2 out of 4 stars
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The Intrepid by Jeff Tellier is a fictional tale of the discovery of a new and highly intelligent species of large cats.
When Ridge Garwold discovers a new species of wildcat in the Arctic, his whole career as a wildlife filmmaker is forever changed. The new cats are named after him and he feels personally responsible for making sure that these intelligent, endangered animals survive.
Julius, Sven, Sasha, and Kayla are the last four cats of their kind. The Arctic is harsh and they are on the brink of starvation. Migrating somewhere where food is more abundant and where polar bears can not threaten them is their only hope. They face many challenges and dangers as they travel across the Arctic to their new home in Africa. Julius believes this human following them might be of help, if only they could find some way to communicate with him.
The story is told in first person and alternates the point of view between human filmmaker, Ridge, and alpha male cat, Julius. It took me some time to get used to the writing style. Once I did, I found the book enjoyable. I loved seeing things from Julius’ perspective. I was pretty fascinated with the big cats and it was easy to care about their plight.
The plot has more to it than I would originally have guessed. I have never read a book quite like this one and was happy to be unable to predict what was going to happen next. There is not necessarily any huge plot twist, but I didn't have the whole story figured out either.
Unfortunately, the book has some negative qualities to it that give it an unprofessional feel. While I enjoyed the overall storyline, there are parts where the pacing is slow. One example of this is with the two female cats. They are frightened of leaving the Arctic so the male cats try to convince them that they must. This takes many pages of back and forth dialogue that is tedious to read. Unfortunately, this is something that happens throughout the entire book. It did not take long for it to feel repetitive and annoying.
There are some grammatical errors. Several times words are cut off. For instance, twice re is used instead of are and s instead of was. Errors like that can be easily picked up with a simple spell check so it definitely makes the book seem sloppy. There are also numerous tense switches. Most of the time the book is written in past tense, but throughout the story the present tense creeps in.
Surprisingly, the book takes a sexual turn about halfway through. I am disappointed with the way it is handled. The first half of the book has no indication of containing graphic material and then a detailed sex scene is thrown in there that has little to do with the overall story. I'm still wondering what is the purpose of it. Other than that, the book is fairly clean. There is some violence, but little to no profanity.
The Intrepid has some great qualities to it. Throughout the entire book, I was interested in finding out what would happen next. However, I can only give it 2 out of 4 stars because of the technical issues that I mentioned above. For me, the pacing and lengthy sections of dialogue are what need the most work.
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The Intrepid
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