Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Reviews

January 26, 2015

Uncovered, by Kyell Gold – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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

uncoveredUncovered, by Kyell Gold. Illustrated by Blotch.
St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, July 2014, trade paperback $19.95 ([xvi] + 411 [+ 3] pages), Kindle $9.99.

(publisher’s advisory):
“’Uncovered’ is a romance novel intended for an adult audience only and contains some explicit sexual scenes of a primarily Male/Male nature. It is not for sale to persons under 18.” 

This is Book 4 in Gold’s award-winning Out of Position series, following Out of Position (2009), Isolation Play (2011), and Divisions (2013). The series follows the lives of the tiger Devlin Miski and the fox Wiley “Lee” Farrel as they become secret homosexual lovers while seniors at Forester University, then graduate. Dev, a college football player, is signed onto the professional Chevali Firebirds, while Lee applies for a non-playing job with his team. When Dev becomes the first outed gay football player, their lives and the lives of their families and Dev’s teammates are thrown into turmoil, with some staying supportive and others turning hostile. Dev and Lee can now openly set up housekeeping together, but each is faced with many problems.

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January 22, 2015

A Wilder West, by Ted R. Blasingame – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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

Screen Shot 2015-01-04 at 7.34.29 AMA Wilder West, by Ted R. Blasingame

Raleigh, NC, Lulu.com, August 2014, trade paperback $13.99 (258 pages). 

“The range of low granite mountains baked in the prairie’s summer sun, heat waves shimmering into water mirages wherever there were flat places. A ghostly dust devil stirred up dirt in a dancing pirouette while heat-loving cicadas chirred across the plain, filling the air with their rolling song of mating.” (p. 8)

If you think that this sounds like the opening of a Western, you’d be right – except that this is a Western with a Fur, a nude half-human, half-cheetah woman named Citra Kayah. No human has ever seen anything like her before, until she saves the life of Jacob Harrison, a middle-aged showman who is attacked by a mountain lion while out riding in Oklahoma. Jake is dumbfounded, but grateful and in her debt, so he can’t turn Citra down when she asks to join his small traveling Wild West show.

“‘I am far from my home,’ she replied, ‘and I am in constant danger from others like you who would not hesitate to kill me for my pelt. Until I can find a way to return to where I belong, I will need your protection.’

‘How can I protect you?’ he asked, wiping the sweat from his brow.

‘Take me in as a curiosity for your show. It would allow me to hide in plain sight.’” (p. 24)

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January 21, 2015

Slightly Damned, Book 3, by Sarah “Chu” Wilson – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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

Slightly Damned, Book 3, by Sarah “Chu” Wilson

Phoenix, AZ, Slightly Damned Comics/Orlando, FL, Ka-Blam Digital Printing, Aug. 2014, trade PB $39.95 (unpaged [282 pages]), digital download $4.99.

6828_113758BSlightly Damned, Book 3 is here, collecting pages #377 to #571 (March 15, 2010 to January 26, 2013) of Sarah “Chu” Wilson’s Ursa Major Award-winning internet comic strip. They are divided into Part 5, Forgive Me, and Part 6, The Flower Festival.

“The Story So Far” begins: “After Rhea, Buwaro, and Kieri rescued a pair of kidnapped Fairies in Riverside City, they joined the traveling Sinclair family on the road.”

Does this tell you anything, if you’re not reading the strip regularly? Like any long-running newspaper or Internet comic strip, new readers have to just jump in and pick up the background as you go along. Briefly: Rhea Snaketail, a yellow-furred (she sheds) Jakkai, is murdered, but because she wasn’t really bad, she is only assigned to the Ring of the Slightly Damned in Hell. She meets Buwaro, a horned, purple-furred Demon, but basically a nice guy. After several adventures (Book 1), Rhea escapes with Buwaro back to her homeworld, Medius, which has two moons and a lot of fantasy beings wandering around. They meet Kieri (Buwaro calls her “Snowy”), a blue-haired Angel who became stranded when she came to Medius (rather, to Rhea’s continent of Fragaria) with her brother Kazai, and he disappeared. Buwaro and Kieri fall in love (“A Demon and an Angel? It just isn’t …”), which infuriates (or as the earthy Rhea would say, pisses off) both the Demons and Angels who traditionally try to kill each other. The Odd Trio search Fragaria for Kazai; first in nearby Riverside City, then joining the Sinclair family of traveling merchants to continue their search in Weyville, and then larger St. Curtis.

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January 16, 2015

Tales from the Guild: Music to Your Ears – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer, submits this review:

tales-from-the-guild-music-to-your-ears-edited-by-anthroaquatic-67102Tales from the Guild: Music to Your Ears, edited by AnthroAquatic. Illustrated by Blaquetygriss.

Las Vegas, NV, Rabbit Valley Books, September 2014, trade paperback $14.95 (133 pages).

The Furry Writers’ Guild was, to quote its website, “founded in 2010 to promote quality anthropomorphic literature and provide support to writers active in this field.” To put it another way, also quoting its website, “The aim of the Furry Writers’ Guild is to be a place where writers of all demographics, genres, and abilities can come together and help improve the quality of anthropomorphic fiction and support its creators.” One must have “at least one short story, poem, or novel-length work featuring anthropomorphic characters/themes published in a paying venue (either inside or outside the furry fandom), paying either a flat fee or a per-word rate for your work, [or have] at least two short stories, poems, or novel-length works featuring anthropomorphic characters/themes published in a non-paying venue (either inside or outside the furry fandom). This includes conbooks. Please note that comics/graphic novels and self-published writing (including work posted on personal websites and gallery sites like FurAffinity) do not count toward membership.”

The FWG created the annual Cóyotl Awards in 2012 for excellence in anthropomorphic literature, as voted upon by the FWG membership. The FWG currently has 101 regular members and 6 associate members; the difference being that the regular members are all authors, while the associate memberships are open to others active in the anthropomorphic literary community such as furry anthology editors, furry specialty book publishers, furry book reviewers, and the like.

Now the FWG has started its own anthology series, “a collaboration of the Furry Writers’ Guild”, to showcase the writing of its members. This first tiny (5” x 8”; 133 pages) volume, Tales from the Guild, consists of eight original short stories, edited by AnthroAquatic (a.k.a. Sean Rivercritic), and illustrated by Blaquetygriss (identified on the publisher’s website as Aisha Galland).

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January 13, 2015

Cast Away on the Letter A – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer, submits this review:

Cast Away on the Letter A, by Fred. [Translated by Richard Kutner.]download (2)

NYC, Candlewick Press/TOON Books, September 2014, hardcover $16.95 (45 [+ 1] pages).

I have been waiting for over forty years for this book! In the 1960s and early ‘70s, before I concentrated upon Japanese comics and furry literature, I was an obsessive fan of French-language cartoon albums; bandes dessinées. I did not only buy those that came to Los Angeles; I mail-ordered them from Paris and from Brussels. I also got the three major weekly magazines; Spirou, Tintin, and Pilote.

In 1965, Pilote began serializing the work of a new cartoonist: Fred. There was nothing quite like it, but it was in the same surrealistic, psychedelic league as Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay, The Kin-der Kids by Lyonel Feininger, and Krazy Kat by George Herriman. Fred became an instant star among the creators of French-language comics. His greatest work was the Philémon series, 15 volumes from 1972 to 1987. Other memorable works, short series or single albums, were (titles translated) The Little Circus; The Bottom of the Air is Fresh; Timoléon (three volumes); Okay, I’m Coming; Hmm; and The Story of the Crow in Tennis Shoes.

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January 9, 2015

The Guardian Herd: Starfire, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez – Fred Patten’s book review.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer, submits this review:

The Guardian Herd: Starfire, by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. Illustrated by David McClellan; map.
NYC, HarperCollinsPublishers/Harper, September 2014, hardcover $16.99 (245 [+ 4] pages), Kindle $8.89.download

This is blurbed as, “The first book in a gripping new tween fantasy series about winged horses—perfect for fans of the Warriors, Survivors, and Guardians of Ga’Hoole series.” It reminds me more of older fantasies about magical horses, not officially but pretty obviously intended for horse-obsessed adolescent girls: The June 1988 The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West by Mary Stanton, and its May 1989 sequel, Piper at the Gate; or Meredith Ann Pierce’s Firebringer trilogy (Birth of the Firebringer, November 1985; Dark Moon, May 1992; The Son of Summer Stars, May 1996; and the collection The Firebringer Trilogy, June 2003). Now there is Jennifer Lynn Alvarez’s The Guardian Herd series. Amazon.com is already advertising the second book in the series, The Guardian Herd: Stormbound, to be published in April 2015.

The Guardian Herd: Starfire’s first obvious similarity is in having a large equine cast; in this case, of pegasi rather than unicorns or regular horses (called land horses here). The dramatis personae (this is too serious for just cast) lists 32 winged horses divided into five herds, led off by the newborn Starfire of the Sun Herd. This does not include Stormbound, the protagonist of the second book. There are over-stallions, lead mares, captains, medicine mares (a herd’s doctor), mated mares, single or widowed mares, yearlings, and foals; each individually named and described. If Alvarez intends to write a novel about each, she could go on forever.

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January 8, 2015

ROAR vol. 5 – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer, submits this review:

roar ROAR vol. 5, edited by Buck C. Turner

Dallas, TX, Bad Dog Books/FurPlanet Productions, July 2014, trade paperback $19.95 (325 pages). 

ROAR vol. 5, the approximately-annual anthology of “literary” (non-erotic) anthropomorphic short fiction under the Bad Dog Books imprint, contains stories on the theme of Secrecy. Editor Buck C. Turner says in his Foreword:

“This volume features stories based around secrets, a theme which brought out amazing plot twists and tense revelations. Keeping secrets brings an inevitable tension to life, one which no one fully escapes. […] Secrets can give their holders power and pain as they must wrestle with the decisions on how – or if – to utilize the information they possess. This is the task these fourteen authors, the largest number I’ve accepted to a ROAR volume, have undertaken.” (p. 10)

Warning: this is a long review, to cover fourteen stories.

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December 30, 2014

Moth and Rust, by Eddie Drueding – Fred Patten’s book review.

by Patch O'Furr

sbibb-marcoverblogSubmitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Moth and Rust, by Eddie Drueding.
White Bear Lake, MN, Melange Books, August 2014, trade paperback $13.95 ([4] + 190 [+ 5] pages).

This is Arraborough Book 3, following the 2012 Book 1, The Unimaginable Road and the 2013 Book 2, The Darkness. It will be followed by Book 4, Revelation.

Eddie Drueding’s Arraborough series, featuring his idealistic anthropomorphized animal community and the mysterious and ominous forces that oppose it, moves on to its third annual volume. If you have read the first two, get it! If you haven’t, try The Unimaginable Road first. Arraborough is not for everyone.

The comments that I made on Book 2 are even more true for Book 3. There is a two-page “The Story So Far …” that is so brief as to be more confusing than enlightening. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with all the large cast. Drueding’s habit of writing in the present tense (the story begins abruptly, “Pimlico bends down, gathers Dovan’s dead body in his arms, and rises. They remain in that position for a long moment, the cat simply too stunned to move, stunned not least of all by the very weight of Dovan in his arms, a lightness he can only feel unfitting to being the only remaining testimony to all that Dovan had been in life.”) is offputting at first. The reader may still be caught in a “Wait a minute; WHAT!?” moment from the discovery of the ancient spaceship at the climax of Book 2. Even readers familiar with the story may want to  refresh their memories- it’s been a year since Book 2 was published. What animals, again, are Tust and Fespin?

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December 23, 2014

Theta, by Sasya Fox – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer, submits this review:

Theta, by Sasya Fox

Mountain View, CA, Snowfox Press, August 2013, trade paperback $14.50 (395 [+ 1] pages), Kindle 99¢.

Theta is a formulaic but rip-roaring space opera. The titular protagonist is Jale Bercammon, the 36-year-old chief steward(ess) of the OCS Freeta, a luxury space liner in an interstellar civilization. She has served aboard the Freeta for almost twenty years, rising to the chief steward position and coming to think of her staff and the crew of the Freeta as her family. The first sign of trouble on this trip is their landing on the planet Brynton, in the midst of a violent civil war. Practically all Brynti civilians are desperate to book passage off-planet, and the Freeta is rapidly over-packed with upper-class refugees. One of them is the mysterious Miss Theta, an apparent almost-comatose adolescent who is brought aboard as a medical patient and booked into the finest stateroom on the ship. Captain Erin is personally instructed in Theta’s care, which includes giving her a prepared injection every four hours and:theta

Do NOT attempt to engage Theta in conversation.

Fine, until Jale learns that Theta is an almost-castrated male, and he is being given not medicine but Banerethin, which ship’s Doctor Jrmnia freaks out over because it is a drug so illegal that he could be executed for allowing it to be brought on board. Strangely, as the days pass, Theta becomes more rather than less coherent and amnesiac. He makes it impossible for Jale and her crewmates to ignore the order not to talk to him, but refuses to discuss who he is or what is happening to him.

Then the Freeta is captured by pirates. Their actions make it clear that they have chosen the Freeta because they learned on Brynton that it is carrying an incredibly valuable treasure, which none of the Freeta’s crew knows anything about. When the frustrated pirates cannot find any treasure, they kill a few passengers and crew, impress a few more as slaves – including Theta — and leave. When the crippled Freeta finally reaches its destination, several days overdue, it is besieged by authorities who investigate what happened in detail. Jale is given the job of telling what happened to Theta to his assigned recipient. His reaction is not anything like she expects:

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December 17, 2014

Dinoverse series by Scott Ciencin – Fred Patten’s book review.

by Patch O'Furr

Here’s one for the scalies! Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.  This was originally written for Quentin Long’s Anthro Magazine.

9780375805448Dinoverse, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, March 1999, hardcover 0-679-88842-X $18.00 (282 [+ 8] pages).

Dinoverse: I Was a Teenage T. Rex, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, March 2000, paperback 0-679-88843-8 $4.99 (177 [+ 8] pages).

Dinoverse: The Teens Time Forgot, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, March 2000, paperback 0-679-88844-6 $4.99 (179 [+ 3] pages).

Dinoverse: Raptor Without a Cause, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, May 2000, paperback 0-679-88845-4 $4.99 (180 [+ 12] pages).

Dinoverse: Please Don’t Eat the Teacher!, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, July 2000, paperback 0-679-88846-2 $4.99 (194 [+ 12] pages).

Dinoverse: Beverly Hills Brontosaurus, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, September 2000, paperback 0-375-80595-8 $4.99 (173 [+ 11] pages).

Dinoverse: Dinosaurs Ate My Homework, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, November 2000, paperback 0-375-80596-6 $4.99 (192 [+ 8] pages).

If there is an expert in writing s-f Young Adult novels featuring dinosaurs, it is Scott Ciencin. He has written seven authorized Dinotopia novels, four authorized Godzilla novels, and four authorized Jurassic Park novels. (Not to mention a slew of Batman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, The Elven Ways, Forgotten Realms, Kim Possible, Star Trek, Transformers, Zorro, and other authorized Young Adult series novels.) But there is one series that is all his own creation: Dinoverse. Read the rest of this entry »

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