What do you think?
Rate this book
Catwoman
When the crime lords of Gotham City declare war on both the human and feline population, Batman and Catwoman unite to combat this deadly menace. Original.
208 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Lynn Abbey
140 books182 followersLynn Abbey began publishing in 1979 with the novel Daughter of the Bright Moon and the short story "The Face of Chaos," part of a Thieves World shared world anthology. She received early encouragement from Gordon R. Dickson.
In the 1980s she married Robert Asprin and became his co-editor on the Thieves World books. She also contributed to other shared world series during the 1980s, including Heroes in Hell and Merovingen Nights.
Abbey and Asprin divorced in 1993 and Abbey moved to Oklahoma City. She continued to write novels during this period, including original works as well as tie-ins to Role Playing Games for TSR. In 2002, she returned to Thieves World with the novel Sanctuary and also began editing new anthologies, beginning with Turning Points.
In the 1980s she married Robert Asprin and became his co-editor on the Thieves World books. She also contributed to other shared world series during the 1980s, including Heroes in Hell and Merovingen Nights.
Abbey and Asprin divorced in 1993 and Abbey moved to Oklahoma City. She continued to write novels during this period, including original works as well as tie-ins to Role Playing Games for TSR. In 2002, she returned to Thieves World with the novel Sanctuary and also began editing new anthologies, beginning with Turning Points.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 4, 2016
I think this is the most realistic take on Catwoman.
April 10, 2020
I thought this was a good Batman prose novel from the husband and wife team who were responsible for the Thieves' World books. It was interesting having just two superfolks in the book and neither of them having super powers beyond super wealth for Bruce and super moxie for Selina. It's not tied in to the film series of the time (Michelle Pfeiffer was Catwoman in 1992 in Batman Returns), and it doesn't make any big changes or revelations to the comics canon of the time, but could stand quite well as a part of it on its own. The book presents stories from both viewpoints pretty well, and the integrated sections are appropriately tense and bittersweet. Good stuff from the pre-New years.
January 27, 2024
not a terrible read
January 17, 2022
A pretty solid noir story featuring Catwoman and Batman. Abbey and Aspirin's take on Catwoman is very much cut from the same cloth as the Frank Miller/Mindy Newell version of the character from the Year One Era. The authors do an especially good job depicting Gotham as the hellish urban landscape that it is, particularly the East End -- Catwoman's primary stomping grounds. My only real complaint is that the ending is somewhat anti-climactic.
June 4, 2018
The full title of this novel is CATWOMAN: TIGER HUNT, though the publishers were apparently too embarrassed to actually stamp that on the cover. No wonder. It's a terrible title, but not bad enough to be awesomely bad like Lorenzo Lamas's SNAKEEATER II: THE DRUG BUSTER and THE SWORDSMAN II: GLADIATOR COP.
It's either ironic or unsurprising that the book was co-written by two authors, because it feels like a story with an identity crisis. For one thing, it's never able to achieve the right narrative balance. It's always either too smart or too stupid for its own good. It's too silly to take seriously, and too serious to just sit back and have fun with. It introduces a new criminal mastermind for Batman to face off against, but then gives us a climax in which Batman and Catwoman take out his henchman rather than going up against the big guy himself. The book is presented as a Catwoman novel, but Batman is present for a hefty chunk of it--and only his actions are of significance to the overall plot. Without Catwoman involved, everything would have turned out exactly the same. That's what literary critics call "not good."
Looking back over everything, it's easy to see that the story is total garbage. But moment-to-moment, the book mostly seems fine for what it is. It's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a 90's BATMAN novel--no more, no less. The spotlighting of Catwoman seems to be a marketing ploy to associate it with Michelle Pfeiffer's performance in BATMAN RETURNS earlier that same year, but Tim Burton fans will be disappointed to learn that this is the Catwoman of the comic books, not the film.
The only reason to read this book is if you are majoring in comic book history or something. It's an interesting window into what superhero prose novels were like 25 years ago. Apart from that, it's a total wash.
It's either ironic or unsurprising that the book was co-written by two authors, because it feels like a story with an identity crisis. For one thing, it's never able to achieve the right narrative balance. It's always either too smart or too stupid for its own good. It's too silly to take seriously, and too serious to just sit back and have fun with. It introduces a new criminal mastermind for Batman to face off against, but then gives us a climax in which Batman and Catwoman take out his henchman rather than going up against the big guy himself. The book is presented as a Catwoman novel, but Batman is present for a hefty chunk of it--and only his actions are of significance to the overall plot. Without Catwoman involved, everything would have turned out exactly the same. That's what literary critics call "not good."
Looking back over everything, it's easy to see that the story is total garbage. But moment-to-moment, the book mostly seems fine for what it is. It's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a 90's BATMAN novel--no more, no less. The spotlighting of Catwoman seems to be a marketing ploy to associate it with Michelle Pfeiffer's performance in BATMAN RETURNS earlier that same year, but Tim Burton fans will be disappointed to learn that this is the Catwoman of the comic books, not the film.
The only reason to read this book is if you are majoring in comic book history or something. It's an interesting window into what superhero prose novels were like 25 years ago. Apart from that, it's a total wash.
May 25, 2019
Authors Lynn Abby and Robert Asprin bring us a tale of Catwoman and Batman as they hunt down both Eddie Lobe and his boss the Connection. One night while prowling the streets and roof tops Catwoman stumbles onto the a weapons deal between the Connection through his contact Eddie the Tiger Lobe and a group from the former Russian republics and they want the guns and the money to protect their homes and families that they left behind. Batman who is hunting for the Connection has gone under cover and made Lobe his 'boss' and it's thanks to Lobe that Batman finds out that the man that he has been looking for is under his noise at the Wayne Foundation. But that is only one part of the story because Catwoman who brings in the Wilderness Warriors to help flush lobe out since he has so much tiger contraband in his apartment that she want's to bring him down. While this is going on Batman thinks that she is working with Lobe. This is a good Catwoman/Batman novel and one that I recommend for any DC comics fan.
April 14, 2023
Good read.
September 13, 2016
Well this book was a lot better than I thought it would be.
Not having heard the names of the authors before I figured they would know nothing of the source material and make a hash of it but they did a good job.
A good part of Catwoman's history, pre-new 52, made it in her character information.
The plot felt a little off but I think because the story was from Catwoman's view and ends when her involvement in it ended but the main villain was still free and Batman was still pursuing. So the book seemed like it should have continued. I checked and I have not found a sequel for this so possibly it was meant for one and it never happened or they authors were going for life like where your part of a story isn't the full story and it may continue after you are done with it.
I started reading Catwoman towards the end of old 52 continuity and in those books she was always well off from her work. So it seemed a little jarring to read of a Catwoman who is barely making it. Also her deception of someone who does not know how to dress as Selina doesn't match the one but again this may be because of the time period the book was written and how the character was portrayed.
I guess the only disappointment I have was with how human they made Batman and Catwoman, which of course is weird as they are human in the books with no special abilities. But Batman waiting around in full costume in an ER room and then being summoned to Gordon's office by a patrol man was a bit weird. The amount of casing and setup the Catwoman spends on a job while probably more realistic is something the comics do not go into and thus she loses some of her mystique.
I want to give this a 3.5 but it only allows full stars so I am going with 4.
Not having heard the names of the authors before I figured they would know nothing of the source material and make a hash of it but they did a good job.
A good part of Catwoman's history, pre-new 52, made it in her character information.
The plot felt a little off but I think because the story was from Catwoman's view and ends when her involvement in it ended but the main villain was still free and Batman was still pursuing. So the book seemed like it should have continued. I checked and I have not found a sequel for this so possibly it was meant for one and it never happened or they authors were going for life like where your part of a story isn't the full story and it may continue after you are done with it.
I started reading Catwoman towards the end of old 52 continuity and in those books she was always well off from her work. So it seemed a little jarring to read of a Catwoman who is barely making it. Also her deception of someone who does not know how to dress as Selina doesn't match the one but again this may be because of the time period the book was written and how the character was portrayed.
I guess the only disappointment I have was with how human they made Batman and Catwoman, which of course is weird as they are human in the books with no special abilities. But Batman waiting around in full costume in an ER room and then being summoned to Gordon's office by a patrol man was a bit weird. The amount of casing and setup the Catwoman spends on a job while probably more realistic is something the comics do not go into and thus she loses some of her mystique.
I want to give this a 3.5 but it only allows full stars so I am going with 4.
August 5, 2014
Surprisingly good, considering I didn't expect much. The characterisation was strong and the writing solid, but I felt that the Catwoman sections were better than the Batman ones, possibly because the writers weren't weighed down by expectation and history so much with Catwoman. The story left me a little cold and I'm still struggling to remember how it all fitted together and why it was important, and Tiger as a bad guy seemed a little weak, though the novel manages to keep the darker side of Batman rather than the campier side.
I liked Bonnie but I felt she was a superfluous character, and thank goodness there wasn't a mention of the Boy Wonder anywhere, but the nuns with street names were really good (my favourite being Mother Joseph, a.k.a. 'Old MoJo'!
I liked Bonnie but I felt she was a superfluous character, and thank goodness there wasn't a mention of the Boy Wonder anywhere, but the nuns with street names were really good (my favourite being Mother Joseph, a.k.a. 'Old MoJo'!
July 26, 2016
Batman is supposed to be lawful evil, but he's not supposed to be quite this stupid and single-minded.
Catwoman is supposed to be a crazy cat-lady, but... well, ok, maybe she is supposed to be this crazy, but still.
The standard characters don't inspire any positive emotions whatsoever. About the only one[1] who does is Bonnie, but then you just keep waiting for her to get eliminated with extreme violence, which she is/isn't. [circle the one you like, to avoid spoilage]
Despite this, the story is surprisingly entertaining, and is a good way to waste a couple of hours when you want to explicitly avoid engaging any brain cells.
[1] Well, ok, I admit, Alfred is likable too, but he's a butler, that's his job.
Catwoman is supposed to be a crazy cat-lady, but... well, ok, maybe she is supposed to be this crazy, but still.
The standard characters don't inspire any positive emotions whatsoever. About the only one[1] who does is Bonnie, but then you just keep waiting for her to get eliminated with extreme violence, which she is/isn't. [circle the one you like, to avoid spoilage]
Despite this, the story is surprisingly entertaining, and is a good way to waste a couple of hours when you want to explicitly avoid engaging any brain cells.
[1] Well, ok, I admit, Alfred is likable too, but he's a butler, that's his job.
November 4, 2023
Not a bad tale, but there was nothing that stood out about it. The Cat and the Bat were written as they were in the comics and maybe that was part of the problem. Abbey and Aspirin were already writing very interesting characters of their own. Here, they had to fit into whatever framework DC/Warner was using at the time. If the higher-ups had let them put their own signature on Bruce and Selina, then this would have been 4 or even 5 stars. Still, it's a decent read for a rainy afternoon.
Recommended for fans of Catwoman, Batman, and those who love books where the city is a character itself.
Find it. Buy it. Read it!
Recommended for fans of Catwoman, Batman, and those who love books where the city is a character itself.
Find it. Buy it. Read it!
July 10, 2020
You'd think a Catwoman/Batman caper would be awesome. But not this time. There are a lot of plot distractions keeping the two apart. And when they finally meet face to face, it's very disappointing. Batman throws Catwoman into the river. And everyone knows throwing a cat in water is not a good idea.
August 12, 2012
This book is a slightly guilty secret for me. I can't claim that it has any great literary merit -- but I come back and reread it, again and again. Comfort reading. The only problem with this book, really, is that half of it follows Batman's hunt for a crimelord. The Selina Kyle chapters are so vastly more interesting that I find myself wanting to skip, every time the Bat appears...
November 8, 2015
Fair story, good characterization, good writing. Was disappointed though because was hoping it would be more of a story about Catwoman with expansion of her story and less a Batman story with her as a character. Catwoman takes an interest in a nefarious character (Tiger) and wants to bring him down; unfortunately for her he is part of an organization Batman is trying to bring down.
February 28, 2013
I have always been a fan of the Batman so when i found this book by an author i enjoy reading i decided to give it a go.
Not a great book but ok. Lots of intrigue, even a bit of brain work along the way. plus two superheroes to boot. One good, one inbetween.
Not sure i will pursue any more catwoman stories but like i said, by an author i have enjoyed in the past.
Not a great book but ok. Lots of intrigue, even a bit of brain work along the way. plus two superheroes to boot. One good, one inbetween.
Not sure i will pursue any more catwoman stories but like i said, by an author i have enjoyed in the past.
January 17, 2016
Really a Batman novel in disguise, however Catwoman is spotlighted well. Her plot thread is not very involving and one is left wanting more emphasis on the Batman plot.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews