Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Ever since being part of the pot in a high-stakes poker game, elfin outcast Kai Gracen figures he used up his good karma when Dempsey, a human Stalker, won the hand and took him in. Following the violent merge of Earth and Underhill, the human and elfin races are left with a messy, monster-ridden world, and Stalkers are the only cavalry willing to ride to someone’s rescue when something shadowy appears.
It’s a hard life but one Kai likes—filled with bounty, a few friends, and most importantly, no other elfin around to remind him of his past. And killing monsters is easy. Especially since he’s one himself.
But when a sidhe lord named Ryder arrives in San Diego, Kai is conscripted to do a job for Ryder’s fledgling Dawn Court. It’s supposed to be a simple run up the coast during dragon-mating season to retrieve a pregnant human woman seeking sanctuary. Easy, quick, and best of all, profitable. But Kai ends up in the middle of a deadly bloodline feud he has no hope of escaping.
No one ever got rich being a Stalker. But then few of them got old either and it doesn’t look like Kai will be the exception.
Black Dog Blues is another mashup of gritty fantasy, action/adventure and pure adrenaline rush from Rhys Ford, a favorite author of mine. The first in a new series, Black Dog Blues introduces us to Kai Gracen, a fae mutt the likes no one has ever seen before or wants to. Considered an abomination because Kai is both a sidhe and unseehlie, a genetic mixture that shows on his face and body, his was a nightmare that started at his creation and only stopped when he was won at a poker game by a Stalker.
What a crazy, hard bitten wonder of a character Ford has in Kai Gracen. When it says tortured childhood, here its in all caps and dripping in Kai’s blood. A survivor of the past, anything other than getting through the present times is never taken for granted in this imaginative and wildly speculative new world order of recognizable and fae caused by the merging of human and Underhill. The vivid descriptions of how the earth and San Diego now look are wondrous as they are dangerous. The creatures bounding over lava fields and cracked roadways? A mixture of old world, new world and fantasy all thrown together. Dragons hunting antelope? Yes indeed. And it feels so real. Not that anyone with any common sense would want to actually be there. OK maybe a tad. Truly, the scenes as wildly scary as they are draw you into the world and Kai’s place in it.
Oh Kai. Snarly, competent…he belongs in such a wildly uneven and unpredictable world. You never know what you will meet or where your next enemy or perhaps friend (if that’s possible) will come from.
Kai’s world consists of the people who helped bring up a feral mixed race fae and who helped make him one of the toughest Stalkers out there. We get to meet them all here and what an amazing lot they are. Ford makes them all believable and unforgettable, flawed tough, and hardscrabble.
But the scariest of the lot? The Fae and the Fae court and politics. This will include Ryder, the sidhe lord who hires Kai and who has his own agenda and motives in mind. I liked Ryder but he’s so smooth (intentionally so) that it took me a while to warm up to him. I far preferred the rude, often snarly Kai…especially when he’s poking at the imperious Ryder.
There are some stomach churning moments as well as ones guaranteed to make your heart race. Its Rhys Ford’s story afterall and these Fae are the true Fae of the old Tiernan Og. Those to be feared, with little care for the human world.
And there are dragons, beautiful, fire breathing, fast flying dragons.
Be still my heart.
There’s a sequel out. And more to come. Oh happy, happy, reading times ahead.
If you love fantasy, gritty, sometimes scary, wonderful heart stopping, action packed, fantasy packed with memorable characters,then look no further than Black Dog Blues. I highly recommend it.
Cover art shows Kai Gracen with his dark features. Its perfect.
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