Tailchaser's Song
#4443.98 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 1985 Reading commitment Low Tad Williams Last reviewed 2026-09-29
Overview
Tad Williams's 1985 debut is an animal fantasy in the tradition of Watership Down: a quest through a world of cats with their own language, elders, court and gods, in which humans are the race of M'an, remembered in cat legend as kin twisted by an ancient curse. When cats begin to vanish and his companion Hushpad is among them, the young feral tom Fritti Tailchaser sets out to find her, gathering companions on the road and travelling far beyond the Folk's known world toward the evil that is swallowing his kind. A separate world from Williams's Osten Ard, Shadowmarch and Bobby Dollar books.
Epic fantasy · For All ages
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
Tailchaser's Song (1985) core · 3.98 (13,208 ratings); DAW Books, 21 November 1985; Williams's first published novel. A separate world from Osten Ard, Shadowmarch and Bobby Dollar.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Tailchaser's Song? Tailchaser's Song's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is Tailchaser's Song finished? Complete (1985).
- How much reading does Tailchaser's Song take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~333 pages).
- How is Tailchaser's Song ranked? #444 in this site's official ranking, based on 13,208 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #444?
Ranked #444 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.98 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (13,208 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #443, Chanters of Tremaris (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 1 book · Complete · 13k ratings · Ranks #444 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- No award could be confirmed for this novel.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.98 across 13,208 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: Tailchaser's Song (Tad Williams) accepted 2026-09-29
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia Tier 2
- Tad Williams (official site) Tier 1
Last reviewed: 2026-09-29
Rule: Core Canon = Tailchaser's Song (1985) only, standalone.