Quick Word: Oh, how I wanted to like this one. The prose was flowing and lyrical, and all the characters had the potential of being, and occasionally were, fascinating. But the plot was lacking in structure, and there just wasn't enough to pull off the story despite the encouraging themes of prejudice and imperialism. Three stars because of the originality of the blended historical setting. And truly, I loved the concepts of the supernatural Dog spirits and how the Anwi girl was so strong and pragmatic. ( )

I really wanted to like this book, as I fully support the idea. Unfortunately it has some serious pacing issues. The first third drags and could have been condensed to maybe two chapters without any loss. The ending however rushes forward, and while it doesn't quite end in a cliffhanger, very little is resolved but instead sets up the second book (which doesn't exist). I find all that disappointing. More than that, though, most of the characters aren't very dimensional or appealing, so it's hard to struggle through the dragging. Nothing that sparked my interest ended up being fully developed in the story itself. Maybe a better read for someone who likes a different style than I do. ( )

Sjennonirk is the spirit walker of her tribe. For years now the Kabliw have been coming, her people have welcomed them albeit with a certain amount of caution, but the bring trade. Now however their ships have unloaded crates of guns. Sjennonirk is understandably wary. But before she can learn more about what they intend to do with these weapons she finds herself locked up and transported to Ciracusa, accused of murder.

In the city General Fawle takes an interest in her and her the fact that she is an ankago or spirit walker. He wants to use that ability to further his own ends.

This is a book that has been sitting my Mount TBR for a quite a while now. I first read about it on Calico Reaction and it sounded intriguing. I guess I was wary of starting it because it is the first book in a series and there is no sign of a book 2. But eventually I decided to go for it, because Lowachee is not a huge name her publisher’s may not look for a sequel, so why wait for something that might never happen. I know that might off some readers, but if no one ever took a chance on an unknown first book then the series would never ever get written.

But back to the book itself.

Lowachee has some great world building going on. Of course she is using the history of the United States and Canada and the conflict between the European settlers and the natives, so it is a world that is somewhat familiar. However it isn’t just a retelling but a reinterpretation. It isn’t set in our world, but one that echoes some of our history.

It is also a book that encourages you to take your time reading it, the style of writing was one that made me want to reread the odd sentence in order to make sure I understood what was being said. It isn’t that it was badly written or anything, just that it comes with a slight difference in focus.

There are two main narrators, Sjenn of the Aniw and Jarrett Fawle of the Ciracusan army, General Fawle’s son. Jarrett is struggling with his place in the world, he has a very uneasy relationship with his father and only seems somewhat comfortable when he is out on patrol, battle offers him some sort of clarity. But an encounter with an enemy soldier has brought with it nightmares. Summoned back to the city and his father he is thrown together with Sjenn in an attempt to understand what has happened him.

Sjenn is obviously an outsider in the city. Everything around her is foreign and uncomfortable, she only wants to go home. But she has no control over that, all she can do is try to make the general happy so he will help her go back. But can she really go along with what he wants when it might mean disaster for her own people?

I really enjoyed most of the book. Unfortunately the ending comes somewhat out of the blue with very little resolution or closure for any of the characters or plotlines. In fact it is opens up a whole heap of further possibilities.

It is a fascinating look at identity and place, religion and war, as well as what happens when cultures clash. If there ever is a sequel I will be sure to pick it up. ( )

In 'The Gaslight Dogs', Karin Lowachee has built a powerful, convincing vision of a world in the throes of a familiar colonial conflict, has populated it with real people who have very little in common except their enforced servitude and then added an original, credible supernatural twist that gives the story its edge.

The first thing that hit me about 'The Gaslight Dogs' was the quality of the writing. Language here isn't a thin skin stretched over the bones of a clever plot, it's an invitation really to see the world that Karin Lowachee has created, to take in its sights and scents, its beauty and its ugliness with the fresh eyes and nose of a stranger. It's not language designed to get you to the next piece of dialogue or the next action scene as competently as possible. Nor is it purple prose of the over-long self-indulgent guitar solo kind. Its language that says: take the time to take in the place or you will not understand the journey.

This story is really two linked journeys, neither of which is voluntary and both of which are shaped by the obsession of a ruthless powerful old man with an insatiable hunger for conquest. We start with Sjennonirk, a young Aniwi spirit walker who is taken in chains from her home in the Arctic and brought south to a city built of brick and lit by gas, where high walls block off the view of the horizon in every direction. Then we meet a Captain Jarrett Fawle, a young man who, uncomfortable and unloved at home, only feels free when leading his men to hunt and kill the aboriginal tribes as part of the push to expand his country's territory. He is sent home on leave and kept there until he complies with his father's will. His father, General Fawle, is the man whose plan for power effectively enslaves both Sjennonirk and Captain Fawle. He sees them both as commodities to be exploited and makes their freedom conditional on meeting his goals.

It's easy to see 'The Gaslight Dogs' as a story about the ruthless use of technology by colonial powers to gain territory, to paint a picture of genocide and environmental destruction but I see it as more than that. This isn't a 'good guys stand up to bad guys' kind of story. Nor is it the Star Wars fantasy of brave rebels opposing an evil empire. The power of this story comes from its refusal to move to that Big Picture, Sweep Of History perspective. It stays focused on Sjennonirk and Captain Fawle and the choices that they make. Neither is a hero. Neither wants to be on the journey that General Fawle has sent them on. In their different ways, each just wants to go home. Each of them both representative of and outsiders to their own cultures. Their struggle is not primarily a clash of cultures but of two individuals pushing against their fate.

It seemed to me that a lot of this story was about the power of belief. Sjennonirk believes in the power of her ancestral spirits. She feels the little wolf inside her and knows its hunger. Her world view is one of respecting the spirits who, through her and spirit walker like her, protect her people. She is hungry for nothing more than to live at home in peace. She is passive, stoic and pragmatic, except when her wolf wakes. Captain Fawle is not a believer. He does not believe in the Seven Deities of his people, nor in the destiny of his country, nor in the possibility of being loved by his father. He fills the hole where his belief should be by winning the respect of his men when on the frontier and with alcohol when at home in the city.

When 'The Gaslight Dogs' was published in 2010, it was billed as the beginning of the 'Middle Light' series. It works well as a standalone book but I still holding out hope that Karin Lowachee will find the time to come back to this world. ( )

Review: The Gaslight Dogs by Karin Lowachee. 08/03/2017

The book was a slow start but the story gradually captivated my interest to where the ending came to soon. The author created a wonderful story that felt like realism flowed throughout the story. I enjoyed the well developed characters and the interaction they displayed. The story is a Canadian fantasy with adventure. The author lived in the Arctic at some time and it shows in her talent for descriptive territory knowledge.

The author, a very talented storyteller stages the beginning scene with an inevitable conflict between an older nomadic tribe and new colonists invading their territory pushing them aside when the tribe has been the original inhabitants for generations. The Aniw Tribe battled with what resources they had but when the army officials started bring crates of weapons ashore they backed away. A war is coming to the frozen north.

Meanwhile a female spirit walker, Sjenn of the Aniw Tribe was taken along with a Captain Mackenzi in the Ciracusan Army aboard a ship to the homeland of the Captain‘s, a place he had avoided for years. The Captain’s father was holding them captive for his own evil intents. Sjenn the spirit-walker also comes from generations of a tribe who has a solid visible spirit animal which can leave the body as a wolf and somehow the Captain’s father knew this about the Tribe. He told her if she ever wanted to go back to her people she had to teach the Captain to find his inner spirit and learn to control it when came out of his body transformed as a wolf. Both of them were held in two side-by-side caged cells and once in a while they were let out together to walk around a certain area where she could make the Captain understand that he might also have an inner spirit and how to get to know it and keep it under control.

As the story unfolds the reader will also understand the Aniw Tribe and their inner spirits. Will the Captain ever release his inner spirit and if he does can he control it….and will the female spirit-walker ever return to her people….? ( )