Solo's Journey by Joy Smith Aiken

A few days ago, to take a break from the laptop, I picked up Solo's Journey. Intending to sample the first few chapters, I found myself drawn in to the story of Solo, a feral kit who loses his mother and has to find his own way in the feral cat colony. I don't usually read other cat fantasy books, since I write the Ratha series, and I like to keep my slate clean, so to speak.

I picked up Solo out of curiosity, but ended up devouring it in one evening. Gulping books is part of my pattern, since I'm naturally a fast reader. Not all books get devoured in one session, since life inevitably interrupts. Some books are consumed in multiple smaller gulps, but Solo's Journey shoved life aside temporarily. Good books do that.

Sometimes I regret that the hunger for narrative pulls me through the pages so fast, but I am also a re-reader, and sometimes after finishing a novel, I will go right back to the beginning and read it again, allowing me to savor the writer's skill.

Solo's Journey appeared in 1987, according to the copyright date in my hardcover copy, before the Warriors series made the concept of talking cats in feral cat clans wildly popular among kids. Both Solo's Journey and my own Ratha series were too early for this wave, and both suffered for it. However both were reprinted.

I greatly enjoyed Aiken's originality in portraying the feral cat society, especially in her use of invented onomatopoeic (sounds like what it means, at least to human ears) terms. The words also sound like feline vocalizations “Prill” for a female cat, “bard” for an intact male, “silt” and “siltaa” for solid and liquid waste respectively, and the honorific “Dom” for the dominant male tomcat.

Some of the novel's power may come from real-life experience, as the dedication hints. Aiken mentions a real Solo, and implies that the book may be an apology for an act she regrets. It makes me want to know the real Solo's story, though perhaps it is a sad one.

Although Solo's Journey describes battles between clans in adjacent territories, it moves beyond those conflicts. The inside jacket text says that the book was inspired by Watership Down, and like the rabbit tale, involves destruction of the cats' home ground and a quest to discover a new home. During the journey, however, Solo rises to leadership, finds his gifts, and discovers a new and inspiring purpose. I won't reveal what it is for fear of spoiling the book, but I do urge readers who have enjoyed both Warriors and my Ratha series to go along on Solo's Journey.

CB