The Great Contagion

By: Jeff Chapman / Narrated By: Jannie Meisberger

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

A cat’s eye view into a fantastical world—Enchanting and filled with grit and humor!

Perhaps I should just start with the disclaimer that usually is tacked onto the end of reviews for cases such as this. I received a free copy of this audiobook, at my request, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Now, ya never know what all you’re gonna get when you embark on journeys of this sort, and I usually wind up being kinder in my reviews when I know there’s a personal stake in it for someone, looming in the background, hoping for a positive review and such all. Who am I to critique, and can’t I keep a civil tongue (Or civil fingertips as they fly across the keyboard)?

But that’s what I do, and in this case I saw that Jannie Meisberger was narrating, so I opened my mind into the great unknown, and I humbly requested a copy of The Great Contagion by Jeff Chapman…

Oh how deLIGHTed I am to be able to say that it was awesome. Chapman is an excellent writer, and he doesn’t get all cozy and cute when he gives us a tale of plague, unrest, evil mythical creatures, plus Merliss, our heroine, is firmly a cat even though she’s the trapped spirit of a young woman who was in training to be a shaman. We’re not told of how that came to be, and we’re not given a cat who goes about as a cat until danger, at which point superhuman like capabilities pop up. Nope, Chapman gives us Merliss, who’s main beef is that she canNOT speak, as a little cat, rolling through a cat’s abilities in order to stave off death and mayhem. She’s not a cozy fantasy concept; she’s a real cat (Even tho’ other cats smell and sense her Otherness and don’t mess with her but are friends).

Merliss, with this curse or what have you, has also been given a lifespan spanning aaaaages, and she’s spent that time working with cunning folk—healers with special abilities. Here, she’s been the companion of the old man, Hailaird, and his apprentice, Fendrel, and tho’ she’s all sweet with Hailaird, she’s snappish and aloof from Fendrel (He hasn’t proven himself worthy). The two humans are struggling as a plague descends upon the land, a bleeding plague fraught with gore and death, and they’re charged with healing the Sheriff’s family… or else. Plus, they’ve got oodles of others who are suffering from this plague, and they take Merliss with them as she knows things, and she can sometimes guide them. This gives her a chance to scan through her memories of time spent with earlier cunning folk, and she thinks she juuuust might know of something that might help… if only she could speak!

Going everywhere with Hailaird and Fendrel, however, also means that she’s come to be seen, by the superstitious rabble rousers, as THE cause of the plague: Whither she goest, there goes the plague also. And things get even more dire when Hailaird himself falls ill, and Merliss is left to guide Fendrel, to protect him, to be protected by him.

If you like cats, you’ll love this story as they’re well-represented as cunning creatures here, tormented scapegoats there. Chapman expertly crafts a story that’s filled with the horrors of disease and the terror of such things as goblin attacks (There’s a mighty scene involving goblins, doncha know!). And the scariest parts of his story are the depictions of mob mentality, courage born of drunkenness, the inhumane atrocities humans perpetrate when they’re afraid.

And Jannie Meisberger narrates this soooo well, as I knew she would. I’m familiar with her through her narrations of Regency Romances and Pride and Prejudice variations, so I knew she’d be good. That said, however, I was quite thrilled to discover that she can handle action and adventure with gritty aplomb as well. That Merliss comes through as a dazzler of a cat with her many-nuanced meows? Brava to Ms. Meisberger.

An enchanting story all in all, as who doesn’t love a good plague that has disturbing symptoms, and who doesn’t love a few battles fought with claws and much hissing?

And who doesn’t love a cunning heroine who does much, suffers much, and manages to balance her pet peeves and hissy-ness with a willing attitude and a good heart? Certainly, it was enough that not only did I dash off to get Book 2 in “The Merliss Tales”, but I got a short story audiobook written by Chapman as well.

Style, action, blood and strife? Plus a cat center stage?

Meow! I’m THERE!

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