No Dogs in Philly: A Lovecraftian Cyberpunk Noir (Special Sin)

Review copy provided by the author.

In dystopic/futuristic Philadelphia, Private Investigator Saru is tasked by a superhuman business corporation to find a young girl who carries the only weapon that can fight an encroaching eldritch enemy. No Dogs in Philly is, obviously, a busy mishmash of genres: cyberpunk, dystopian, noir, urban fantasy, and Lovecraftian--never boring, but not always successful, and no greater than the sum of these parts. Saru is such an unlikable and unconvincing* antihero that she stifles the urban fantasy/noir aspects, rendering them reiterative and joyless. But the cyberpunk dystopia meshes with the Lovecraftian to make for an engrossing, creative world which is easily the book's strength--in all its gruesome glory. I would have been sold on No Dogs in Philly were it from Ria's point of view: there's such potential in a streetsmart girl haunted by eldritch powers in the form of a guard dog, and it goes woefully unexplored; if she were the protagonist, we could dump the tiresome grizzled detective plot and still engage the book's world and themes. As it is, I admire the intent but not the effect, and don't recommend it; readers with more appetite for urban fantasy/noir aspects may have better luck.

This is self-published but adequately edited; there's some incorrect punctuation, most noticeably missing vocative commas, but nothing worse.

* This will seem like bizarre nitpicking, but: people with breasts don't constantly narrate the state of their breasts--and, more than that, they don't get gut feelings ... in their breasts. The spidey-sense "tingling tits" were so outlandish and unconvincing that I was never able to look beyond them.

The cover of this book really caught my eye and I usually enjoy a good dystopian novel. But I just couldn't get into this book. First, let me say that the plot was really interesting and some of the writing was really goo, especially some of the dialogue. But that's about all I liked about it. I was confused from the first page to the last. Perhaps I wasn't reading carefully, but I think at least some of it was due to the pronoun game taking place in the whole book. Most of the time I was unsure in which character's perspective I was reading, and the lack of background story made it difficult for me to distinguish the characters. After about fifty pages I had to check to see if I was reading the second in the series. Many people seemed to have liked this book, so I guess it just wasn't for me.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

It is short, but I didn't get sucked into the story so I read this while reading a few other books. I ended up devoting full attention to the back half of the book to see if it would make sense. It did. Does.

You have the major elite (wealth and power), Hips (hippies that shun technology and hold onto free love and nature), Elzi, whom I think are the living dead/zombie troupe and/or completely fried tech junkies that devolved into mindless cannibals (then become zombie fun). Then you have the others - like Saru. She is a dead-inside (ish) protagonist Private Investigator that is augmented with a slew of tech upgrades.

It is always fun to see a female lead, but I just couldn't connect with her character. She has a broken home/orphanage upbringing and at first appears street smart. Either she is way out of her element on this case, or she isn't as smart as I originally thought. Maybe a combination of both?
The setting is Philly (above and below) after something cataclysmic occurred - no clue what that was though - it is pretty grim. Her mission - and 10 Million dollar reward - to find the rare girl with blue eyes that is being hunted.

There are epic battles going on between "Gods" - some sad, some vengeful, some into nature. I liked the sad ones - they make the most sense and make the connection to humanity and its errors. We get glimpses of other forces.

There is death, destruction, flesh-tearing, and some good old fashioned artistic disembowelment. Also, loads of references to tits. That's all fine with me. In the end, and I can't give things away as this is volume one of a series - we have some answers, a closing on the chapter, and a little better understanding of Saru.

Wading through a strange setting, I did enjoy the style of writing and some of the undertones about humanity. A three star rating, from me at least, is a book that I found some entertainment value. Nothing gripped me and has me waiting for volume two, and that's okay too. I received an ARC from the author, and I wish him future success.

Odd tale with humans with implants giving them access to the 'net in their heads(I see that coming in real life).

Saru is a P.I. hired to find a young girl with startling blue eyes. Her fee: ten million dollars. Her boss: the Gaespora, a race no one is sure whether alien or humans from another dimension.

Other reviewers liked this one better than me and that's okay. Not my cup of tea.

No Dogs in Philly is a terrific story. Andy Futuro's vision is clear, dark, unique, and wickedly intelligent. It is reminiscent of Neil Stephenson, but without being self-congratulatory. I want MORE!

I won this book from Goodreads for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I found it to be well put together, the characters well defined and the story moves smoothly. This book is very different from my typical genre, but I found I still enjoyed the story and the drama that unfolds in it. The main character is rough around the edges type and yet pulls this story off. The world the story takes place in is chaotic yet it works for this story. A page turning quick read this story will not disappoint.

Phenomenal, gripping, and strange book. It's amazing how vast and detailed a world the book creates given its length. One of the best books I've read in a very long time.

Overall very enjoyable. Some rough parts early on as the author found their voice could have done with a rewrite or some better editing. It ended up being more enjoyable as it went, though the finale went the way of most cyberpunk fantasy novels and became a confusing mess ending in an unfulfilling climax. The characters are fun, some more real and thought out than others.
Would read the authors next book with expectations that they'd learned a lot writing this one.

From the far horizons of the unknown, comes this transcribed tale of a dystopic future roaming with zombies, or Elzi as they are described in the text. Not unlike the disaffected we have living on the streets in any Philadelphian city in this common era.
I love the way the author describes a workplace lockout where workers are protesting "Why is the building closed? Why can't we get to work and trundle in our sad, sad lives?".
She clearly demonstrates an understanding of class polarization between the Gaespora and Elzi as told through the eyes of a private investigator by the name of Saru, who is just a little fashion conscious, but heroic none the less.
Similarly as described in the abstract, she is on a mission to find a blue eyed girl who could just save the world, but in a funny imaginative way.
Will she take the ten million fat bucks, or will the heart pounding adventure be enough?
Personally I would collect the bounty in a sequel.

It's wild, but it works. Fans of crime noir, sci-fi, and horror will enjoy this book.
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