The Book of Night with Moon

Last updated
Book of Night With Moon
Book of Night with Moon.gif
Author Diane Duane
LanguageEnglish
Series Wizardry series
Genre Fantasy novel
Publisher Aspect
Publication date
December 1, 1997
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages352
ISBN 0-446-67302-1
OCLC 36739618
813/.54 21
LC Class PS3554.U233 B6 1997
Followed by To Visit the Queen  

The Book of Night With Moon is a 1997 fantasy novel by Diane Duane. [1] [2] Although set in the Young Wizards universe, it was written as an adult novel. It centers on a team of cat-wizards.

Contents

This book takes place in between books 4 and 5 of the Young Wizards series. A significant portion of the book uses phrases or words in Ailurin, the language of cats, which contains 37 vowel sounds, far more than most or all human languages. (English, by way of comparison, has only about 20, depending on dialect.) These fragments of Ailurin are listed in a glossary at the back of the book.

The worldgating team at Grand Central Terminal is there to make sure that the four gates all behave correctly. However, the gates start malfunctioning and it is necessary for them to perform some larger interventions, even facing the Lone Power. They also have a new feline wizard on their hands with some hidden talents.

Plot synopsis

To her owners, apartment-dwellers on the upper East Side of New York's Manhattan Island, Rhiow looks like nothing more than their little black pet cat: a sweet-tempered, good-natured little creature who shakes them down for food at every opportunity, is always ready for a cuddle, and never ventures any further away than the apartment's terrace.

But a lot more could be said about Rhiow...for when her humans aren't looking, she has a life of her own that they don't dream of. Rhiow is a wizard, and heads an elite team of other feline wizards whose job is to keep the Grand Central worldgates running. With her teammates Urruah (a dumpster-living, foodie tomcat with a yen for opera) and Saash (the "Scotty" of their team, cerebral and witty, but always scratching at fleas that aren't there), they help keep the city's wizardly public transport system purring along.

...Until one morning matters get suddenly complicated with the arrival of Arhu, an abrasive feral tom-kitten in the middle of his Ordeal—the potentially deadly initiation through which every wizard must pass to come into his or her power. The chain of events triggered by Arhu's adoption into their team leads Rhiow and her companions out of their own New York and into another, more ancient, and far deadlier one—to a confrontation with the Lone Power that's intent on the destruction of cats and humans alike.

There, Rhiow and her team must deal with not only the sudden danger wound together with Arhu's fate, but a terrible secret concealed in the heart of the feline underworld, ready to burst out in annihilating force into the world of men, which as wizards they're sworn to protect. Now the cat-wizards' only hope of success lies in their uneasy bond with a race of creatures who've been their enemies for all time—and now hold the key not only to their own survival, but that of the human race...

Characters

Rhiow, the cat featured on the cover of this book, is the leader of the team of cat-wizards. In the beginning of the book, she is on her fourth life (out of nine). She lives with two humans, Sue and Mike. She also appears briefly in one of the regular series.

Saash, a tortoiseshell cat, is the technical expert on the gates' hyperstrings. She is in her ninth (and final) life in this book, and she has a problem with a scratchy coat.

Urruah has more energy at his disposal than the rest of the team, and is therefore generally the power source for any big workings on the worldgates. He lives in a dumpster and is interested in the Metropolitan Opera.

Arhu is a new member of the team, discovered after being chewed up by rats. He ends up being a very important part of their mission.

Tom Swale and Carl Romeo are human wizards at the Advisory level in the Manhattan area. They are some of the team's supervisors.

Mike and Sue are the humans that keep and feed Rhiow. They are called "Iaehh" and "Hhuha" by Rhiow, that being the closest that Ailurin, the feline language, can come to the correct pronunciation.

Sehhff'hhihhnei'ithhhssshweihh – to the cat-wizards, Ith for short – is a saurian wizard who also becomes instrumental in the team's mission.

Ehef is the feline Advisory in the area.

Yafh isn't a wizard, but still an oft recurring character. He is an apparently long time friend of Rhiow's.

Related Research Articles

Beholder (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional monster in Dungeons & Dragons

The beholder is a fictional monster in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It is depicted as a floating orb of flesh with a large mouth, single central eye, and many smaller eyestalks on top with powerful magical abilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Duane</span> American-Irish science fiction and fantasy author

Diane Duane is an American science fiction and fantasy author, long based in Ireland. Her works include the Young Wizards young adult fantasy series and the Rihannsu Star Trek novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tigra</span> Comic book character

Tigra is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Roy Thomas and artist Wally Wood, with her early adventures written by Linda Fite, the character first appeared as the superpowered and gadget-wielding crime fighter the Cat in The Claws of the Cat #1. She mutated into the super powered tiger-woman Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1, by writer Tony Isabella and artist Don Perlin.

Magical creatures are an aspect of the fictional Wizarding World contained in the Harry Potter series and connected media originally created by British author J. K. Rowling. Throughout the seven main books of the series, Harry and his friends encounter many of these creatures on their adventures in Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, or other locations throughout the Wizarding World. In addition, students learn to take care of creatures such as hippogriffs and unicorns in the Care of Magical Creatures class at Hogwarts. Rowling has also written Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a guide to the magical beasts found in the series, and based on the fictional textbook of the same name written by Newt Scamander and used by students at Hogwarts.

<i>Young Wizards</i> Novel series by Diane Duane

Young Wizards is a series of novels by Diane Duane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werecat</span> Feline therianthropic creature

A werecat is an analog to "werewolf" for a feline therianthropic creature.

<i>So You Want to Be a Wizard</i> 1983 fantasy novel by Diane Duane

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane is the first book in her long-running Young Wizards series of novels which currently consists of eleven books by Duane. It was written in 1982 and published the next year. In 2012 a revised "New Millennium Edition" was released as an eBook.

<i>Deep Wizardry</i> Novel by Diane Duane

Deep Wizardry is the second book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. The 1985 novel is the sequel to So You Want to Be a Wizard (1983).

<i>High Wizardry</i> Novel by Diane Duane

High Wizardry is the third novel of the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. It was published in 1990.

<i>The Wizards Dilemma</i> Book by Diane Duane

The Wizard's Dilemma is the fifth book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. It is the sequel to A Wizard Abroad.

<i>A Wizard Alone</i> Novel by Diane Duane

A Wizard Alone is the sixth book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. It is the sequel to The Wizard's Dilemma.

<i>Wizards at War</i> Book by Diane Duane

Wizards at War is the eighth book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. In this book, for the first time in a millennia, the wizards would have to go to war...

<i>Fablehaven</i> Young adult fantasy series

Fablehaven is a fantasy book series for children written by Brandon Mull. The book series, which includes Fablehaven, Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague, Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary and Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison, is published by Shadow Mountain in hardcover and Simon & Schuster in paperback. It is followed by the five-part sequel series Dragonwatch.

Totsuzen! Neko no Kuni Banipal Witt, known outside Japan as Catnapped!, is a 1995 Japanese anime feature film, directed, created and written by Takashi Nakamura, who was also its character designer. The animation was produced by Triangle Staff. The theme song of the film was performed by Mayumi Iizuka.

<i>To Visit the Queen</i> 1998 novel by Diane Duane

To Visit the Queen (1998) is a fantasy steampunk novel by Diane Duane. Its plot deals with the invention of nuclear weapons in Victorian Britain, thanks to the evil intervention of the Lone Power and the efforts of Duane's wizard feline adventurers to save the day.

<i>A Wizard of Mars</i> Novel by Diane Duane

A Wizard of Mars is the ninth novel in the Young Wizards series, written by Diane Duane. After being pushed back several times due to internal turmoil at Harcourt Trade Publishers, it was scheduled for release on April 14, 2010, but the distributor shipped it in late March of 2010.

Gwen Cooper is a New York City-based American novelist and author of the 2009 New York Times bestselling memoir Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, a memoir about her life with an abandoned, eyeless cat that she rescued when he was three weeks old and subsequently named Homer.

Homer the Blind Wonder Cat (1997-2013) was an eyeless cat who served as the inspiration for the 2009 New York Times bestselling memoir Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, written by Gwen Cooper. It detailed Cooper's life with an abandoned, eyeless cat that she rescued when he was three weeks old and subsequently named Homer.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.