While The Wild Road owes somewhat to Tolkienesque fantasy -- with its mysterious Gandalf-like figure and its cat protagonists setting out on a quest in a motley entourage that also includes a magpie and a fox -- it's saved from the more cloying aspects of many animal fantasies by the author's delightful prose and warm characterizations. The quest takes place in contemporary England, which, through the eyes of these cats, becomes a marvelous new world of wonders and danger. An engaging addition to the growing subgenre of animal-based fantasies, it's the sort of book that will appeal equally to mainstream and fantasy readers.

-Charles de Lint