This is my first year as a Hugo voter and my first time attending Worldcon. I genuinely had no idea I was even eligible to vote until this year, so diving into the voter packet has been a mix of surprise, delight, and a little bit of “why didn’t I do this sooner.” One of the best parts of the whole experience has been discovering works I might never have picked up on my own, and The Space Cat is exactly that kind of discovery. I’m so grateful the creators made it available in the packet.
The book is a fantastic set of stories about a wild lynx‑point Siamese who travels with his family to Nigeria for the year and ends up saving the world from alien invaders. He’s also secretly an alien himself, and his orange space‑cat friend—who he adores—turns out to be his sister. It’s whimsical, heartfelt, and visually rich in a way that a lot of reviewers seem to have missed. People who complained that the story “wasn’t complex enough” were clearly reading only the text and not the art, because the art is doing so much of the emotional and narrative work.
The depiction of kitten zoomies alone deserves an award. Periwinkle’s first day in the house, running nonstop in frantic loops, mapping every corner and surface, is exactly what my mom’s cat Paddy did when we brought him home. It’s so accurate it’s almost documentary. And the hot sauce incident is hilarious in the most cat‑true way possible: the bold investigation, the instant regret, and then the offended look that somehow blames the universe for allowing hot sauce to exist.
The alien plot is playful and unsettling at the same time. The glowing blue plant‑creatures that mimic plants during the day and take over human minds is a clear nod to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The final battle where geckos, dogs, owls, and cats all band together is chaotic and charming. It’s a story about cooperation, identity, and belonging, told through expressive art and tight, efficient writing.
For me, this is easily a four‑ or five‑star work. It succeeds on its own terms: visually sophisticated, emotionally resonant, culturally grounded, and genuinely funny. As a first‑time Hugo voter, finding something this joyful and well‑crafted in the packet feels like exactly what the Hugo process is meant to do—surface stories that deserve more attention than they get.
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