_Dog Days_ by John Levitt follows the adventures of Mason and Louie in present-day San Francisco. Mason is a magic-user, although one who likes to play jazz guitar more than he likes to practice his magic. Fortunately, one of his specialties is improvising, so he's fairly good at thinking (and casting) on his feet. Louie is his familiar, an Ifrit who takes the shape of a pint-sized Doberman.
Mason used to be part of San Francisco's self-appointed "enforcer" group, who keep other magic-users from running scams on the general public. However, most of the group were a bit too proper and strait-laced for Mason, so he struck out on his own a couple years before the story takes place and makes a meager but satisfying living as a very good jazz guitarist who can fill in with almost any group that's down a member.
Unfortunately, someone starts trying to kill Mason and he has to contact his old enforcer pals to find out what is going on. As he gets drug more and more into another magic-user's attempt to become omnipotent, both Mason and Louie find themselves in a fight for their lives.
Here are the things I liked about _Dog Days_:
- The characters are believable and well-written. Sometimes annoying in their petty rivalries and constant bickering, but very human and very believable.
- The foreshadowing was well-done. There are a number of hints (a brief oracular hint "the black man is not your friend" and Mason wondering where he had seen a certain something before) that tie the whole book together very well, but at the same time don't give away the ending.
- Levitt clearly put a lot of effort into this storyline. There was a very good plot, but it also had a lot of unexpected twists and turns.
- Levitt has built up a coherent magical world for his books, with a lot of knowns and unknowns. No one really knows where Ifrits come from, why they choose who they choose, or why they leave when they leave. Much like music, or painting, or any other type of creative endeavor, many magic users have different mediums they use or ways of understanding their art. There are people who understand the technicalities quite well but have little actual talent (Eli) and people who have lots of talent but really aren't that interested in technicalities or even in anything that's not their area of specialization (Mason). There are people who improvise a lot (Mason), people who rely on pre-set routines (Victor), and people who do a little of both (Campbell and Sherwood).
- Levitt's clearly done his homework regarding the setting of San Francisco, and describes in detail landmarks, neighborhoods, climate, and other things.
- The characters use good strategy and tactics. Magic isn't treated as being all-powerful, but as a tool which is generally pretty useful but only as good as the person wielding it.
- The villain is a really good villain. Evil, despicable, unlikeable, petty, arrogant, the whole works.
Here are the things I didn't like that much about _Dog Days_:
- Some story elements get repeated a bit too often. Yes, we get it that Mason treats his music and his magic the same way, improvisation is everything for him and staying interested over the long term is the hardest thing for him. And yes, we get it that Mason has a lot of undeveloped natural potential that many of his friends and enemies are envious of. Both of those themes get overplayed.
- The story starts out fairly slow.
- Towards the end of the book, many of the main characters seem to get a collective brain-freeze when a certain character disappears, and some of those same characters ignore some pretty obvious danger signs later on because "time is short and we can't think of anything better". I'm not sure if these character flaws were originally intended to be part of those characters, and just didn't show up much in the beginning -- or if they were introduced and overplayed to get the story moving in a specific direction.
- It also doesn't make much sense for the characters involved to NOT do some more digging regarding the villain's methods. There are numerous dropped hints that the villain "had to make some pretty unpleasant deals" to get the power he got in the way he got it -- yet at the end of the book, everyone seems to decide the villain was working on his own. This is really out of character for Eli and Victor, and I'm surprised they weren't trying to figure out who gave the villain his (very nasty) idea, and who supplied the initial magical expertise and energy to get the project rolling.
- Mason occasionally whines too much or has to show how unimpressed he is with people he meets.
I almost gave _Dog Days_ three stars, but I have to admit I was pretty captivated during the second half of the book, so I'm giving it four stars. I don't know if I'll read future books in the series, as I like my fantasy novels with more of a happy ending; _Dog Days_ is much like Butcher's Harry Dresden series in that no victory comes without its price and no good deed goes unpunished.
Overall, I give it four stars and consider it an entertaining read.
