Читать книгу The Second Cat Megapack - George Zebrowski - Страница 5

INTRODUCTION: ALL CATS ARE GRAY…, by Robert Reginald

Our second anthology of cat stories includes feline fantasies, science fiction tales, mysteries, mythology, westerns, romances, memoirs, horror, shapechangers, tales of cat lovers and cat haters, and some pieces that just defy description. Cats have beguiled writers for as long as fiction has existed. There’s something about our mysterious feline companions that intrigues and captivates our fellow humans, who will do anything and everything to please Their Majesties, in the hope for a ten-minute purr in return.

Our late cat Nipper saw himself as monarch of all he surveyed, and disliked other members of his species to the point where he attack them on sight, despite his diminutive size; he’d also sit perched on the top of the living-room couch, gazing out the picture window, and gnash his teeth (you could hear them grinding!) at any birds that dared trespass on his sacred territory. With us, however, he could be either distant or cozy—depending on the season! He was never gray.

Noteworthy in this new compilation are: the classic tale, “The Cats of Ulthar,” a story by H. P. Lovecraft; “The Cat with the Tulip Face,”

A. R. Morlan’s moving prequel to her long horror novel, The Amulet; “The Mountain Cage,” by Pamela Sargent (best-known for her Venus Trilogy of novels), a period piece looking at the leaders of Nazi Germany through the eyes of their pets; “The Black Cat of the Old Manor House,” the story of an horrific cat visitation by the well-known ghost hunter, Elliott O’Donnell; “Traps,” by Jack Dann and George Zebrowksi, where we meet some alien felines on a distant world—and NOT in a nice way; “Cat on a Hot Tar Roof,” by Gary Lovisi, an amusing sequel to “Mrs. Milligan’s Cat” from The [First] Cat Megapack; “Shireen and Her Friends,” the autobiography of a Persian cat; “Cat Thief,” a crime story by Ernest Dudley; and Reginald Bretnor’s “Cat,” in which the discovery of a cat language has unexpected consequences—twenty-five tales in all, plus a play about a cat who changes into a woman, and three poems. Enjoy!

—Robert Reginald, 7 July 2013