Another recommended by a friend - but not this time for its literary merits, she had not read it, but she had known this guy in high school - and figured that he was as good a candidate for the Lectureship as Paolo Bacigalupi. Could be. Another friend did attend sessions of the lectureship and thought that Bacigalupi was amusing and insightful and read very well. All probably true, still I found his book incredibly depressing. At first I thought that this one would be just as depressing. It wasn't, quite.
I think I would characterize this as whimsical, but rather dark. Seems an odd juxtaposition. I guess it would slot in as urban fantasy, if one is driven to catagorize. We have the entire range of western European faerie with a little bit of eastern thrown in for good measure - one of the main characters is a djinn - who is cursed. All set in and around Austin, Texas. What Jim Butcher and Dresden did for Chicago, Yashar and Colby Stevens do for Austin.
It took some getting into - in the beginning, it resembled a collection of short stories more than a novel - but eventually all the back stories are in place and the threads start weaving together. I did enjoy it, in spite of the fact that almost all the characters are dead by the end. At least the dog doesn't die. It does remain to be seen how many volumes the dog survives since it was clear at the end that this is merely book one. Maybe the first quest in the next volume is to return Gossamer (the dog) to his home.
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