John Sherman O'Brien (1897–1938)

My, that's silly. It doesn't work for me even at the level of fun fluff. The magical thinking that takes a wild animal - not even feral, he's had no real contact with humans - and within weeks at most makes him totally loyal to...well, the first white man he's encountered... The last takes it from silly to annoying, though at least it seems to be more a matter of finding his True Love than just a racial thing. Still, it was bad enough it tainted the rest of the book for me. Aside from that, show more it is fluff. Oh, and the language is occasionally excessively high-flown - amusing. The first chapter, in present tense, in particular, but also some later bits. Not dialog, that's fine, usually in descriptions and the like. The end is coincidentally convenient, but not beyond the bounds of the genre. Not a favorite, or even one I much want to read again. show less

I recall enjoying the Silver Chief series when I was young. Another male friend of similar age also remembered enjoying them, but his wife and other female friends did not, so we thought it might be a "guy thing." Rereading the opening, I was struck by the grimness of it; Silver Chief's mother mates with a wolf but rejects him after the pups are born; Silver Chief's siblings are killed very young, and his mother is later shot . Only when Silver Chief is alone does he make friends with a show more Mountie who become his permanent ally. O'Brien, the author had served with Byrd on a polar expedition, apparently with mixed results. show less

Good fluff. Spike and Dan are cute, and a lot of the secondary characters are amusingly (not deeply, but amusingly) drawn. I see what fuzzi means about a weak ending, but it's how books like this work - all the coincidences come together and make for Happy Ever After for man and dog. If I actually think about it, I think they've got some serious trouble waiting - they and Hart have made a bad enemy without particularly weakening him. But that's outside this book, they won for now and all's show more right with the world. Similarly, Dan's blinding only leads, through various vales of woe, to a good ending - and of course (all the way back at the beginning) the man-shy dog finds his True Master to start the rest of the story going. Not a place to look for logic, or even real dog behavior, but it's great fluff. Perfect when I didn't want to think too much. I'd read it before, but long long ago - each scene was vaguely familiar as it came up, but I didn't know where the story was going overall (aside from the predictable path such a book always takes). show less

Good fluff. This one delves a little deeper - not a lot, but a little - into the bond between man and dog. Thorne and Silver Chief are a solid pair (this is the second book in the series), and when Thorne has to believe that the dog is stealing meat out of traps, and contemplate killing him to end the thefts, it's a real strain for him. But of course he's not actually the thief and the truth is uncovered just in time. Some racism here, but even at its worst the description is of one show more individual and it specifically says that "like white men, some Indians are found to be untrustworthy" and this looks like one of them. Not a blanket "Indians can't be trusted" - which puts O'Brien well into the upper reaches of comprehension, for his time. An interesting little secondary tale attached to the end, after the main arc - both Thorne's potential retirement, and the echo back to the enemy of the first book. An enjoyable story, though still not much more than fluff. show less