Kitty Cat Kill Sat: A Feline Space Adventure
By: Argus / Narrated By: Eva Kaminsky
Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
Charming, so charming, exceeeeedingly charming -BUT- 19 1/2-HOURS of charm… yikes!!!
So here’s the deal; April features International Pet Day, thus inspiring us to do a monthlong celebration of Animals Animals Animals! Huzzah and Hooray and all that jolly rot. So, whilst looking for possible Listens, Big Sis and I desperately hoped for a variety of Animal-themed genres. Sci-Fi? Maaaaaybe?!?
Well, what better audiobook could there be as a possibility than Kitty Cat Kill Sat, a veritable space opera featuring a CAT as our intrepid heroine?! We were soooo on it, deciding to make it one o’ our Not-So-Little Listens, as this clocks in at 19-hrs. and 37-mins. A time investment, to be sure, but dude! a cat for cripes sake! Sci-Fi! A space opera sure to be fraught and filled with ooooodles of whizbang shenanigans and what have you! Yup, THERE!
And it starts off soooo charmingly, where we meet our little cat of a heroine, Lily ad-Alice, immortal fuzzball, over 400+-years and counting, the sole survivor of a notable crew, the commander of the spaceship. She meanders across a post-apocalyptic space landscape, monitoring the horrific happenings that continue on Earth, assisting whether summoned or not, and she keeps a keen feline eye on doings in outer space.
And alarms! ALWAYS running from her favorite napping spot to answer alarms and deal with atrocious situations as they arise and threaten the ship, livelihoods on Earth, various other harmful things. And she’s unbearably cute. No thumbs, can’t be killed, her food rations are bland and tasteless and cause her much wretched musings. Sooooo cute and charming.
-BUT THEN- one notices, as one settles into this EPIC Listen, that more and more is trotted out, situations always of the same ilk, over and over and over. And OVER.
At this point, where things start becoming ho-hummingly familiar, one looks at one’s listening device and discovers HOURS ‘pon HOURS left in the story. One becomes a trifle worried; one becomes a trifle braindead. Yeh yeh yeh and sure sure sure, author Argus crafts some verrrry likable characters who enter Lily’s orbit (Dunno if that pun was intended or not…), and these characters have some charming character development, AI entities, Weapons of an ancient war whom Lily’s liberated, and as the story (FINALLY!!!) nears its end, some surprise entities show up as well. ALL very sweet, enjoyable, and whatnot.
BUT GOOD COW, MAN! 19 1/2-HOURS of same old same old, and Yikes! could a competent Editor have been used or what. Because Kitty Cat Kill Sat is sometimes a CHORE to get through, with cutesy scenes of Lily having sorely Been DONE already, and dire situations having sorely Been DONE already. I canNOT tell you how many, how very many, times I dozed off, only to find Lily scurrying down a corridor Yet AGAIN in answer to the ship’s alarms, only to find m’self whizzing back through the audio, landing on an alarm, nope not that spot, whiz back, alarm, no not THAT alarm, whiz back, FINALLY: The alarm I dozed off to. Where’s that Editor?!? This EPIC coulda shoulda been tightened up to p’raps 8, 8 1/2-hours as multiple situations, all variations on the same theme, coulda shoulda been cut. You know, cuz it’s old, and Argus, dude! don’t KILL your Listeners!!!
Listening: I’d dinged narrator Eva Kaminsky in Sea of Rust cuz o’ her brittle tones. And upon re-reading that review, I neglected to say that, eventually, those tones suited the main character. My sinCERest apologies, Ms. Kaminsky. And so, here, I’ll start with: Same brittle tones, kinda like seasoned vocal talent Marin Ireland turned down the job and they chose as near to her as possible: Kaminsky, and Kaminsky did a FINE job. She starts Lily’s story off perfectly capturing Lily’s wry oh-so-wry sense of humor, a joke about cats with paws, not hands, no thumbs, and intricate machinery. And Kaminsky further does well with AI, with Weapons of War with personalities, with various other entities who make an appearance.
And at the end? Where things FINALLY Pick Up, and become drop dead gripping and exciting, Kaminsky perfectly voices it all, conveys the action, conveys the heartwarming and tear-inspiring surprise occurrences, conveys Lily’s struggles with immortality that ultimately meets its most horrific challenges. Brava, Kaminsky—Well done!
Totally happy I stuck with it, even tho’ a DNF is NEVER an option for me if I’m gonna review something. And totally pleased that Argus wrote a scintillating finish that was so cool, so good, that I scooted over to see if there was even a Sequel, for freak’s sake! THAT AWEsome!!!
A nice jaunt, leeeeengthy jaunt, that coulda shoulda been EDITED. But one can’t have everything, so let’s just say, Nice Cat, Nice Situations.
Just? You’d better be suuuuure you’ve got days to spare for this Listen…!
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