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I'm on the endless hunt for a book/series of books (can't remember) I read as a kid. I would have been in elementary/middle school - so I would have read it between 1983-1993.

All I remember is that it was about a boy and he had telepathy powers/ability to communicate with a bird - I'm pretty sure it was an owl. No...it is NOT Harry Potter. It was set in a sci-fi kind of setting and there was a bad guy who I believe may have had telepathic powers as well...I can't quite remember.

I remember a sci-fi setting where they were in a space a tunnel in space on some planet and he was scheming with the bird to find the bad guy.

The name of the books does not have Owl in the title and in the book/one of the books the owl/bird is kidnapped.

Here are some books that I know it's not:

  • The Books of Magic
  • Chronicles Of Narnia (Owls feature prominently early in The Silver Chair)
  • Harry Potter Series
  • Owl Mage Trilogy (Owlflight, Owlsight, Owlknight)
  • Guardians Of Ga'Hoole
  • The Owl Service
  • The Belgariad Series
  • The Cheysuli Chronicles
  • Clash Of The Titans
  • The Vengeance Of Wol
  • Cloud's Rider
  • Rider At The Gate
  • The Fortress of Owls Series
  • Sky Trillium
  • Venus Rising
  • Slan Hunter
  • Pip & Flinx Series
  • The Beast Master
  • Valdemar Series including the Owl Mage Trilogy - Into The Dream

The book has more of a sci-fi spin to it than it does a fantasy one. I also do not recall an references to medieval times in the story (from what little I can recall).

PLEASE HELP ME FIND THIS BOOK! I have been looking for over 10 years for it. I even searched the library in the town I grew up in and couldn't find it.

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  • Just since it's not on the list, what about Alan Dean Foster's Pip and Flinx books? Pip's a "mini-drag" (something like a snake with wings), not an owl, but it's a long-running series.
    – RDFozz
    Sep 6, 2017 at 21:03
  • @RDFozz, also a good series.
    – ShadoCat
    Sep 6, 2017 at 21:42
  • possibly the same as scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/47022/…
    – Otis
    Nov 10, 2017 at 15:48
  • I suggest sorting the books in some way: same series or alphabetically..
    – Trish
    Oct 3, 2018 at 6:46

5 Answers 5

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It might be worth checking out The Beast Master by Andre Norton. It's an eagle rather than an owl, and a young man rather than a boy, but it does involve space travel, there is telepathic communication between them, and the eagle does go missing at one point in the book. And it's plenty old enough; first published in 1959.

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  • I know that book and highly recommend it but it isn't the answer to the poster's question. That book also has a sequel: Lord of Thunder.
    – ShadoCat
    Sep 6, 2017 at 17:29
  • @RDFozz, None of the other story points match The Beast Master which was essentially a western in space. The main character was a scout who could communicate with his horse, eagle, black tiger, and a pair of ferrets. His opponents had no psychic abilities. Both stories take place on a backwater planet he settled on after mustering out.
    – ShadoCat
    Sep 6, 2017 at 21:40
  • @ShadoCat - Thanks, that makes the discrepancies much clearer! I've read both books, but not for many years.
    – RDFozz
    Sep 6, 2017 at 22:06
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Some of this matches The Last Legionnary Quartet.

These were written by Douglas Hill in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I won't spoil the series, but during the first adventure, the hero Keill Randor teams up with a telepathic bird like alien - Glr. I don't have a description to hand but I recall her being described as having big eyes.

In the final book, the enemy is shown as having some telepathic powers as well, derived from an artificial life form that was created.

The whole setting is science fiction rather than fantasy.

The four books are

  • Galactic Warlord
  • Deathwing Over Veyna
  • Day of the Starwind
  • Planet of the Warlord

There was also a prequel - Young Legionary, which is about Keill's early life (to about age 18)

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Maybe it could be Animorphs? All of the main characters have the power to change into animals (after acquiring some of their DNA through touch). They got the power from a leader of the good guy aliens (Andalites) right before he was killed by the bad guy aliens (Yeerks) who are secretly invading Earth.

In the books, when the main characters have turned into an animal, they communicate through telepathy. There's also a time limit on how long they can stay in animal form (2 hours, I think). If they exceed the time limit they get stuck. One of the main characters is permanently stuck in the form of a hawk. So, he's a bird and must always communicate with the others using telepathy.

The series was published in the 90s, so it could be a possibility.

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  • I thought the same thing. The character who is stuck as a telepathic red-tailed hawk is called Tobias, like me, so he was obviously my favorite character. Animorphs was published from 1996–2001, so the timeframe doesn't fit exactly, but if the asker has been looking for the book since a little before 2004 ("over 10 years") it's not impossible. I don't remember a plotline where Tobias was kidnapped and there was a space tunnel, but with over 54 books anything is possible. One of the bad guys, Visser Three, is a Yeerk-infested Andalite, who also has telepathic powers.
    – tobiasvl
    Mar 10, 2017 at 20:23
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It's Catseye by Andre Norton. I know because I went through the same long search, got it, read it again (like you, I read it in in early 80's as elementary school kid).

The big cat cried "danger!" Troy Horan heard it with his mind just as he had heard the fox's warning and the kinkajou's. He didn't understand how he could communicate with the animals or why they were contacting him. But from the moment he began work at Kyger's pet emporium on Korwar he was enmeshed in a perilous intrigue... an intrigue that would leave more than one man dead, an entire government in jeopardy, and Horan himself both master and captive of the most extraordinary band of warriors his world had ever known.

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To me, the details suggest an Andre Norton book Catseye. This takes place on another planet where young Ty works in a pet shop. Now, the snag is that an owl is not the main creature, but a cat and a kinkajou which sits on his shoulder are prominent. I don't recall if there was a bird in the pet shop.

There is also Owlflight by Mercedes Lackey. Do not dismiss a book at once because you know it didn't have the word owl in the title - titles can and do change.

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