects to the cult stuff, other than it was going down in the same town. There’s also a subplot where the cult is stealing hearts from people, that was kinda resolved when they use it in a ritual but not really in that we don’t know specifics here. It in general felt like there were a ton of ideas thrown in, but not a great way to connect them.

Anyways so that’s the conclusion of the feline wizards series. I didn’t love it, but you can’t have every book be a hit. I still love Duane’s work, she’s one of my favorite writers, and I will proceed to read the rest of her stuff!