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I really loved this one. Which is probably a relief for the author because sometimes I bounce off his stuff. He tends to dance on the line of how much grimdark I can tolerate, and sometimes he goes over my personal threshold — and so, I had no idea if I was going to love or hate this book. Love!
For me, this book created the perfect balance between light and dark. It actually became a new favorite subgenre for me… is it nobledark? Is it Grim-cosy? Apparently, this is a thing, and now I request more of that. Please.
How do you make an evil minion, a minion who truly loves their evil master, a minion who truly believes in the cause they’re slaughtering people for, into someone who reads as almost “innocent”… someone that you can root for with your full chest?
You make them a dog.
Dogged is a war dog. She was bred for war. She thinks of her emperor as the bringer of peace among worlds… and he brings that peace through war, naturally. Her emperor is in charge of a series of portals placed throughout her world, and those portals lead to other dimensions. The emperor will open a portal, send in his war dogs, and conquer it. All Dogged knows is that it’s her purpose to go conquer those worlds when she goes through the portal. The way she sees it, when she gets there, the folks on the other side of the portals were already at war with each other and killing each other by the millions. Whether they were killing each other over religion, race, or limited natural resources, it doesn’t really matter. In her mind, once they all bow to the emperor, the infighting stops, and Peace is achieved. I mean, she’s technically correct.
She also loves human kids. I mean she really loves human children in the way we love puppies. She just thinks they are the most adorable things, and she’ll protect them at all costs. She will also literally tear someone’s skull from their body when they give her an answer she doesn’t understand. It’s easier to kill someone rather than ask for further clarification. She’s driven by instinct, and she’s not that “smart” either…not in the conventional sense. She’s very self-aware of her strengths and weaknesses, and she knows that she’s not the smartest one of her pack — that was her mate, who is now deceased. Her mate was killed when one of the portals snapped shut, which sliced many of her cohorts in twain, her mate included. After this, one of the emperor’s generals gives her a task to find out why the portal closed.
As cited before, she’s not the brightest in the pack, and so investigations aren’t really her thing. Truly, it’s not any war dog’s “thing” since they’re more the bite first and never ask questions type. She has trouble keeping information in her head for long periods of time. She struggles with names. She struggles with abstract thoughts like analogies and metaphors. Analogies can really piss her off. She struggles with complicated planning and thinking through lines of questioning. Nevertheless, she feels compelled to continue with her investigation because that’s what she was asked to do. Her full name is Dogged Determination. This new task also gives her new freedoms and privileges. She’s allowed into sections of the world she was always denied before, like these multidimensional libraries that she’s been sent to dig through to see which demon was responsible for keeping the gate open, and therefore, it may lead to finding out why it suddenly shut.
This is a very scent-based world because she can’t see well, and that mentality and perspective permeates everything. Since I struggle with visualization while reading, focusing on all the senses that aren’t sight is really helpful for me to get my “head movie” going. This book I could see everything almost crystal clear, or “experience” it in a more immersive kind of way.
This is also a darkly funny book. I found myself laughing more than a few times, and while I don’t know that everyone would find it funny, I certainly found more than a few moments that I would call darkly comedic.
This is a single pov book, and this character could have gone so wrong so fast, but I personally feel like it was so very well done. Writing a character that’s not human is so difficult. It’s one of my favorite writing techniques if the author can really nail an “otherness” to the character but still have them relatable enough that you want to keep reading. I was deeply impressed with the character and where the arc went in the end.
This is a fast book. I pounded through it start to finish in a matter of like 24 hours. I used a TTS text to speech app, since I have absolutely zero hours to sit still and read for long periods of time. I will be buying the audiobook when it comes out because the TTS did not deliver these jokes well, and I would like to hear it actually narrated properly and revisit this story again 🙂
Obviously, this book is safe.
It’s also my first semifinalist.
I am only rating my semifinalists (and I want you all to remember this is 50% of a score. My teammate, Kristen can make or break anything I send her way, and vice versa)
That said, I’m throwing down a 9.3. That’s the highest score I’ve ever given one of my own books, finalists included.
Congrats!!