Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, Books 3 and 4 - The Spacedog Cometh and Target: Earth by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth

Since this is a review of two books in the middle of a series, I'm going to refer you back to my earlier review of the first two books: 

Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat and Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, Book 2: Enemies by J. Marciano, E. Chenoweth, and R. Mommaerts

But, in case you don't feel like reading that, I'll give you a quick rundown of the first two in this delightful middle grade series. The first Klawde book is about an Evil Alien Warlord Cat named Wyss-Cuzz who has been banished to the most horrible place in the universe: Earth. On Earth, Wyss-Cuzz expects things to be as advanced as they are on his home planet but unfortunately it's a primitive place inhabited by ogres who call themselves humans. Wyss-Cuzz is quickly adopted by a boy named Raj and renamed Klawde. In the first book, the evil kitty is trying to get back to his home planet by creating a transporter with the help of his devoted minion, Flooffee-Fyr. 

In the second book he tries to train a crew of kittens to be warriors and things don't work out quite as Klawde anticipated. I reread the first Klawde book but couldn't locate my copy of the second, so I just skipped over it. 

Note: There are some spoilers in these two mini reviews. If you're worried about that, scootch on down to the rating. 

In the third book, The Spacedog Cometh, a dog is sent from one of the many dog planets in the universe (who knew there were so many?) His mission is to punish Klawde for destroying a planet.

Meanwhile, Raj's parents have gone on vacation and he's being watched by his ajji (grandmother), who has brought along a dog that she's fostering. After the spacedog arrives, she takes him in and Klawde must figure out how to deal not only with a dog that can't talk but also with this alien dog who has it in for him. 

With the help of his minion, Flooffee-Fyr, Klawde uses a device like a Go-Pro to beam back films that make him look heroic. But, then he makes the mistake of leaving the camera on at exactly the wrong moment. 

In the fourth book, Target: Earth, Klawde decides he needs to find a way to create an army, take over satellites, and defeat humankind. He starts with a few squirrels in the neighborhood, using them as zombie spies and testing his ability to get them to do his bidding.

Meanwhile, Klawde has been able to acquire some fancy technology by creating his own currency, KitKoin, and becoming filthy rich. In the process, he spoils Raj a little and Raj has to learn a lesson from that. 

Why does Klawde want to kill humans after they've treated him so kindly? Because he has lost the admiration of his many subjects after having to behave submissively to a dog. Will Klawde be able to vanquish his enemy? Or will the FBI agent who lives nearby thwart his efforts?

Both highly recommended - I'm not sure reading them back-to-back would work for everyone and, in fact, even I had to occasionally take a break and read a few pages from a different book to reset. But, I still love this series and if I can, I'll collect them all. There are currently 6 books in the series. I particularly love how this strange, otherworldly creature that looks and sometimes behaves like a cat (not a nice cat, but his humans still love him) is contrasted with a totally normal, slightly quirky family who are kind and loving. Also, Raj begins as a bit of a fish out of water in the first book but quickly finds friends and with each book his connections to people in the neighborhood grows. The human side is really quite lovely, although he does have his nemeses in the form of a group of bullies. 

Note: I'm trying to get back to pre-posting so that all of my posts are up by 7:10 AM for the early risers who like to read posts before or on their way to work but last night I was thwarted by a power outage. Oh, well. I'll keep working on it. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat and Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, Book 2: Enemies by J. Marciano, E. Chenoweth, and R. Mommaerts

Klawde, Evil Alien Warlord Cat, Books 1 and 2 were sent to me together and they're such fun reading that I am toying with pre-ordering the third in the series (which is scheduled for release in October).

The first in the series, Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat #1 tells the story of a vicious warlord cat from another planet. Former High Commander of the planet Lyttyrbox, Wyss-Kuzz is banished from his home planet and sent to a place where carnivorous ogres live: the planet Earth.

Wyss-Kuzz arrives in Oregon in the driving rain and attempts to enter Raj Banerjee's home by pressing a button, which turns out to be a doorbell rather than an electronic portal opener (disappointing -- so primitive, these humans). The brilliant warlord is stuck pretending he's an ordinary cat and is instantly adopted. He's named Klawde by the family. Klawde is not a nice cat at all, which leads to a bit of hilarity, but Raj is excited to have a kitty.

Raj has just moved from Brooklyn, New York, and the last thing he wants to deal with is nature but his mother insists that he must go to a 2-week nature day camp that culminates in Survival Night. In alternating chapters, the story of Raj's time at camp (with evenings at home) and Klawde's hours spent building a transporter to return to his home planet unfolds.

I can't remember the last time a book literally made me laugh out loud like Klawde did. It's been a while. As I was reading this delightful immensely fun outer-space-cat-meets-normal-Earthlings story, I kept thinking about my youngest son (a cat lover, like myself) and how much he would have adored this book as a youngster. Full of dark humor and ridiculous situations, it seems right up his alley. In fact, I mentioned the book to him on the phone and Kiddo admitted that even now, at 27, he would probably enjoy it. Klawde is a mean cat who scratches frequently and, let's face it, he must have been pretty evil to have been banished from his planet. But, in the end he becomes friends with Raj.

In the second book, Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat #2: Enemies, both Raj and Klawde are faced with new challenges. Raj is doing fine at his new middle school since he shared the fact that his best friend from Brooklyn is the son of the artist who created the popular Americaman comic books. The only problem with this story is that Raj and Cameron are no longer friends. When Cameron shows up in the same small town in Oregon where Raj has moved, his status as a newly popular kid is in jeopardy. And, when Cameron helps his team perfect their project in robotics class and it appears that he may have sabotaged Raj's team's robot, Raj falls sway to Klawde's advice to take revenge.

Meanwhile, Klawde has returned to Earth after being betrayed by his former lackey, Flooffee-Fyr, who closed the wormholes to his home planet. Klawde has trained his humans and one could say he is learning how to behave like a normal pussycat. He no longer scratches the way he used to. But, he's bored waiting for Flooffee-Fyr to fail as the new emperor. Then, he gets a brilliant idea. He'll set up a new school for warriors. After his first attempt (training the neighborhood cats) fails, Klawde decides he must start from the beginning and he brings home three kittens to train. It's going well but then disaster strikes. Klawde's mortal enemy Ffangg has also been banished to Earth. And, he's determined to make sure Klawde is humiliated in every way. Revenge is definitely on the menu for Klawde, as well as Raj.

Oh, my gosh, I love these books. Enemies is every bit as good as the first in the series, clever and funny with such distinctive voices. The contrast between Klawde, an uppity former high emperor cat, and Raj, who is really just a nerdy but nice kid, gives the book a raucous spice:

All day, I stewed in the bilious juices of my fury. I must have my revenge! But how? By what means?

As my massive feline brain analyzed all the possible stratagems, the boy-Human arrived home. I hissed at him to leave me alone, as I needed privacy for my scheming. His pestering, however, was relentless. 

"But Klawde, don't you understand? Our robot won! On Monday I get to show it off to the whole school!" He was practically jumping up and down with excitement. It was most unseemly. 

So much fun.

Both highly recommended - A little sci-fi, some clever plotting, distinctive voices, and loads of humor make this a winning series. And, Raj learns his lesson about revenge being a bad thing (after that last post, you know how important that is to me in a children's book). Really, the only question is whether or not my youngest son will be able to pry these books away from me because I know he'll want to keep them, once he's read the two books.

This is the final post for National Pet Day. My thanks to Penguin Random House for the Klawde books and the other books I had the privilege of reviewing, today.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.