"Tailchaser's Song" by Tad Williams

I received this book as a gift, because I'm one of those people who might be called a "cat person"; I have cats (two), and I like them. The book advertises itself as having an "understanding of the nuances of feline behavior and psychology" (Cat Fancy Magazine) and that it's "for anyone who loves and understands cats" (San Diego Union). But it doesn't, and it's not.
This is a fantasy novel. That's it. The characters happen to be cats. They lick themselves from time to time. They sniff things. They have more catlike names than characters would have if they weren't cats. But don't let that fool you. It's just an unremarkable fantasy novel.
Fritti Tailchaser sets off on a quest to find his girlfriend (with whom he fully plans to engage in a joining ceremony, the first attempt being incomplete). He suspects the same evil force that's been worrying the Clan as of late is responsible, but he's too young to join their expedition to the Court. He's joined by an excitable youngster, who followed him discreetly. He meets some animals, forms some alliances, gets to the high court, reports his girlfriend missing, finds the Court has been corrupted by the comforts of "M'an" (I'll explain the apostrophe later), leaves again on his own with the youngster, now joined by a tomboyish girl cat, finds the source of evil in a valley (it turns out it's Hearteater, one of the Firstborn, about whom legends have been told), gets captured, is not killed for some incomprehensible reason (it's hinted several times that there's something special about our main character, but this never comes into play), escapes, sends a squirrel brigade to warn the Court, goes back to save his friends, escapes again during a final epic battle between good cats and evil cats, where eventually Tailchaser conjures up Hearteater's good counterpart, who saves the day and disappears again after telling Tailchaser where to find his girlfriend (oh yeah, his girlfriend). It turns out she just moved, and he doesn't like her that much anyway.
Or I could sum that up by saying, "It's a fantasy novel."
Don't be fooled by the cats on the cover. They'll seem a lot less cute when they're inconsistently using their made up fantasy language--a straight up substitution for about 50 words. For example, north is "Ue'a", but a lot of the time they just say "north".
In the introduction, Williams makes a little jab at a publisher who refused to have anything to do with his "talking animal" book. I would like to emphasize that it's less of a "talking animal" book than it is a "human characters who happen to have fur and silly names" book, and I would like to commend that publisher for keeping it off the market for yet another day.