Blurb: Meet Fritti Tailchaser, a ginger tom cat of rare courage and curiosity, a born survivor in a world of heroes and villians, of powerful feline gods, and whiskery legends about those strange, furless erect creatures call M’an. Join Tailchaser on his magical quest to rescue his catfriend Hushpad—a quest that will take him all the way to cat hell and beyond
It’s hard to believe that it’s 40 years since Tad William’s book, Tailchaser’s Song, was first published.
Back in 1985, I was 18 and getting paid pittance while working at a bank. Bob Hawke was our Prime Minister, Uluru was about to be handed back to Traditional Owners, and my parents were disappointed with me for not going to uni straight from high school.
It was a very, very different world.
To this day, I’m not sure why I didn’t read Tailchaser’s Song back then. Afterall, by 1985, I’d read and then re-read Watership Down, and to this day, William Horwood’s Duncton Wood (for US readers, Duncton Wood = Game of Thrones with moles) is one of my all-time favourite books.
Fast forward to 2025, and your girl has finally sat down and read Tailchaser’s Song.
In the book, we meet Fritti Tailchaser, a young tom cat, who starts to notice strange things happening around him—his friends and family going missing.
One of his closest friends, a young female named Hushpad, goes missing and Fritti sets off to find her.
Along the way, he encounters some heavy-duty evil, fallen and lost cat gods, friendship, bravery, and disappointment. Did I mention kickass battles adventure and action? I better mention that.
Lots of adventure and fur-shredding battle action.
Not a Quest for the Faint-Hearted
I’ve seen this book compared to The Hobbit set in a world of cats and forest creatures, no doubt because there’s a quest with a long journey involved.
I don’t agree that The Hobbit is the right comparison here. Sure, Fritti Tailchaser is a very ordinary everycat who heads off on a quest to find his friend, Hushpad, but things go very, very wrong.
In fact, things turn grim dark and diabolical.
Fritti and his friends are enslaved underground by an ancient, furless final-boss cat, Grizraz Hearteater.
Hearteater is the insane child of cat creator gods, and is hell-bent destroying the world his parents made. The utter hate radiating from Heateater and his underground empire is so well-written by Williams, it almost requires a lead suit while reading. The Hobbit just doesn’t have that kind of hate.
This image portrays Scratchnail, one of the Clawguard, created by Grizraz as mutant warrior cats that Fritti battles against.
In the book, cats kill other creatures, plot genocide, mutilate and eviscerate each other. Then, after the battle against Grizraz Hearteater and his minions, Fritti doesn’t get the happily-ever-after he was intending.
Given the dark themes in Tailchaser’s Song, a far better comparison than The Hobbit is Richard Adam’s Watership Down or Duncton Wood by William Horwood.
Although the set up for the quest is a little slower than some reviewers would like, the pacing and action throughout the book worked well for me. Once the story gets going, there isn’t a lot of downtime from action.
Worldbuilding
Tailchaser’s world and lore aren’t as developed as that found in Watership Down or Duncton Wood. If you’ve read either, you’ll know how immersive and complete the culture of rabbits and moles is in each book feels.
While the elements of depth are there in Tailchaser, such as creator gods, their lore and myth, the culture and customs of cats, their social organisation and manners, they’re not as fleshed out as Watership Down or Duncton Wood.
However, I can say that the world is believable and immersive.
The creatures under the mound where Fritti is enslaved are truly horrific, Stephen King-type creations. The parts of the story that take place underground are oppressive, demoralising for our heroes and convincing.
It’s safe to sum up the book’s worldbuilding by calling it Duncton Wood-lite.
Characters
Fritti Tailchaser a realistic, likeable everycat who has to become a hero. What Tad Williams has absolutely excelled at with Tailchaser’s character is that he’s believable.
He isn’t the strongest, biggest or smartest cat. He’s not too far out of kittenhood, makes mistakes and misses clues. He does things that lead to friends getting hurt or even killed.
However, he’s a loyal friend, commited to a quest that often seems lost or pointless to others. He makes friends easily, sometimes with powerful others who see the good in him and help him out.
His character arc is tied to the quest for Hushpad and getting what he thinks he wants.
In the end, he when he finds Hushpad, he quickly learns she’s not for him. It’s a bittersweet ending but one that feels very right for a reader of grimdark fiction.
The supporting cast aren’t quite as well developed as Fritti, so I won’t write about them at length. There are a lot of characters in the book, from gods to queens, to evil guards, to squirrels, frogs, crows and cat-seers.
Fritti’s two closest companions are Pouncequick and Roofshadow.
Pouncequick is Fritti’s kitten friend from his home clan, who joins him unexpectedly on his quest. Pouncequick is a courageous sidekick who grows up very quickly; by the end of the book he’s been on quite an inner journey.
Roofshadow is a fiece fela (female cat), who befriends Fritti and Pouncequick in the early part of their journey. Like Fritti, she’s on a quest to find her brother after Grizraz’s Clawguard slaughtered her family.
She’s a reasonable warrior and quite smart, and is Fritti’s hinted love interest—especially once the elusive Hushpad is found. I say hinted, because there’s no sex or romance subplot. It’s very subtly alluded to.
Overall Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A satisfying action-packed fantasy read with grimdark notes.
I’d recommend for teens and adults who like moderate-paced fiction with action and don’t mind talking cats.
If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, here’s where to get your copy of Tailchaser’s Song.
*Affiliate links in this post.