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Book #12 of 2016: Off Leash
Feb. 25th, 2016 08:32 amOff Leash by Daniel Potter
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
It's a shame I didn't like this book more. It's self-published, but actually good. Well-written, interesting story, edited well. (At first I had thought I wouldn't be able to say that -- there were two grammar issues on the first page, one in one of the first sentences, so I had thought the whole book would be like that. Surprisingly, the rest of it was generally error-free.)
It's the story of a man named Thomas, whose life was in a slump. He lost his job and couldn't find a new one, his girlfriend was distant and often vanished for weeks at a time, and he fought with his family to the point where he no longer spoke to them. Then he turned into a cougar. A magical cougar (a familiar that mages would fight to possess -- most familiars are small things, like cats or squirrels).
I loved the first third of the book to bits. It was all about how this human was trying to cope with being a cougar. Unfortunately, the rest of the story beyond that didn't work for me personally (though there was nothing wrong with it).
I don't know why, but I HATE HATE HATE urban fantasy, and unfortunately that's what this book was. In the book's setting, the whole magic world is overlaid to ours, we just can't see it. All sorts of mages (witches and wizards) and magic creatures walk among us, but us normal humans just can't see them. (Like Thomas the cougar carried in his mouth a paper coffee mug with a dog's nose drawn onto it, so us normal humans saw him as a dog instead of a cougar.)
So, though no fault of the author's, most of this book didn't work for me. I did read it all, and I enjoyed it as much as I could a story that was of a type I actively dislike.
My one other problem with the story was the main character's last name. Thomas Khatt. He turns into a cat.
If you don't mind urban fantasy, I recommend this book, especially since you can currently download it for 99 cents from Amazon (link at the top).
Reading now: Tails of the Apocalypse. A collection of short stories described by the editor as: "The concept of a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world as seen through the eyes of a variety of animals." How perfect that is for me! The two things I like best, together in one book! I only just started the first story, but I love it already.
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)
It's a shame I didn't like this book more. It's self-published, but actually good. Well-written, interesting story, edited well. (At first I had thought I wouldn't be able to say that -- there were two grammar issues on the first page, one in one of the first sentences, so I had thought the whole book would be like that. Surprisingly, the rest of it was generally error-free.)
It's the story of a man named Thomas, whose life was in a slump. He lost his job and couldn't find a new one, his girlfriend was distant and often vanished for weeks at a time, and he fought with his family to the point where he no longer spoke to them. Then he turned into a cougar. A magical cougar (a familiar that mages would fight to possess -- most familiars are small things, like cats or squirrels).
I loved the first third of the book to bits. It was all about how this human was trying to cope with being a cougar. Unfortunately, the rest of the story beyond that didn't work for me personally (though there was nothing wrong with it).
I don't know why, but I HATE HATE HATE urban fantasy, and unfortunately that's what this book was. In the book's setting, the whole magic world is overlaid to ours, we just can't see it. All sorts of mages (witches and wizards) and magic creatures walk among us, but us normal humans just can't see them. (Like Thomas the cougar carried in his mouth a paper coffee mug with a dog's nose drawn onto it, so us normal humans saw him as a dog instead of a cougar.)
So, though no fault of the author's, most of this book didn't work for me. I did read it all, and I enjoyed it as much as I could a story that was of a type I actively dislike.
My one other problem with the story was the main character's last name. Thomas Khatt. He turns into a cat.
If you don't mind urban fantasy, I recommend this book, especially since you can currently download it for 99 cents from Amazon (link at the top).
Reading now: Tails of the Apocalypse. A collection of short stories described by the editor as: "The concept of a dystopian, post-apocalyptic world as seen through the eyes of a variety of animals." How perfect that is for me! The two things I like best, together in one book! I only just started the first story, but I love it already.
