Will Shetterly

I can see why the book won the F&SF category in the Minnesota Book Awards. I can see even more strongly why it was a finalist in the Children's Literature section of the Mythopoeic Awards. The book is well written, but even more importantly, it explores a very different reality. Magic works, sometimes and unexpectedly. All sorts of beings exist, but there is the same type of racist (speciesist?) reality as exists in this world. And there is a young man trying to learn about life, his brother, and himself. I am certainly going to read the sequel.

Recommended for fans of fantasy who enjoy the stranger entering the fantastic reality.… (altro)

This is a multi-layered book. At first glance, this is a fascinating story told from the point of view of a young boy about a family who opens a tourist attraction in Florida in the 1950s. There is interesting commentary on race relations and other political aspects of the deep South of that time. If you are a student of folklore, fable and myth, however, the book becomes more. Gods and holy figures of various traditions make cameo (and not so cameo) appearances throughout, some more obvious than others. It turns out in the end that Dogland is more than just a tourist trap, but a battlefield between good and evil.… (altro)