A review by tinyelfarcanist
A Vacant Throne: Dreams of the Sleeping Cat by Charles Kiernan

adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

 I was a pet, didn’t like it, and wanted to escape. But, they have no word for “pet”. The cats don’t keep pets.

The author spent a lot of time on worldbuilding. Creating a world full of folklore. There's even extra content on the legends of Trueterra you can get by subscribing to the author's newsletter.

I'm conflicted about this book. The story has the feel of a classic fantasy tale. Some elements I really enjoyed, but mostly I think this one didn't work for me. There were too many pieces that in the end didn't resolve.

The main conflict is the drought that's been killing the land and how it's been affecting the crops. A supernatural beast must be destroyed to make the river flow again. This happens in a vague and rushed way in the final 10% of the book.

There's also an ongoing battle with the black squirrels (I don't want to read too much into that), that have been raiding their harvests. Some animals are humanoid, like cats and squirrels, but some are not (birds, fish, bunnies). They hate the squirrels for stealing their food, but the bunnies do the same and they get sympathy:

"Poor things. They must be hungry to come rooting through the remnants of our garden and get this close to the compound."
"My empathy is with them. They are desperate. We are all willing to do desperate things."

There is a feud between the village cats and the True Cats, cats that live in a more traditional way as scavengers. Those Outsider cats feel superior and more true to their nature. We also have a love interest whose path differs from our MC's and their ending hints at some future installments in the series.

Sunny has a brother, who’s also a pet, and he’s hesitant about Sunny’s mission and tries to convince him to come back home. Only the drought is dealt with and in a very anticlimactic way.

The book also glorifies violence and battle more than I would like. I don't mind gore or grim; it isn't even graphic here. Honour just seems to be on how good of a warrior our protagonist is.

My biggest pet peeve from this book was the established gender roles. Female cats tend to the toms after they train. They do the house chores and mostly spend their time giggling and gossiping. Oh, and they are called shes throughout the book and it made me grind my teeth every time.

This is a perfect book for cat lovers who enjoy a classic story. If they don't mind more than a tad of sexism. 
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