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Time of the Cat
It’s time to take history seriously.
The cats and humans of Chronos College know that time travel is the best job in the world, and nothing bad can ever happen to them in the past� except that one time they lost a traveller. And that other time they lost a cat.
Now they have a chance to make up for past mistakes by rescuing a long lost legend. If only they could convince Professor Boswell, the grumpiest marmalade tabby of all time, to join their mission to the Swinging Sixties, and save one of their own. (Plus pick up a missing piece or two of lost media along the way.)
Join Ruthven, Boswell, Monterey and Lovelace on the most chaotic time travel adventure of their lives. Featuring special appearances by Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn, famous actress Fleur Shropshire, and the even more famous house where they filmed TV show Cramberleigh between 1964-1986.
Time of the Cat is a cozy sci-fi romp through the centuries, featuring academic endnotes, epic friendships, and far more cat hair than is strictly necessary. If you’d rather use time travel to steal the pens of famous writers of history than stop to fill in the proper paperwork, then this is the novel for you.
The cats and humans of Chronos College know that time travel is the best job in the world, and nothing bad can ever happen to them in the past� except that one time they lost a traveller. And that other time they lost a cat.
Now they have a chance to make up for past mistakes by rescuing a long lost legend. If only they could convince Professor Boswell, the grumpiest marmalade tabby of all time, to join their mission to the Swinging Sixties, and save one of their own. (Plus pick up a missing piece or two of lost media along the way.)
Join Ruthven, Boswell, Monterey and Lovelace on the most chaotic time travel adventure of their lives. Featuring special appearances by Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn, famous actress Fleur Shropshire, and the even more famous house where they filmed TV show Cramberleigh between 1964-1986.
Time of the Cat is a cozy sci-fi romp through the centuries, featuring academic endnotes, epic friendships, and far more cat hair than is strictly necessary. If you’d rather use time travel to steal the pens of famous writers of history than stop to fill in the proper paperwork, then this is the novel for you.
383 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 6, 2023
6 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
Tansy Rayner Roberts
128books305followersTansy Rayner Roberts is a fantasy and science fiction author who lives in southern Tasmania, somewhere between the tall mountain with snow on it, and the beach that points towards Antarctica.
Tansy has a PhD in Classics (with a special interest in poisonous Roman ladies), and an obsession with Musketeers.
You can hear Tansy talking about Doctor Who on the Verity! podcast. She also reads her own stories on the Sheep Might Fly podcast.
Tansy has a PhD in Classics (with a special interest in poisonous Roman ladies), and an obsession with Musketeers.
You can hear Tansy talking about Doctor Who on the Verity! podcast. She also reads her own stories on the Sheep Might Fly podcast.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 22, 2024
Time of the Cat is one of the most delightful, absolutely bonkers books I've ever read. If Doctor Who picked up a talking feline companion and paused every so often to offer zany footnotes about time travel and cult TV shows, you might get a story something like this one.
The book begins as Ruthven discovers a lost time traveller from Chronos College caught on-film in a frame from a 1960s television episode. Ruthven—tragically cat-less—soon teams up with the lost traveller's cranky cat in order to bring her back, using his obsessive knowledge of the TV show's history to navigate the situation.
As one might expect, given the time travel shenanigans, things only continue to get stranger from there.
The stars of the entire story really are the talking cats, between their not-always-successful attempts at dignity and their silent power games of "who's sitting in the highest spot". But this book is also a charming ode to Doctor Who, with its over-the-top timey-wimey revelations and its hangouts with historical figures. Overall, it was a wonderfully absurd, low-stress read that regularly made me smile.
The book begins as Ruthven discovers a lost time traveller from Chronos College caught on-film in a frame from a 1960s television episode. Ruthven—tragically cat-less—soon teams up with the lost traveller's cranky cat in order to bring her back, using his obsessive knowledge of the TV show's history to navigate the situation.
As one might expect, given the time travel shenanigans, things only continue to get stranger from there.
The stars of the entire story really are the talking cats, between their not-always-successful attempts at dignity and their silent power games of "who's sitting in the highest spot". But this book is also a charming ode to Doctor Who, with its over-the-top timey-wimey revelations and its hangouts with historical figures. Overall, it was a wonderfully absurd, low-stress read that regularly made me smile.
December 28, 2023
A rollicking, timey wimey love letter to TV fandom, history’s mysteries, academia and found family. With talking cats!
January 13, 2024
This was SO MUCH FUN. It was Connie Willis-esque time travelling historians and old British TV shows and fandom and adventure and mystery and friendship and footnotes that had me thinking of Terry Pratchett every time I fumbled pages flipping back and forth to the end of chapters. I loved it, but next time through I’m reading the digital version 😝 Also, talking cats. Perfection.
March 5, 2025
[This review can also be found on my ]
**I read this book as a judge for the fourth annual Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC), this review is solely my own and does not reflect the opinions of the whole team**
CW: swearing, loss and grief, panic attacks, mention of an accident
--
Time of the Cat is an absolutely delightful little book that is the right balance of chaotic and light-hearted. It is based around a secret society of time travellers who are obsessed with a 20th century British tv show called Cramberleigh that they are constantly recovering lost episodes of on their time travel trips. When rare footage from the unaired pilot episode of the show is found and they catch a glimpse of Cressida Church, a renowned time traveller who got separated from her cat Professor Boswell and so lost in time a few years ago, a group decide to take it upon themselves to go rescue her.
This was an entertaining read through and through and I loved how whacky all the characters were, including the cats who each had their own boisterous personalities and also talked! It is both a love letter to fandom culture and a wholesome adventure between friends where the stakes may be high with the potential threat of causing travel banning Events as well as encounters with members of the enemy group The Anachronauts, but the casual tone made it more fun to follow along with than anything else.
I did find that thing started to slow down a little in the middle when there was a bit of back and forth in the dialogue but I was invested with pretty much every single one of the characters by then so it didn’t bother me too much. You can expect a good laugh from all the jokes and banter, a nice dose of drama as well as cameos from well known names from ancient history.
The amount of thought that has gone into putting the story together really shines through particularly with all the extra details to do with Cramberleigh that have been included and it made the book all the more enjoyable to me. Plus I really like how everything tied up at the end.
If you’re loving cosy sci-fi/fantasy books as well as books involving cat/animal companions that are all the hype at the moment then you’re in for a treat with this book that combines both! I can’t recommend it enough.
**I read this book as a judge for the fourth annual Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC), this review is solely my own and does not reflect the opinions of the whole team**
CW: swearing, loss and grief, panic attacks, mention of an accident
--
Time of the Cat is an absolutely delightful little book that is the right balance of chaotic and light-hearted. It is based around a secret society of time travellers who are obsessed with a 20th century British tv show called Cramberleigh that they are constantly recovering lost episodes of on their time travel trips. When rare footage from the unaired pilot episode of the show is found and they catch a glimpse of Cressida Church, a renowned time traveller who got separated from her cat Professor Boswell and so lost in time a few years ago, a group decide to take it upon themselves to go rescue her.
This was an entertaining read through and through and I loved how whacky all the characters were, including the cats who each had their own boisterous personalities and also talked! It is both a love letter to fandom culture and a wholesome adventure between friends where the stakes may be high with the potential threat of causing travel banning Events as well as encounters with members of the enemy group The Anachronauts, but the casual tone made it more fun to follow along with than anything else.
I did find that thing started to slow down a little in the middle when there was a bit of back and forth in the dialogue but I was invested with pretty much every single one of the characters by then so it didn’t bother me too much. You can expect a good laugh from all the jokes and banter, a nice dose of drama as well as cameos from well known names from ancient history.
The amount of thought that has gone into putting the story together really shines through particularly with all the extra details to do with Cramberleigh that have been included and it made the book all the more enjoyable to me. Plus I really like how everything tied up at the end.
If you’re loving cosy sci-fi/fantasy books as well as books involving cat/animal companions that are all the hype at the moment then you’re in for a treat with this book that combines both! I can’t recommend it enough.
March 6, 2024
I follow Tansy Rayner Roberts' book updates (via her newsletter and her Patreon), so when I saw the posts talking about a Kickstarter for a book with time traveling cats, I knew I had to back it. I ended up backing at a decently high level, which got me copies of all 3 book formats (paperback, digital, and audio) and yet after reading what Tansy (and other readers) had to say about the audiobook I knew that was the format I wanted to read this in. And I'm glad I did! Ciaran Saward is a new-to-me narrator, but did such a wonderful job with this book.
To start with: the basic plot is that cats can both speak and time travel. They can bring humans with them when they travel, but without a cat, humans are stuck moving through time the usual way. At the start of this book, the time travelers get a clue about the location of the time traveler they previously lost in time, and decide to mount a rescue mission to get her back.
Of course, things go wrong and get complicated, and the result is a romp through time as our cast jumps here and there trying to save everyone without getting in more trouble. (Spoiler: trouble finds them. Of course.) It's a lot of fun to see different time periods through the lens of travelers from our future, and the humor throughout was tons of fun.
While I would say that this is meant to be a book for adults, due to the age of the protagonists (all out of college) and some of the subject matter (mostly around grief and betrayal) it could easily be read by young adults. Younger children could also read it as well and enjoy it a lot, though I would recommend that an adult read it along with them to help with some of the more adult themes or references.
I had a ton of fun with this book, though, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who thinks it sounds remotely interesting. I'd also suggest the audiobook; while Tansy's print books are good, the audio steps this one up a notch and makes it even better. Regardless of what book sites may say, this was marketed on Kickstarter as a standalone, and it definitely works as one. (I'm unclear if series plans have been added now that the book is published, or if it is going to remain a standalone.)
To start with: the basic plot is that cats can both speak and time travel. They can bring humans with them when they travel, but without a cat, humans are stuck moving through time the usual way. At the start of this book, the time travelers get a clue about the location of the time traveler they previously lost in time, and decide to mount a rescue mission to get her back.
Of course, things go wrong and get complicated, and the result is a romp through time as our cast jumps here and there trying to save everyone without getting in more trouble. (Spoiler: trouble finds them. Of course.) It's a lot of fun to see different time periods through the lens of travelers from our future, and the humor throughout was tons of fun.
While I would say that this is meant to be a book for adults, due to the age of the protagonists (all out of college) and some of the subject matter (mostly around grief and betrayal) it could easily be read by young adults. Younger children could also read it as well and enjoy it a lot, though I would recommend that an adult read it along with them to help with some of the more adult themes or references.
I had a ton of fun with this book, though, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who thinks it sounds remotely interesting. I'd also suggest the audiobook; while Tansy's print books are good, the audio steps this one up a notch and makes it even better. Regardless of what book sites may say, this was marketed on Kickstarter as a standalone, and it definitely works as one. (I'm unclear if series plans have been added now that the book is published, or if it is going to remain a standalone.)
December 23, 2023
Fun book and the audio narration is excellent!
January 21, 2024
Glorious and mind-boggling. A joy to read and discover all the hat-tips to other media. With great cats, too!
January 25, 2025
I read Time of the Cat as part of a judging team for the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, where it is a quarterfinalist.
This is a lighthearted time travel romp that feels like a love letter to fandom—at no point does it take itself seriously, and sometimes that’s just what you need. It’s a quick read that starts out silly and makes the jump to absurd fairly quickly. A secret college of humans and cats have discovered how to travel in time, and they use their knowledge mostly to find old footage of a UK TV series that they’re all obsessed with for some reason (there is textual explanation for this obsession. Also there is an appendix listing all the episodes from the 14-season initial run, the three TV movies, and the three-season 80s spinoff. Like I said, love letter to fandom). But someone gets lost, they need a rescue, there are crazy anachronisms out the wazoo, possibly a deadly plot afoot. It’s wild.
I’m not sure I’d call this laugh-out-loud funny in the mold of Douglas Adams, but it’s consistently pleasant, amusing, and easy to read and certainly prompts a chuckle every now and again. I’m not sure how well it’d hold up for someone who hasn’t been fairly online in the last decade or so, but even if you’re not deep in fandom specific spaces (as I am not), it was still a pretty entertaining read.
The plot is about as coherent as it needs to be in order to give the story some structure and prevent it from being a series of jokes strung together, but this one is really about the tone. It’s fun, and that’s all it needs to be.
First impression: 15/20. Full review and SPSFC score to come at
This is a lighthearted time travel romp that feels like a love letter to fandom—at no point does it take itself seriously, and sometimes that’s just what you need. It’s a quick read that starts out silly and makes the jump to absurd fairly quickly. A secret college of humans and cats have discovered how to travel in time, and they use their knowledge mostly to find old footage of a UK TV series that they’re all obsessed with for some reason (there is textual explanation for this obsession. Also there is an appendix listing all the episodes from the 14-season initial run, the three TV movies, and the three-season 80s spinoff. Like I said, love letter to fandom). But someone gets lost, they need a rescue, there are crazy anachronisms out the wazoo, possibly a deadly plot afoot. It’s wild.
I’m not sure I’d call this laugh-out-loud funny in the mold of Douglas Adams, but it’s consistently pleasant, amusing, and easy to read and certainly prompts a chuckle every now and again. I’m not sure how well it’d hold up for someone who hasn’t been fairly online in the last decade or so, but even if you’re not deep in fandom specific spaces (as I am not), it was still a pretty entertaining read.
The plot is about as coherent as it needs to be in order to give the story some structure and prevent it from being a series of jokes strung together, but this one is really about the tone. It’s fun, and that’s all it needs to be.
First impression: 15/20. Full review and SPSFC score to come at
January 14, 2024
A very fun light-hearted time travel romp, with talking cats! I was a little concerned with the disjointed nature of the prose and frequent footnotes in the early part of the book, but once the story starts going it smooths out and the remainder of the book is a pure delight (and the footnotes add great flavour and don't interrupt the flow at all). If you love sci-fi, cats, and old television shows that may have been mostly lost to history, then you'll have a great time with this.
April 6, 2025
Currently reading for SPSFC4 - RTC when I've read our allocation of semis.
December 24, 2024
I listened to this book and for the first half was laughing out loud. However, it turned darker towards the second half before it got lighter again.
The narrator was Cieran Sewerd, and he was brilliant! He made all the voices different so you knew exactly who was talking at any time. I've read other books by Tansy, and I'm going to be looking out for lots more. She writes well, with good thought out ideas and plots that work. Her world building is great.
Pour yourself a cup of tea and read/listen to this book! You'll love it - it's got talking cats, enough said.
The narrator was Cieran Sewerd, and he was brilliant! He made all the voices different so you knew exactly who was talking at any time. I've read other books by Tansy, and I'm going to be looking out for lots more. She writes well, with good thought out ideas and plots that work. Her world building is great.
Pour yourself a cup of tea and read/listen to this book! You'll love it - it's got talking cats, enough said.
November 27, 2024
This was hilarious. The feline characters are brilliant and believable despite the fact they can talk, and the plot is fun and well paced. The footnotes I found a little distracting at first, and I ended up just skimming them to avoid getting overwhelmed. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Great for cat lovers.
July 6, 2024
what a riot!
A witty, outrageous romp with time traveling cats and their humans. Add in mystery and intrigue, a whole immersive world of the show Cramberleigh, and you have a quirky, hysterical read. An excellent escape.
A witty, outrageous romp with time traveling cats and their humans. Add in mystery and intrigue, a whole immersive world of the show Cramberleigh, and you have a quirky, hysterical read. An excellent escape.
December 26, 2024
4.5 stars
October 30, 2024
I originally got this through a Kickstarter last year, but for some reason never read it
It was wonderful! Hilariously wacky with some terrific characters - both human and cat. And I enjoyed the funny academic endnotes for each chapter.
The time traveling humans of Chronos College are a little obsessed (in an entirely nerdy fandom way) with the fictional world of the 20th century television show Cramberleigh. When they catch a glimpse of one of their lost time travelers in a recently recovered episode, they, along with the talking cats that are the key to time travel, mount a rescue operation.
Zany adventures ensue!
The narrator, Ciaran Saward is excellent, but I found it a little hard to follow the adventures. I think it would be better to read the first time and reread on audio.
If you enjoyed Connie Willis' To Say Nothing About the Dog or Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St. Mary's and thought, “but this would be even better with talking cats�, then you'll love this book!
April 21, 2025
Sorry but I found none of the characters likeable (human as well as cat), most were rather pathetic. And I know it is just a story, but not only did the ending feel contrived, but what the supposedly good guys did to the not really bad society of cats when escaping back to their own time was simply horrible. There were other things as well, mainly to do with the (future) cats, that did not seem right or were left hanging. The book is OK for the first half or so, which is why I persisted with it, but (for me) lost its way after that.
June 10, 2024
I got this as an audiobook for supporting the Kickstarter. I wish I'd listened to it sooner--it was fabulous!
What I thought was going to be a rather silly book had twists and turns and posed ethical questions that really made me think. It was a fun story to listen to, and I enjoyed the various points of view and the diversity of the cast.
What I thought was going to be a rather silly book had twists and turns and posed ethical questions that really made me think. It was a fun story to listen to, and I enjoyed the various points of view and the diversity of the cast.
June 17, 2024
This was an ok read. It was an interesting concept, but it seemed like Roberts was just trying to hard to be clever and funny, so for me it just fell flat. I quite enjoy the Tea Cup series that Roberts has written, though, so I think this may just have been a blip.
And I'm all there for talking cats controlling time travel!
And I'm all there for talking cats controlling time travel!
October 10, 2024
Excellent book! I loved the characters, which was even nicer considering I listened to the audiobook.
The plot was intriguing and sometimes confusing and played havoc with the imagination. How to unravel this whole situation.
And just when you think there is no way out, a way out is presented and seems completely logical and attainable.
Want more now.....
The plot was intriguing and sometimes confusing and played havoc with the imagination. How to unravel this whole situation.
And just when you think there is no way out, a way out is presented and seems completely logical and attainable.
Want more now.....
March 23, 2024
Absolutely loved it!
April 27, 2024
Four and a half stars
This was delightful fun crazy time travel hijinks with cats.
This was delightful fun crazy time travel hijinks with cats.
June 9, 2024
Too chopped up for me. I prefer exposition with dialogue and a continous story.
June 11, 2024
This book was delightful and hilarious.
July 1, 2024
Super fun book! Time travel and cats and wonderful world-building!
August 24, 2024
A no spoilers review, bonkers, delightfully mind bending.
September 1, 2024
This was a fun romp - cats and time travel, what more do you wish for? The story started a bit slow, but once it got going I really enjoyed it.
December 18, 2024
I’m still not sure what the hell I just read, but it was sweet and cosy and adorable. More, please.
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