Levitt, John: Dog Days
Dog Days
Writer: John Levitt
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 297
This book looked interesting, but not interesting enough for me to spend the cash on. However, when I discovered that quiet_rebel read it and loved it, I asked if there was any way I could borrow it. So borrow it I did.
The premise: Magic is real, and those with the talent are called practitioners. Some practitioners, regardless of talent or strength, even have Ifrits, magical creatures in the form of ordinary animals, but Ifrits aren't that ordinary, not by a longshot. Our narrator and protagonist, Mason, has Louie, a dog, and Mason's one of those who has talent but doesn't do much with it. He's content to live his life as a jazz musician, until one day he nearly gets killed. It's up to him and Louie to find out what's going on, before something even worse happens.
Spoilers behind the cut.
It took a little while for me to feel really hooked into this novel. And it's not as if there are flaws. The setting is decently realized, the characterization feels right, and there's some really cool, original stuff going on in the story. I say original in relation to all of the OTHER urban fantasy I have read, so how original it is, I can't say with absolute certainty, but I can say that there's no vampires, werewolves, or faeries. Magic users exist, but with a nice veil of realism, and the Ifrits are truly a unique touch, especially in regards to the plot.
What it boiled down to, in regards to interest, was both character and voice. Mason isn't a bad guy, but he really doesn't do anything either. He's very laid back, very mellow, and he doesn't really ACT unless Louie is threatened, and when that happens, THAT'S when the story picks up the pace. It takes a while to happen, for me, and that goes back to voice. The first-person narration just didn't catch my interest. It's not done badly by any means, but it's not a voice that sucks me into the pages and holds me there mercilessly. It was an easy book for me to put down and pick back up later, at least until Louie was threatened and we met Campbell.
Sadly, it's becoming more and more apparent that I require some kind of romantic tension in a book to hold my interest. Maybe that makes me a bad reader, but oh well.
In this case, I have to say I really like how Levitt handles the love interest in regards to the bigger picture. At first, I resisted, because in the end, Mason HAD to kill Christoph, otherwise he'd be dead. But I understand that someone like Campbell, whose fundamental nature is to help and heal people, would still have issue reconciling what Mason had to do to survive.
There's some good stuff in here: the Ifrits, especially, the totem-animals, the improvisation talents of Mason, which applies to both jazz and magic. I suspect that Mason's far more talented than he thinks he is, though the book tends to contradict this. While Mason's supporters say that yes, he's got talent, Christoph is the contradiction, who at one point says Mason has untapped power and then later says it's meager. Then again, it could be the difference between potential and practice, and Mason's practice is shit.
The jewels were a creepy McGuffin, and the story surrounding them I thought was pretty disturbing and original. I also loved Levitt's use of monsters. Again, original, or at least original in my book.
Levitt doesn't tie up all the loose ends. The main plot is tied up: Mason is alive and knows why Christoph was after him, Christoph is dead, Louie is safe and sound, and Campbell and Mason decide to part ways. It's not a totally happy ending, and there's a shitload of world-building material and character-building material available for later books, but it's a good ending, especially the last line.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: but I'll be honest, I'm glad I borrowed it. It's a good book chock full of neat ideas and original world-building as far as urban fantasy goes, but the voice isn't addictive FOR ME PERSONALLY, and I'm not chomping at the bit for the next installment, though the next installment does come out later this year, and if quiet-rebel is so inclined, I'd be happy to borrow that one from her too. :) But if I had spent money on this, I wouldn't have minded. It's a good read, something fresh for the urban fantasy genre, which totally makes it worthwhile, even though the voice didn't grab me.
Next up: I know MultiReal by David Louis Edelman was supposed to be next, but I'm afraid I've gotten into another urban fantasy kick, so the next review will be:
Chasing Silver by Jamie Craig