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Liked It “I enjoyed this. I like those where the everyday world just has this little twist to it.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Warning: This review may contain spoilers. |
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“3 out of 5. Someone is after Mason, and he thinks he knows who, but not how or why. An okay tale, but does very well at setting up the characters for a series (which it has turned out to be). Mason is a practitioner, Louie his minpin-shaped ifrit, Eli his mentor, and Victor his old Enforcer boss ... they join together to figure out what's going on and how to stop it.”
la isla d'lisa wrote this review Monday, September 7 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“I enjoyed this. I like those where the everyday world just has this little twist to it.”
Rebecca wrote this review Tuesday, August 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A very good start to a series! looking forward to reading the next book.”
Crazy Lemur Lady wrote this review Monday, July 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“It was hard to get into and there were places that I just skimmed over because the author gets bogged down in detail. Overall the best character was Louie. I might read the sequel just to see what happens to him. ”
tmmercury wrote this review Tuesday, May 26 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Similar in feel to the Dresden Files books, but darker. Not nearly as many laughs, but still a pretty good urban fantasy type read”
Bookwyrm wrote this review Thursday, May 21 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Good lord! What a great book to read! I mean, if you like to read a book that includes excellent action, believable magic, well written characters, and have the characters (aka practitioners) working their magic and all of that leads to exciting action of good guys versus bad, truly evil....then this is the book to read.
IYamVixenBooks wrote this review Saturday, April 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Mason is a jazz musician with magical practitioner abilities. He used to work for a magical enforcer agency, but he really doesn't take well to organization and management. When magical friends start disappearing or coming up dead, he is drawn back to the agency to help out.
Louie is Mason's Ifrit, a magical creature and a dog. Or a dog with magical creature mixed in.
This is a well told story and I could compare it to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. Loosely looooosely similar. Mason is like Harry Dresden in doing the right thing and chafing at management characters, but Mason and Louie make a team that can definitely stand on its own without the comparison to Harry and his companions. I can't wait to read the next in this series, NEW TRICKS.
”“Warning: This review may contain spoilers.
BarkingPup wrote this review Sunday, March 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Let me get this straight right now: I did enjoy reading this book. I thought it was interesting, with well thought out characters and interesting back stories. I do recommend it for someone who simply wants to relax with an unchallenging book and enjoy the art of reading without the hassle of wondering whether or not to eat something and spend few precious seconds away from it's captivating pages.
However, as stated above, this book is not one that will captivate you entirely. The writing is odd, very descriptive with the character ruminating for long moments on what to do next, how to do it, things that he can't do, and other such things... right in the middle of battle or other life-threatening situations. The main character is... well, strange doesn't quite encompass what he is... let me elaborate on him.
He is dark-haired, fair-skinned, and considered handsome. He has a broody nature and mysterious past but still emanates an aura of camaraderie. He also has a lot of potential talent but was too lazy to fully develop it. His particular strong point is his ability to work things on the fly which adds to his amazing talent as a jazz guitarist. He is one of the few lucky practitioners (of magic) who has a magical companion (in this case a dog) but the companion turns out to be special and different from the others.
He sounds like a horrible Canon Stu, just waiting to dominate the pages and run rampant over the plot like an enraged elephant with a grudge. And yet he manages to stay off the border of Stu-ness, barely, but only a few times during the book did I feel he was irritating. Well, besides his habit of thinking for many paragraphs on how to fix a situation he has fallen into. Or even merely describing some back story, or a person.
Now, the other characters I found quite delightful. Some of them. My particular favourite was Victor and I personally thought he -or even Eli- would have made better main characters. Sherwood was okay but not much of her was given to the reader, making her peril incite a sort of lazy interest but not the terror, horror, and sadness it was supposed to. Campbell seems more Canon Sue than actual love interest but it may be because she wasn't given much page time and any quirks or faults were not evident. Cristoph was another character I enjoyed, from his selfish and petty reasons for committing horrible crimes to his delusions of grandeur and arrogance.
At no time during the book did I feel the main character was in danger. The other characters I feared for but the Mason was most definitely not going to die. The author tried to place Mason and Louie (main character and dog companion) in very dangerous situations but I just didn't feel like they were in true danger. Perhaps it was the many paragraphs of Mason thinking about his situation but it did not incite any page-gripping suspense.
Which brings me to my main gripe about the book: Mason's incompetence. During the course of the story we are treated to how good Mason is at doing things on the fly. How brilliant his is when he needs to create something out of nothing. Everyone laments over his lack of concrete magic using but praises his other ability. Yet why in the world does he never demonstrate it? In fact he seems completely useless despite the few times he actually does something brilliant. The author seemed to realize his character was too perfect and tried to downplay his perfectness with lack of ability (at least, that's what I gathered) but the downplay is almost too much.
Take, for example, his fight with Cristoph (EXTREME SPOILERS AHEAD). Mason finds a quite obvious way to break the magic-deadening egg thing (it was sadly obvious how he would do it) but Cristoph is not only seemingly unhurt by the blast that Eli said would cripple or kill Mason but he ALSO retains some of his powers. Seriously? I mean, I was looking forward to Cristoph losing his powers and Mason and him fighting it out a different way. But the ridiculous coincidences that happen during the book are almost unbelievable especially considering just how many of them there are. As if the author is desperately trying to create impossible situations so he can point them out to naysayers and scream "SEE?! HE'S NOT PERFECT! HOW CAN HE BE A CANON STU IF THESE THINGS KEEP HAPPENING TO HIM?"
Quite easily, Mr. Levitt, quite easily....
”
“As a practitioner in the arts of magic, Mason gets by well enough, more content with devoting his discipline to playing his blues guitar. He gives new thought to his relaxed interest when he becomes the victim of bizarre traps set just for him, and his talent is strained to save himself and his dog Louie. Joining old friends, the search is on for the magician who is using mysterious methods to steal power, kill practitioners, and endanger the magic community.
BookReporter wrote this review Sunday, February 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I enjoyed Dog Days with its fast-paced humorous narrative and inventive adventures. John Levitt's protagonist is an easy-going likable character, and any pet lover would envy the relationship he has with his canine friend. Sort of.
Posted by Barbara Vey on www.PublishersWeekly.com/BeyondHerBook blog 02/18/09”
“like other reviewers here, I just could not get into this book, it just dragged-boring!”
retroredux wrote this review Monday, December 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“When Mason walked away from his responsibilities as a magic enforcer for the San Francisco area to play his guitar full-time, both he and his magical dog, Louie never expected to be drawn back into the world they left. But someone is tampering with the magical practitioners and their pets, and Mason finds himself in the thick of it. It takes a minute to adapt to the urban fantasy world Levitt creates, but once you are in, you are hooked. Charming characters, elaborate details, and fast moving action make this new urban fantasy entry a must read.”
Gayle H wrote this review Sunday, November 9 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
