Ratha's Challenge

by Clare Bell

Book Overview

As Ratha struggles to reconcile with Thistle-chaser, the daughter she once tried to kill, the Named are locked in another struggle when they confront a strange clan of hunter cats who are driven by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689505868
• ISBN13: 9780689505867
• Release Date: November 1994
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Another Great Read, Inspiring and Imaginative!

Just when I thought the third book was my favorite, the forth in the Ratha series came out and took first place! All the characters became more genuine and multi-faceted. In Ratha's Challenge, the author was able to fully develop her characters; she filled them with depth, and made them more real. The story itself is also fascinating! It has meta-physical undertones and I love the way Ms. Bell leads the characters through their moral dilemmas with integrity, intelligence, and amazing courage. This is another page-turner, filled with thought provoking themes, social commentaries, engaging characters, and an innovative story-line. The ideas of "self" consciousness (collective and individual) that come up in Rath's Challenge are intriguing, and I was impressed by the way the author handled the entire subject. Clare Bell really knows how to write a story that inspires, as well as entertains her readers. Keep going deeper Ms. Bell, the deeper you go the better the tale gets! Great Story!!!!

Before "Warriors", there was Ratha

I've noticed a surge in recent decades of books of speaking animals forming their own societies. And I am perfectly okay with it. "The Named" revolves around a group of fierce cats in prehistoric times, led by Ratha. In this particular book, Ratha must deal with her daughter who is not happy being with the Named and goes off to find her own path with a group of cats very different from the Named. Clare Bell's writing is simple, haunting, and very effective as she makes the lives of cats living in an unfamiliar and untamed world come alive. Yes, the cats are the victim of plenty of personification, but hey, it works and I believe that is the idea. Bell not only creates a society of sentient cats (which is very respectable fantasy) but brings in serious and solemn ideas that get the reader thinking. I want to read the other books of the series now.

A Favorite Series Revisited

I've recently been trying to find books I read as a child and finally completed my 'Ratha' series. This and 'Ratha and Thistle-Chaser' are the books in the series I never had the opportunity to read, mainly because I was already in my teens & early 20's when they were published (1990 & 1994). Some technical notes: After having read Jean M. Auel's "Clan of the Cave Bear" series and the "Prehistoric America" series by W. Michael & Kathleen Gear, it was strange to see so many similarities between the "Ratha" series and the human series. Themes of loss, exile, abandonment of children/offspring and evolution not just on a personal scale but as a species crop up in all three of these storylines. It's also nice to see Clare Bell's evolution as a writer over the decade it took to write the final chapter in the "Ratha" books. Her style improved immensely without changing her characters' personalities for the worse. On a more personal level: I'm a Pagan, and follow many shamanistic practices, so "Ratha's Challenge" rang my bells in that sense. The clan of collectively-dreaming cats was fascinating to me and I felt their loss of their leader in my heart, and I was probably as relieved by the outcome of things as they were. Ratha has been a part of me for a very long time - she's impulsive, outspoken and a bit abrasive, but she is usually willing to listen to good advice. I don't know if I would have gotten as much from this book at 7, or 12, or even 15, but as an adult with a more evolved spirituality, I was able to laugh and cry with joy while reading it. On a side note, unlike the first two Ratha books, I could definitely recommend it for someone who really isn't interested in the mating habits of fantasy prehistoric cats.

A pretty good book

This book is the fourth in the Named series and I think it's pretty good. My only complaint is that there isn't another sequel and this one kind of leaves you hanging. Do the two clans get along ? Do Thistle and her new mate become the leaders of the clans? I wish I knew. I would love it if there was a seaquel that gave the ansewers.

Excellent!

I loved this book. It was thoughtful and stayed true to the emotions of the story. It was an honest story of forgetting prejudices and forgiving differences in a fantasy form. It was also astory of bonding and learning to deal with yourself. The charcters are cats 25 million years ago. They are intelligent and human and yet believable as cats.