A review by blulibrarian
An Oath of Dogs by Wendy N. Wagner

adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I really like the core concepts of this story a lot - the nature of the company town at odd switch the neo-Mennonites, the ecosystem of the moon itself, the obvious baggage weighing on our leads. I really liked the bones of this story, I just feel like they were not as fleshed out as they could have been.

The beginning sets up a lot of things, but it doesn't pull the thread of the murder or the company intrigue as much as it could have, so that the latter half feels a bit sudden - after all that time learning nothing, we are suddenly swamped with murder information. I liked the depth that the quotes at the start of chapters brought, being passages of in-universe writing, and I thought the multiple perspectives really worked; I just wish it was a little more clearly formatted so as to indicate when we were hopping perspectives.

All in all, I will be lending this book out to friends, but I won't lose any sleep if it disappears. Solid, interesting stuff that left me a little hungry for the promise of what could have been than what I actually read.