Name: Black Dogs
ISBN: 9780976921240

Ursula Vernon

The House of Diamond

Black Dogs

Janice Hopper

I also got this book for being a backer of Summer in Orcus.

I'm an Ursula Vernon fangirl. And yes, this is a first novel. And no, it's not perfect. But Ursula writes smoothly and interestingly. 

Animals that are really humans in animal garb aren't always my thing. I understand the impulse to build a character that's DIFFERENT, that takes good (or bad) human traits and recasts them in a different form to explore them in different ways. I just don't know how it would all work IRL. For instance, when the travelers are riding on horseback, every now there's a reference to Sadrao (the dog soldier -- DOG soldier, heh) wagging his tail, and it brings me up short every time.

I'm on record as disliking most fantasy elves that aren't written by Tolkien, but that's me. Ursula's elves are not too bad.

I closed volume one and immediately opened volume two. So I like it reasonably well. :)

Black Dogs The House of Diamond