Title To Journey in the Year of the Tiger Author H. Leighton Dickson Cover Art --- Publisher 2014 First Printing CreateSpace - 2012
	Title To Walk in the Way of Lions Author H. Leighton Dickson Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Songs in the Year of the Cat Author H. Leighton Dickson Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Category Science Fiction Warnings None Main Characters Kirin Wynegarde-Grey, Kerris Wynegarde-Grey, Ursa Laenskaya, Fallon Waterford, Sherah al Shiva, Sireth benAramis, Solomon Main Elements Anthropomorphism Website hleightondickson.com

The Journey in the Year of the Tiger

You know how you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover? Well this book has an absolutely stunning cover and the book itself doesn't disappoint.

First there's the setting. We're on Earth, somewhere in the future, long enough that men have evolved into cats...or cats have evolved into the dominant race...or maybe there's some genetic manipulation going on, we don't know as it seems all that has been forgotten. The location is somewhere in the Orient, but its become a kind of mix of Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Tibetan, Egyptian and other cultures. The names of places are similar but different, and the names of the characters are a huge mix of just about everything. The world building is detailed, rich and engrossing, I was very impressed.

Second there are the characters. Dickson did a wonderful job fleshing each of them out, keeping them feline even while they walked upright, had hair, wore clothes and rode horses. And since they range over all kinds of cats (lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc) you get different racial differences, accents and manner of speech, stereotypes, prejudices (especially against "mongrels"), and a very strict class system that puts the lions at the top. I've always hated it when people say fantasy is just fluff, in fact its the opposite, you can take a very relevant issue, put it in a completely different world than ours, but still have a serious discussion about it.

I also enjoyed how the author would throw in something at random, just an idle comment from one of the characters that completely catches the reader offguard and reminds them that this world is different from ours. Like when discussing feeding the horses...you just let the forage for grass and rats...yep, they are carnivorous now!

The plot was also good, I never got bored, thought the action and the dialog was well balanced. And just wanting to know how we went from the way we are now to what we are then makes me wanted to read more.

One thing I have to point out though...the formatting of the book. It wasn't justified text, which actually made it harder to read and it looked really unprofessional. Given how beautiful and polished everything else was (well there were a few typos but those bothered me less) it was a pity the paragraphs didn't align properly