Wild Dog City

Darkeye #1

by Lydia West

There is a city overrun by every type of wild dog, where mysterious machines pump out meat daily for their hungry mouths, where the only protection from dog-eating hulkers is an elite pack of painted dogs.


Everyone has always had enough food. That is what Mhumhi, a young painted dog, has grown up believing. But Mhumhi is not a member of the elite pack- as a infant, he was stolen by a domestic dog and integrated into an unlikely litter of all different species. He has grown up half in hiding with his adoptive siblings- a bush dog, a dhole, and a Simien wolf.


When their adoptive mother disappears, Mhumhi seeks her out. He finds instead that the last adoptees she brought into their motley family are not dogs at all, but rather a pair of young hulkers. Without the pack’s protection, they will surely be killed by the painted dogs- for there have been a rash of disappearances lately, and the culprit is no dog…


Mhumhi only sets out to protect the two small hulkers, but in doing so he begins to uncover not just his mother’s secrets, but the dark backbone of the entire city.

Genres: Animals, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Animal Fiction, Fiction

278 pages, ebook

First published September 22, 2014

Reviews

[Shayla Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this on the website, and am well beyond where this first volume ends. The story is still going, and still keeping me fascinated. The writing is engaging, the characters are easy to relate to, and the setting is post-apocalyptic without being stereotypical.
My only reservation is that there are frequent typos - an issue not terribly unexpected for a free online story, not severe enough to detract from the pleasure of reading, and hopefully remedied for the print version anyway.

So yeah, go read it. Mhumhi needs more family, be that for him. :D

[Corvo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought the e-book version of this because I struggle to read on backlit screens, even though the entire series is online for free, and I also like to support upstarts when I can. I really like the story. Admittedly it's kind of surreal reading a fiction book featuring primarily talking dogs because I've been writing talking dogs for 10 years (haha, I regret nothing). The book has great characters and the world-building is awesome.

The downsides to this book is that the writing is pretty dry and non-descriptive, it's mostly dialogue, which is not something I would ever imagine criticizing a book for as I find more books dip dangerously into the purple prose area which isn't something I really enjoy. This book could use some more description. The one thing that could use less describing is the individual species of background characters that stop existing after a few lines. It feels like unnecessary information that really breaks the flow of the writing.

This book also has quite a few noticeable editing errors, which personally doesn't bother me at all, but it's worth mentioning.

This book is still solid as a fictitious talking animal story and I would recommend it to anyone who likes reading animal stories.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching, philosophical, and very very true to actual zoology. Its nearly everything I ever want in animal fiction and so rarely get. Its almost a crime that this book is so underrated. I really can't wait to read the other books!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have thought and thought about a way to summarize what this book was like and how I felt about it. I'd love to tell you what thoughts were running through my head when this book kept me up at night. I can't even tell you what I hope happens in the next books, but I am going to read them.

5/5 stars. Read this if you enjoy being consumed by a storm of mystery, love, and terror. Or if you like dogs.

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really excellent - the author clearly knows a lot about canine biology and has managed to create characters that are clearly a different species and are easy to empathise with without being anthropomorphised. She's also created a novel and deeply unsettling world building premise. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Just as a warning, there's a lot of gore.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I am going to start this off by saying this is probably my favorite book/trilogy of all time. I am a huge animal lover and fell in love with pretty much every single character in the book. Sadly this book doesn't seem to get as much attention as it deserves.

I have never read a book like this before. It is told from the point of view of a dog, he experiences a huge range of emotions throughout the series (love, hate, betrayal, loss – it has it all) and it is written in a way that makes sure to remind you that he is still a dog, it is completely believable that this is how a dog, in Mhumhi’s situation, would think and act.

The synopsis gives a really great summary of what the book is about so I won’t expand on that but I will add that hulkers = humans. So the book centers around Mhumhi trying to protect human children in a city filled with dogs who hate humans.

Strangely, this book did not go into a great amount of detail when describing places but I felt this helped build the idea that it was from a dog’s POV, I did not find this impacted the enjoyment of the book in any way and my imagination provided the world in which the animals live. However, when a different species is introduced it is described in a fair amount of detail.

I fell in love with Mhumhi pretty much instantly, and the more I read about his family, and some of the other animals he meets (there are also foxes and hyenas!) the more attachments I made. Sadly, this is not the happiest series, so got my heart broken multiple times. It’s pretty depressing in parts and I had to take a break to cry quite a few times, but I just needed to know what was going to happen next.

My absolute favorite character, however, was Vimbo. Words can not describe how attached I became to him and as the book was pretty unpredictable I was constantly on edge and worrying about if Vimbo would make it to the end.

[Lone Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Wild Dog City’ opens on a city inhabited by intelligent canids of various species. It quickly becomes clear that the city was built by and for humans, but they no longer seem to be around. Where did they go? How did the canids gain their intelligence? These questions and more are gradually answered through the eyes of Mhumhi, an African wild dog searching for his missing adoptive mother, a domestic dog.

I found the concept intriguing and enjoyed all three books in the series, though it has to be said that they aren’t always a pleasant read – some difficult concepts are dealt with and the characters endure a good deal of suffering. There are a few grammatical errors, but the story was interesting enough that I could mostly overlook these.

These books won’t be for everyone, but I recommend them to those who enjoy animal stories with a side of sci-fi.

[Carolyn Schmit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wild Dog City was overall a good first book in the series. It hooked me enough to order the rest of the series while I was still reading the first book. This is the first self-published novel I've read, but as far as the writing goes, it could have gone through more editing. Many sentences could have been structured differently to sound more professional. The story is interesting, and I can't think of anything else in comparison.

[Thistle · Rating 1 out of 5]

A talking animal story. All sorts of wild dogs (dingoes, coyotes, wolves, etc.) live together in a city with no humans in it. It might have been an interesting idea, but the writing wasn't good enough to stick with it.

DNF

[Lindsay Wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was good and kept me turning pages, but this novel would benefit by some deeper edits. There are a few spelling/word mistakes but also a lot of telling, not showing that makes it difficult to connect with the characters. Things like using a lot of -ing, adverbs, tense switching, etc.

[Alex T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe don't eat the meat coming from the dispensaries, guys. Just a tip.

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...