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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Ratha's Creature by Clare Bell Clare Bell Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Ratha's Creature by Clare Bell Clare Bell. MostlyFiction.com links to Amazon.com, but we wholeheartedly encourage you to buy books from your local brick-n-mortar stores and to visit your library frequently. If you happen to click on one of links and make a purchase, we earn a commission and we always appreciate your support. Thank you. and don't forget to tell your friends about us. "Ratha's Creatures" (Reviewed by Shanna Shadowfax OCT 10, 2007) “Shaking, Ratha crept forward, her torch casting orange light on the path. As the torchlight fell on the pack, they cowered . ‘This is my creature. I have brought it to the clan. I am Ratha, who once herded three-horn deer. Now I herd the Red Tongue.’” There are plenty of cat stories out there in the publishing universe. I can honestly say I’ve never read any cat story that’s quite like the work of Clare Bell. Don’t look for cuddly bright eyed kittens here! Part The Clan of the Cave Bear , part Jungle Book , Clare Bell’s prehistoric feline fantasy takes us into the world of a clan of sentient cats called the Named and one spirited yearling named Ratha. Back in print after many years, these works are back on the shelf and in the hands of eager readers again. This first book is Ratha’s story, her journey in discovering her own strength as she changes roles from herder, to rebel, exile and heroine. When a spirited Ratha discovers ways to handle the fire that so terrifies her people, she doesn’t realize that her actions will lead to exile, and a loss of all she’s ever known. As Ratha is forced to grow up and struggle through hardship to find her way, she must learn what road to travel, despite the price she pays to walk it. When the Clan who exiled her is threatened with being destroyed, she must decide if she will be the key to their survival against the attacks of the Unnamed. Reading this again after so many years I was pleasantly surprised to find this book has lost none of its impact and strength. Ms. Bell has created a harsh prehistoric world that her cat clan lives in. This is not a land of magic or easy choices. Each choice leads to inevitable consequences, even when it may be the right choice to make. The author’s deft handling of her characters allows for readers to suspend their disbelief and really visualize this band of sentient cats that herd animals for food. The cats still have to contend with the lack of hands and the demands of their nature, but the personalities and societal pressures are very familiar and all too human. While the tale moves quickly and is relatively short, this is not a light story—there are extremely poignant moments, and triumph is often mixed with tragedy. It’s a powerful story. It’s the story of what makes a leader and what kinds of roads they often travel. It’s the story of love and loss and betrayal. It’s a story of big cats in an unforgiving wilderness and how they survive. It is not a cute or cuddly story. It’s a serious adventure and coming of age tale that will likely appeal to young teen and young adult readers. Given some of the mature elements in the story, this may not be as appropriate for younger readers: the complex characters and mature relationships make for demanding reading. If you want to read more about Ratha and her clan, take heart! There’s more to the The Named series and they are all back in print and the brand new Ratha’s Courage is due out this month! If you like cat stories like these, you might want to check out Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams and the Catfantastic story anthologies edited by Andre Norton. Amazon readers rating: from 51 reviews. Read a chapter excerpt from Ratha's Creature at MostlyFiction.com. Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com) (1986) (1989) (1993) The Named Series: (1983) (1984) (1990) (1991) (October 2007) Book Marks: Official website for Ratha and Clare Bell Wikipedia Page on Clare Bell. About the Author: Clare Bell was born in England in 1952 and moved to the US with her family in 1957. She worked in oceanography, electrical engineering, test equipment design and mechanical engineering before she wrote her first book, Ratha's Creature , the story of a prehistoric wildcat who learns to tame fire. Her stories tend to show sociological themes as well, exploring the changes that are brought about in culture through technology. Bell also enjoys creating plausible and workable alien critters (the aronan fliers in People of the Sky ). Bell has degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering, biology and chemistry and has continued working in technical areas in addition to writing fiction. She became involved in building and designing electric vehicles (EV) and spent a year in Norway working on a production EV. After moving to a remote site in California's coastal mountains, she and her partner put together their own solar and wind systems and experimented with a power-generating waterwheel. A naturalized citizen of the US, Bell now lives with her partner-become-husband, Chuck Piper, in the hills west of Patterson, California. Ratha and the Named Series. We encourage feedback about the site and/or its contents. There is also a site map . With the new Imaginator Press trade PB of Ratha's Challenge, Book # 4 of the Named, I am overjoyed to announce that. the entire Named series is back in print! This may be the most gorgeous Lew Lashmit cover yet! Available now from PawPrint. For a larger view, click here. Next Event. Next Event. Complete Events List. User login. Navigation. New forum topics. Random image. Join other Named Series fans on the Ratha Series Forum. Hunt up information in the Fire Den, read the new Twitter creation, "Ratha's Island", or strut before the clan to introduce yourself in the Fire Dance. Ratha's Creature. There's an art in the Ratha's series that is hard for me to find in other books. What they don't know we(the reader) might know, but what they do know we(the reader) might not know. It becomes immersing to have to figure out what some words mean, how they came to call something a "creature" even if it's not living, and how they function as a 'family'. Each character has a personality that isn't shoved into your face, they aren't cardboard either, you learn as you go instead of being given everything in the first meeting with the characters. All of my Ratha's books were lost in moving, I will be buying them each one by one again. When I have this review will be updated/retouched upon. ( ) Ratha’s Creature was a great read, and truly different. I don’t find many books where the main character is full-blown animal (aka, no shape- shifting abilities), and it brought me back to the time when I used to roleplay as a wolf. Upon first getting this book, I wondered what the “creature” part of the title meant, and during the part it was revealed, I had to remind myself that we’re in the mind of an animal who has never seen the likes of what Ratha encounters, which only makes sense! It was actually very refreshing to step outside my boundary and read something so… “innocent.” It made me think about how animals might refer other things that we know of. (continued via website) ( ) Ratha is a young female in a tribe of intelligent, talking big cats who call themselves The Named. The book follows her growing up & negotiating the tumultuous power struggles of her world. For some reason, from the brief description I'd read of this series, I expected the characters to feel like 'aliens' - but overall, I thought this felt more like an animal story. I'd recommend it more for fans of animal stories than pure sci-fi fans (think Tad Williams' 'Tailchaser's Song', for example). The first issue Ratha encounters is a gender issue: she is picked by her mentor to be trained to be a scout, but female cubs are generally not given this training. I felt this aspect of the book was the weakest, as it echoes the many, many, many fantasy books where the young woman has to overcome sexism to follow her dreams. However, in nature, among big cats, female felines are certainly not at all prevented from hunting and scouting. Actually, they are often the main hunters. The author put quite a bit of effort into emphasizing that her characters think 'like cats', but I felt that portraying a research-based, inventive feline-influenced society fell by the wayside. However, I did like the interesting dynamic that Bell sets up between the intelligent cats and the non-talking (non-sentient?) cats. The portrayal of the social confusion, rumors/stereotypes and emotional turmoil this rift causes is done quite nicely. I also liked the idea of a group of predators discovering the benefits of herding and protecting prey, and enjoyed Ratha's innovative and fumbling attempts to harness fire for her species' benefit. The book follows a plotline of conflict, exile, then return, and allows Ratha growth in maturity and experience along the way. There are 5 books in this series, so there's plenty to-come after this one for those who want to find out more about Ratha and the fate of her tribe - but this installment ends at a satisfying juncture.
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