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brynhammond 's review for:
Blackdog
by K.V. Johansen
I started out enthusiastic for the Central Asian setting and the blessed lack of sex stereotypes (in both, similar to Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky tril). The local gods and godlings of place were limited enough to function as characters – they were individuals, mad or immature – while the cases of spirit possession led to interesting split psyches. The title character was one of these and seized his centre place for me... at least in the first half...
It’s hard to explain why my enthusiasm waned from about half way through. In part, I thought the author’s ‘YA fantasy’ background became evident, in the preoccupations (I’ll read about young people, but I gather YA attributes a set of issues to them…). Also, the storylines, even with the interesting set-up, began to look too straightforward. We follow their lives, but I lost sight of an overarching idea. The demon Norsewoman with a dark past and her werebear squeeze spent too much of their scenes in cute banter, which was a pity. Maybe it’s me, maybe heroic fantasy is too ‘straight’ for me right now. I haven’t read much of it for a fair while, and better say I came here for Central Asia. A setting more flourishing in fantasy than historical these days?
It’s hard to explain why my enthusiasm waned from about half way through. In part, I thought the author’s ‘YA fantasy’ background became evident, in the preoccupations (I’ll read about young people, but I gather YA attributes a set of issues to them…). Also, the storylines, even with the interesting set-up, began to look too straightforward. We follow their lives, but I lost sight of an overarching idea. The demon Norsewoman with a dark past and her werebear squeeze spent too much of their scenes in cute banter, which was a pity. Maybe it’s me, maybe heroic fantasy is too ‘straight’ for me right now. I haven’t read much of it for a fair while, and better say I came here for Central Asia. A setting more flourishing in fantasy than historical these days?