Melanie
Written on Feb 13, 2019
This is a really cute middle grade story. When I saw the title I had to pick it up. I mean, how could I not learn more about an evil alien warlord cat. Add to that that I’ve listened to both narrators before and really loved their work. I just had to try it.
Klawde, the evil alien warlord cat, comes from the planet of Lyttyrboks. He is exiled to Earth and finds refuge from the liquid falling from the sky with Raj, a pre-teen boy (they never mention age, but do mention middle school) from Brooklyn, who has just moved to Elba, Oregon. He loved city life. He had three friends in his apartment building. He had pizza shops and comic book stories on his block. It was his dream. Then his mother got a new job in Oregon. Now he has nature and no friends. Plus his mom is making him go to nature camp. His life now sucks. That is until a cat rang the doorbell.
This is a really cute science fiction story. There are many things that will make you laugh, like the names. Klawde’s actual name is Wyss-Kuzz. Oh and the nature camp, was actually apocalypse survival camp. The counselor was nuts. The story is really cute and you get both sides of the story with Raj and Klawde POVs.
My biggest fault for the book was that Klawde went back and forth between calling them “the humans” or “the ogres”. I would’ve thought he would have one and stick with it. Ogres was his original title for humans.
Narration
The narration of this series is great. We have two narrators. Oliver Wyman reads Klawde’s parts and Vikas Adam reads Raj’s parts. Then I’m not exactly sure who does all the smaller parts in-between. I think I figured out a few, but not sure on them all. Anyway, I think they were both a great fit for each of the main characters. Klawde had this snootie, uppity voice you would think of for a cat that wants to rule the world. Raj’s voice was a that fo a boy. I loved how Vikas Adam changed his packing based on Raj’s emotions. When he would get excited, he would really speed up the way kids do. I loved all the voices in the book, not to mention the array of cat noises. I could see where a kid would love to listen to this book as he reads along with a physical book (which probably has some great pictures). I loved books with read-along records as a kid (yes I know I’m showing my age).
**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.