Dogpatch Press

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

The Stolen Guardian, by R. A. Meenan.
Los Angeles, CA, Starcrest Fox Press, October 2015, trade paperback $10.99 (430 pages), Kindle $1.99.

“Ouranos crept through the dense green forest, following an overgrown path leading toward the sea. He scratched the black fur under the short quills that topped his head and bent a catlike ear back with a frown, his bare, clawed feet padding noiselessly on the dirt. His simple red clothes, while appropriate for his royal status, made him feel too conspicuous against the green of the trees. He chanced a glance behind him.” (p. 9)

Ouranos is a quilar from the planet Zyearth. This first paragraph shows that The Stolen Guardian, Book One of The Zyearth Chronicles, isn’t set on Earth, and that the lead characters are furry but not based on any Earth-evolved animals.

With Chapter 2, though, we get a space patrol team, still not on Earth; the Zyearth Defenders (whose top agents are the Golden Guardians), and they are just funny animals in spiffy uniforms.

“A tall gray stag with silver antlers in velvet stood in front of Matt with a manic look on his face and a pistol aimed at Matt’s snout.” (p. 38)  – “A white wolf with thin glasses and dark yellow eyes appeared in the hologram. His face looked worried at first, but immediately relaxed with relief. Matt allowed himself a smile. Lance Tox, Master Guardian of the Defenders. He’d normally never make personal calls, but Matt could tell he had been concerned.” (p. 67)

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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Wild Dog City, by Lydia West
Raleigh, NC, Lulu.com, September 2014, hardcover $35.99 (iii + 264 pages), trade paperback $17.99, Kindle $5.99.

The opening of Wild Dog City is deliberately confusing.

“It was utterly dark, the cold air sinking in the high concrete tunnel with a dull rushing sound, like the long sigh of an invisible giant. The blackness was really absolute; the platforms and the blandly tiled walls and the trench lined with a metal track were all blanketed in that whispering emptiness. The electric lights that had once lit the subway had long since sputtered out.

But there was a sound, under the humming of air; claws softly scratching concrete.

‘Mother!’

The voice was high and strange, the word sharp in the blackness. It came again.

‘Mother! Mother, are you here?’” (p. 1) Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Bones of the Empire, by Jim Galford.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, August 2015, trade paperback $13.99 (508 pages), Kindle $2.99.

Bones of the Empire is Book 5 and the conclusion of Galford’s The Fall of Eldvar series. It connects the events in both Books 1 & 2, In Wilder Lands and Into the Desert Wilds, and Book 4, The Northern Approach. This is a continuous series, so it assumes that the reader is familiar with the events in the four prior novels. If you have not read them yet, you had better start with the first and read them in order. This is not a chore; the whole series is a single gripping adventure.

Eldvar is a world of humans, elves, dwarfs, talking dragons and more, including the wildlings who are anthropomorphic animals. The story’s focus on the wildlings is why the novels of The Fall of Eldvar have qualified for previous reviews. Most of the setting is similar to the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. (Bones of the Empire debuted at Rocky Mountain Fur Con 2015 in Denver.) The Northern Approach was about Raeln (a wildling wolf) and On’esquin (an orc), the leaders of a group of desperate refugees from fallen Lantonne fleeing the conquering Turessi necromantic armies of zombie warriors, abandoning the refugees to set out alone to fulfill the prophecy to overthrow the necromancers. That group meets up with the party of wildlings, humans, fae-kin, and everything else led by Estin (a ring-tailed lemur wildling) and Feanne (a red vixen) from the first two novels. (The wraparound cover by Rukis features Estin, Feanne, and two fanged dire wolves.) The four volumes of the series come together for this finale. Read the rest of this entry »