Book Log #2: Dog Days, by John Levitt
Jan. 6th, 2009 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperOn paper, Dog Days seems like it's tailor-made for me: it's an urban fantasy starring a musician, a guitar player named Mason who much prefers his music over his magic. And he's got a clever little companion, a dog-like magical creature who's often more capable than Mason himself at getting them out of trouble. "Guitar player?" I said. "Finding himself having to investigate what the hell is targeting magic practitioners all over San Francisco?" I said. Sign me up.
However, it took me a while to really get into the story, and even now, after I've finished it, I'm not entirely sure what I think. It's not as fast-paced as many current urban fantasy novels, which many may consider a drawback; me, I wasn't particularly bothered by the level of action, since there's a good amount. I was more distracted by the pacing of Mason's narration, and by the dialogue.
As a narrator Mason is not in the mold of first-person-smartass that's so common these days. That's actually a plus. He's generally very laid back and ruminative, and there are stretches in this book where I got a sense off his narration of what he might sound like playing the guitar--not obtrusive, but with enough of a hint of intriguing layers that I would want to keep listening. But it's inconsistent. There are bits where he tries to be flip and smartassed, both in the narration and in the dialogue, and they feel forced. So does Mason's description of himself as having "brooding intensity"; I can't think of anyone who would actually describe themselves that way outside a personals site. He also has a way of flinging the reader backstory in distracting places--like when he's about to be attacked by a monster. This is not the place where I want to be told about a bit of encounter he once had with his mentor, even if the conversation is pertinent to what's about to eat his face.
The dialogue in general has issues, not just Mason's. Characters harp more than once about how much "potential" Mason has and how "lazy" he is, both as a magic practitioner and a musician--and these people are supposed to be his friends and colleagues. Mason, justifiably, finds this irritating. The problem is, it's also irritating to the reader to have that point driven home not once but several times in the dialogue, overshadowing what evidence we see in Mason's actual behavior.
And yet. There is this periodic sense for me that there's some music here. Maybe not fully formed yet, maybe lacking cohesion, but there. I was interested enough in the story to hang in there until the end, and was oddly satisfied to find that the ending is not without its cost for Mason--thereby setting the stage for him to maybe grow into that potential that everybody keeps harping on him about.
So yeah, I will probably come back around for another few bars of this, and pick up Book 2, which just came out. For this one, three stars.
However, it took me a while to really get into the story, and even now, after I've finished it, I'm not entirely sure what I think. It's not as fast-paced as many current urban fantasy novels, which many may consider a drawback; me, I wasn't particularly bothered by the level of action, since there's a good amount. I was more distracted by the pacing of Mason's narration, and by the dialogue.
As a narrator Mason is not in the mold of first-person-smartass that's so common these days. That's actually a plus. He's generally very laid back and ruminative, and there are stretches in this book where I got a sense off his narration of what he might sound like playing the guitar--not obtrusive, but with enough of a hint of intriguing layers that I would want to keep listening. But it's inconsistent. There are bits where he tries to be flip and smartassed, both in the narration and in the dialogue, and they feel forced. So does Mason's description of himself as having "brooding intensity"; I can't think of anyone who would actually describe themselves that way outside a personals site. He also has a way of flinging the reader backstory in distracting places--like when he's about to be attacked by a monster. This is not the place where I want to be told about a bit of encounter he once had with his mentor, even if the conversation is pertinent to what's about to eat his face.
The dialogue in general has issues, not just Mason's. Characters harp more than once about how much "potential" Mason has and how "lazy" he is, both as a magic practitioner and a musician--and these people are supposed to be his friends and colleagues. Mason, justifiably, finds this irritating. The problem is, it's also irritating to the reader to have that point driven home not once but several times in the dialogue, overshadowing what evidence we see in Mason's actual behavior.
And yet. There is this periodic sense for me that there's some music here. Maybe not fully formed yet, maybe lacking cohesion, but there. I was interested enough in the story to hang in there until the end, and was oddly satisfied to find that the ending is not without its cost for Mason--thereby setting the stage for him to maybe grow into that potential that everybody keeps harping on him about.
So yeah, I will probably come back around for another few bars of this, and pick up Book 2, which just came out. For this one, three stars.