BREED TO COME

More precisely, breeds to come. . . as the feline People face their enemies the Rattons and the Barkers. The visionary Gammage and his followers (among them Norton's hero and narrator Furtig) are working together to regain the ancient knowledge of the departed Demons (read men) and prepare for the expected return. The People's technology, command of their own peculiar psi powers, and genetic makeup change with astounding rapidity as they work themselves up for the final confrontation with their former masters, and Norton stage manages the complexities of plot and verifying felinological detail with admirable finesse though with none of the mythic suspense that others (such as William Tenn in Of Men and Monsters) have brought to similar themes. Readable on its own terms, but hardly an evolutionary breakthrough.