Dog Days

Sometimes, I find to my annoyance, I allow myself to be swayed by others' opinions. For example: a while back I tentatively suggested John Levitt's Dog Days for a group read on a GR group I used to belong to, and one comment the suggestion received was that it "sounds really bad". There was a little support, too, but I actually allowed my preconception of the book to be swayed by others' concentration on the possibility of cheesiness in the concept, and I dropped the idea and moved on to other books.

But it filtered back up to the upper stories of my TBR skyscraper. I seem to be trending right now toward urban fantasy: here and now and with at least one foot in reality. So I settled down with Dog Days, set in present-day show more slightly-alternate San Francisco.

Moral: I need to not let myself be at all influenced by others who have not read a given book.

I loved it.

Was it perfect? Of course not. Did it inspire Dresden-like feelings? No – but then, neither did Storm Front, really. Was it cheesy? Not at all. Is it ill-served by a somewhat questionable cover and over-abundance of canine puns in the title and marketing? Oh, my, yes. Whoever had the idea to put the series titles' focus on the dog and choose some fool's punny comment as this edition's cover blurb should be flogged (even if the titles were Levitt's idea). The packaging gives every impression of just another annoying entry in the Animal Companion subgenre, a book and series throughout which the hero will be having many conversations with his smart-alecky or wiser-than-he-is or what-have-you TelCom (Telepathic Companion).

It's really not.

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Dog Days gets off to a rough start. The main character not only drops cliches, he gets them wrong, and his self introduction is a little long winded, but once the mystery starts up and people start dying the wit becomes more focused. The worst parts of the book are in the beginning ("Black isn't a color, but this black is"? What does that mean?).

The Ifrit angle is a neat one, and I am partial to animal sidekicks.

If you can get through the begining you'll have yourself a nice, short urban fantasy to pass the afternoon with.

Urban fantasy with dogs (sort of). I really enjoyed this book. It feels fresh. The protagonist is interesting (the book's a little hard on his romantic interests). And I loved the almost/mostly dog character Lou. A few plot holes, but nothing that detracts from the book's enjoyablity. I bought the next in the series before I finished this one.

John Levitt's urban fantasy debut is a good read, and one of the more original UFs I've read in a long time. There's so much in the world-building that's just really cool or different (at least, based on the UF I've read, which pretty much centers on the holy trinity of fangs, fur, and fae), and the Ifrits--magical companions to those with talent, but not ALL of those with talent, and not always the most talented, for that matter--are a really cool touch, as well as the crux of the story. The first person POV didn't grab me, but in this case, I think it's a matter of taste. The book is good, but it's not addictive for me particularly, but that's me, not the book or the author.

The full review, which does contain spoilers, is at my LJ if show more anyone's interested. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: John Levitt's DOG DAYS

Happy Reading! :) show less

I enjoyed reading this book - it has the right amount of action to character development. The ifrits (familiars) are a nice touch - it was nice to see a companion that didn't talk or use telepathy.

For the most part, it was a straight forward story. A few unexpected turns, but mostly kept true to the whole detective/evil fighting type urban fantasy that is now very popular these days.

Theres even a romance, that I wasn't quite expecting and worked in a normal sort of way.

Its a nice book. Not spectacular but enjoyable to read.

A fun read, although a bit awkward in some places, Dog Days kept me interested until the end. I figured out "whodunit" midway through, but it almost seemed as if the author wanted us to know. The characters were well drawn and there was enough action to keep it moving forward. I liked the Campbell character a lot, and of course Lou. Mason (the lead) can be annoying sometimes, but he admits it so I can live with that. The dog (sort of) is charming and San Francisco is a strong character. Jazz enthusiasts will be pleasantly surprised.

This is the first book in John Levitt’s series about Mason, a wizard who’s magical talent is improvisation. He’s got a lot of power but lacks the discipline to train properly, as if often the case with intrepid heroes and heroines. What’s neat is that his improvisational skills expand over to his normal job as a jazz musician.

In Dog Days, the first in what is now a three-book series, Mason has given up being a magical enforcer, and now makes a living playing jazz guitar. He lives with his ifrit, Louie, who’s a very special dog. He helps Mason out of jams, including the ones he finds himself in this story, as someone is taking out practitioners. Toss in some special duels and romantic entanglements and it makes for quite the show more story.

This is one of those rare urban fantasy series with a male protagonist. Most urban fantasy stories have female protagonists, and are written by women so this is something of an exception. I’m pleased to say that, despite my fears, it’s different from the other man wizard series I read (The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher). There are some similarities but there are enough differences that the story felt fresh. Fresh enough that I’ve purchased the next two stories for my e-reader, at least. We’ll see how the series develops soon!

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