Dog Days by John Levitt

Mason is a magician, but not a stage magician, a practitioner. He used to work as an enforcer, keeping the magicians with small talents and limited morals from using their powers to fleece others. But then he gave it up to play Jazz and be his own boss. Now, his only reminder of the old days is his Ifrit, Louie, who has taken the form of a dog.

But one night on his way home, Mason is attacked by things that look like slugs, but have acid. He defeats them, and the next night, again on his way home, is sucked into a magical trap that resembles another world, but entirely without people... even Louie is missing. While in this world, though, Mason is approached by wolves, who lead him to the beach and dig up a strange gemstone for him. The gemstone stays with him even as he breaks out of the trap and back into the real world.

The next morning, he goes to see Victor, the leader of the enforcers he used to work for, and brings the gem with him. Victor says that the gems are, literally, priceless. But neither he nor any other of the practicioners have any idea what they are. But what they can do is boost the power of any practicioner who gets a hold of one. But since no one knows where they come from or where to get them, perhaps Mason should take a look into tracking this down, using his shadier contacts.

Mason does just that and finds the true seamy underside of magic: people who will pay anything for the gem he found, practicioners who battle each other for kicks and a temporary magical boost, and practicioners who have suddenly lost their ifrit companions. But in his investigations, Mason has really pissed someone off, and a practicioner named Christoph shows up one night in his apartment to try and buy him off with more of the gemstones everyone has been looking for. When Louie goes for Christoph, however, Christoph attacks Louie and freezes him in place, which angers Mason so much that he attacks Christoph with a bat, and has to seek out a healer to save his friend.

This focuses Mason on Christoph as someone who is in on where the gems are coming from, and when Louie goes missing, and Mason and his friend Campbell must find him, and in consequence discover exactly what the gems are: Ifrit eyes. But when Christoph challenges Mason to an all or nothing fight, how can Mason, so outclassed with the high state of Christoph's powers, ever hope to defeat him? Even with Victor and Mason's Mentor Eli on his side, how can he hope to win?

This was an unusual book that I ended up liking a great deal. Ostensibly the story of a guy and his dog, or a magician and his Ifrit, it delves deeply into the character of Mason and offers teasing tidbits of what Louie, Mason's Ifrit, is capable of. But those teasing tidbits are *all* we get. Even at the end of the novel, when it is revealed that Christoph was after Mason to get a hold of Louie and take his eyes, because Louie is something special as an Ifrit, we don't get a clue as to what makes him special except that he is a finder, and has a magical ability to "Find" things.

Why that makes him different from ordinary Ifrits isn't explained or examined, and since Louie is the only Ifrit we ever get to see in more than a passing way, we don't really have a clue, even by the end of the book, exactly why he's so special. I mean, I think I have a clue, given that Mason's special talent as a practicioner seems to be imprrovisational magic, but we don't know.

On the other hand, John Levitt is working on a sequel, so perhaps we'll see more about Louie and find out what makes him so special as an Ifrit. I certainly hope so, as I liked both characters and want to see more.