You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
Second book of a hardish, science fiction Mars Colonization/ Uplift/ Brain Uploading/ Artificial Intelligence/ Mind Control/ Autocratic Coup Conspiracy in a cyberpunkish future with climate change crossover series.
Building a city in the Hellas Crater on Mars, nicknamed Hell City.
My dead pixels version was a moderate 302 pages. It had a 2021 UK copyright.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He has published more than twenty (20) novels in several series and standalone. In addition, he’s published several novellas and many short stories. This was the second book in the author’s Dogs of War series. This was the fifth book I've read by the author. The last book being Children of Time (my review).
Note this book was the second in the author’s Dogs of War series. I did not read the first book, [b:Dogs of War|35827220|Dogs of War (Dogs of War #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501011224l/35827220._SY75_.jpg|57331336]. Although the books share characters, I had no problems with continuity.
Tchaikovsky is becoming my go to science fiction author. That is, when his fantasy writing does not intrude into his science fiction, and his science fiction is served al dente. Having written that, this was quite the mashup. I counted six (6) main tropes in play each contributing a theme. There was also both a cyberpunkish dystopia with climate change Earth and an even more dystopian frontier Mars setting. This was a very busy novel.
There are three main plot lines. From Dogs of War book, we have Uplifted Animals are People and that Mind Control in the form of medically induced Stockholm Syndrome of both uplifts and society’s worthless was perfectly legal. However, the Earth isn’t a happy place, and legal protections of both uplifts and the hoi polli have been seriously eroded.
On Earth, its a very cyberpunkish future. It’s good to be rich. It insulates you from the vagaries of climate change and creates a large number of refugees eager for employment. The new World Government wasn’t much of an improvement over the old multi-nation world. A lot of government functions have been outsourced to corporations with predictable effect. There, was also a sociopathic politician Warner S. Thompson who was on the verge of an autocratic coup. He’s the book’s antagonist. He vaguely reminds me of a Brit’s impression of a steroidal Donald J. Trump, the ex-US president. He's a populist, and anti-uplifter. He’s taking full advantage of the increasingly porous mind control laws. Mind Control, called "Collaring" allows for the development of loyalty, sympathy, or affection, even sexual attraction for an employer. His mind controlled Personal Assistant (PA), Springer was a co-Protagonist. Her POV describes the walking id of the antagonist, and her employer Thompson.
On Mars, the planet was being terraformed by proles genetically modified to tolerate the cold, dusty, surface and the developing, but still thin-atmosphere. Needless to say they’re not pretty. They’re knowingly building a Martian redoubt for the rich and famous. It’s there for the affluent to escape from the chaos and ecological devastation gripping the Earth for the newly minted clean air and abundant resources of Mars. That’s where we meet the: disillusioned, synthetic-drug addicted, climate-modified, slacker, working stiff Jimmy. He’s the nominal co-Protagonist. Jimmy reminds me of the Jesse Pinkman character in the television series Breaking Bad (2008-2013).
Finally, there was Honey. She’s an uplifted bear. She’s a carryover from the previous book. She’s an ex-soldier (uplifts were used as cannon-fodder), multiple-PhD recipient, and uplifted animal-rights activist. She’s also the other co-Protagonist. Honey falls afoul of Warner S. Thompson which eventually links her with her co-Protagonist Jimmy. If I do have an issue with the characters, it was that Honey was an unlikely master Hack0r. Her contribution reeked of Deus Ex Machina. Although she was more a bearish Mary Sue?
There were four (4) POVs. Jimmy, Honey and Springer are the mains. Their interleaving was technically well-handled.
The writing was very British. I could find no mistakes in the text. In places it was humorous, particularly the repartee between Honey and Jimmy.
There was sex, drugs, and no rock ‘n roll in the story. Although, only rich folks had sex, some of it forced. Cheap synthetic controlled substances were consumed by the masses to dull the pain and tedium. It reminded me of the soma used by the lower-castes in Brave New World? The rich consumed a better class of pharma. Intoxicating beverages are consumed. The working stiffs on Mars drank pruno or rotgut. The rich on Mars and Earth consumed fine wines and liquors. Nobody consumes any entertainment in-person or otherwise.
Violence was: physical, edged-weapon, and firearms. Major human characters, even those not biomodified had the constitution of a rhinoceros. Uplifted bears, dogs, serpents, weasels, etc. could take a lot of punishment too. Note, torture was described. Gore and trauma are moderately detailed. Body count was near-genocidal.
Plotting was good, but very busy. There were three main POVs and two main settings (Earth and Mars). The Honey POV appeared in the present on both Earth and Mars and in the Earthly past. There was also a certain amount of predictability to the plotting. Tchaikovsky loves his tropes. He riffs on them well-enough to make them interesting even to a tried and true trope-spotter. However, there are only so many ways they can end. For example, the much abused PA Springer character’s plotline was predictable from her second POV appearance.
World building was an update on the Old Skool cyberpunk genre. Tchaikovsky made modern embellishments like climate change and updated the distributed intelligences, self-replicating machines, and contemporary biological modification tech. I personally enjoyed the combination of lowlife both human and uplift and high tech on Earth and Mars. The artificial intelligences, hackers, and megacorporations fit me like an old pair of shoes. However, I thought the Martian terraforming was really good. Finally, the World Government's operation, organization and Thompson's rise prominence was shaky. It was too simple to be likely. I kept on looking for a PM Boris Johnson Brexit angle to it, but it wasn't that well developed to find one.
This wasn’t a great work, because of its dependence on too many tropes. However, it was a somewhat predictable good work. The author’s abilities shown through. In particular, with his mods of tired tropes and his humor. Although, its was not a sophisticated story, its worth a read. Cyberpunk was a genre I lurved, before its demise in its classical form. I'm giving this story a bump to four stars because it gave me (particularly the Martian setting) a walk down the Cyberpunk Memory Lane. Shortly, I’m going back to find and read, War Dogs the first book in the series.
Building a city in the Hellas Crater on Mars, nicknamed Hell City.
My dead pixels version was a moderate 302 pages. It had a 2021 UK copyright.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He has published more than twenty (20) novels in several series and standalone. In addition, he’s published several novellas and many short stories. This was the second book in the author’s Dogs of War series. This was the fifth book I've read by the author. The last book being Children of Time (my review).
Note this book was the second in the author’s Dogs of War series. I did not read the first book, [b:Dogs of War|35827220|Dogs of War (Dogs of War #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501011224l/35827220._SY75_.jpg|57331336]. Although the books share characters, I had no problems with continuity.
Tchaikovsky is becoming my go to science fiction author. That is, when his fantasy writing does not intrude into his science fiction, and his science fiction is served al dente. Having written that, this was quite the mashup. I counted six (6) main tropes in play each contributing a theme. There was also both a cyberpunkish dystopia with climate change Earth and an even more dystopian frontier Mars setting. This was a very busy novel.
There are three main plot lines. From Dogs of War book, we have Uplifted Animals are People and that Mind Control in the form of medically induced Stockholm Syndrome of both uplifts and society’s worthless was perfectly legal. However, the Earth isn’t a happy place, and legal protections of both uplifts and the hoi polli have been seriously eroded.
On Earth, its a very cyberpunkish future. It’s good to be rich. It insulates you from the vagaries of climate change and creates a large number of refugees eager for employment. The new World Government wasn’t much of an improvement over the old multi-nation world. A lot of government functions have been outsourced to corporations with predictable effect. There, was also a sociopathic politician Warner S. Thompson who was on the verge of an autocratic coup. He’s the book’s antagonist. He vaguely reminds me of a Brit’s impression of a steroidal Donald J. Trump, the ex-US president. He's a populist, and anti-uplifter. He’s taking full advantage of the increasingly porous mind control laws. Mind Control, called "Collaring" allows for the development of loyalty, sympathy, or affection, even sexual attraction for an employer. His mind controlled Personal Assistant (PA), Springer was a co-Protagonist. Her POV describes the walking id of the antagonist, and her employer Thompson.
On Mars, the planet was being terraformed by proles genetically modified to tolerate the cold, dusty, surface and the developing, but still thin-atmosphere. Needless to say they’re not pretty. They’re knowingly building a Martian redoubt for the rich and famous. It’s there for the affluent to escape from the chaos and ecological devastation gripping the Earth for the newly minted clean air and abundant resources of Mars. That’s where we meet the: disillusioned, synthetic-drug addicted, climate-modified, slacker, working stiff Jimmy. He’s the nominal co-Protagonist. Jimmy reminds me of the Jesse Pinkman character in the television series Breaking Bad (2008-2013).
Finally, there was Honey. She’s an uplifted bear. She’s a carryover from the previous book. She’s an ex-soldier (uplifts were used as cannon-fodder), multiple-PhD recipient, and uplifted animal-rights activist. She’s also the other co-Protagonist. Honey falls afoul of Warner S. Thompson which eventually links her with her co-Protagonist Jimmy. If I do have an issue with the characters, it was that Honey was an unlikely master Hack0r. Her contribution reeked of Deus Ex Machina. Although she was more a bearish Mary Sue?
There were four (4) POVs. Jimmy, Honey and Springer are the mains. Their interleaving was technically well-handled.
The writing was very British. I could find no mistakes in the text. In places it was humorous, particularly the repartee between Honey and Jimmy.
There was sex, drugs, and no rock ‘n roll in the story. Although, only rich folks had sex, some of it forced. Cheap synthetic controlled substances were consumed by the masses to dull the pain and tedium. It reminded me of the soma used by the lower-castes in Brave New World? The rich consumed a better class of pharma. Intoxicating beverages are consumed. The working stiffs on Mars drank pruno or rotgut. The rich on Mars and Earth consumed fine wines and liquors. Nobody consumes any entertainment in-person or otherwise.
Violence was: physical, edged-weapon, and firearms. Major human characters, even those not biomodified had the constitution of a rhinoceros. Uplifted bears, dogs, serpents, weasels, etc. could take a lot of punishment too. Note, torture was described. Gore and trauma are moderately detailed. Body count was near-genocidal.
Plotting was good, but very busy. There were three main POVs and two main settings (Earth and Mars). The Honey POV appeared in the present on both Earth and Mars and in the Earthly past. There was also a certain amount of predictability to the plotting. Tchaikovsky loves his tropes. He riffs on them well-enough to make them interesting even to a tried and true trope-spotter. However, there are only so many ways they can end. For example, the much abused PA Springer character’s plotline was predictable from her second POV appearance.
World building was an update on the Old Skool cyberpunk genre. Tchaikovsky made modern embellishments like climate change and updated the distributed intelligences, self-replicating machines, and contemporary biological modification tech. I personally enjoyed the combination of lowlife both human and uplift and high tech on Earth and Mars. The artificial intelligences, hackers, and megacorporations fit me like an old pair of shoes. However, I thought the Martian terraforming was really good. Finally, the World Government's operation, organization and Thompson's rise prominence was shaky. It was too simple to be likely. I kept on looking for a PM Boris Johnson Brexit angle to it, but it wasn't that well developed to find one.
This wasn’t a great work, because of its dependence on too many tropes. However, it was a somewhat predictable good work. The author’s abilities shown through. In particular, with his mods of tired tropes and his humor. Although, its was not a sophisticated story, its worth a read. Cyberpunk was a genre I lurved, before its demise in its classical form. I'm giving this story a bump to four stars because it gave me (particularly the Martian setting) a walk down the Cyberpunk Memory Lane. Shortly, I’m going back to find and read, War Dogs the first book in the series.
I don't know what to add to info from other reviews... I loved it. I love this universe. But I really miss Rex.....
Iain M Banks once said that you can seldom tell much about the future from science fiction, but you can tell a great deal about the times in which it was written. This sequel to War Dogs is clearly a product of the Trump era and its main villain is a not very thinly disguised portrait of Donald J Trumpington himself.
Tchaikovsky's novels often imagine what it is like to be another creature and in the past he has extended his empathy to dogs, bees, spiders and octopuses for instance. In this novel the villain is completely devoid of empathy and one of its none human characters learns to be empathetic to human beings.
The plot concerns diabolical attempts at mind control and a small war on Mars. Tchaikovsky is clearly having a great time in writing this and throwing elements as diverse as Watchmen, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers through to King Lear.
Tchaikovsky's novels often imagine what it is like to be another creature and in the past he has extended his empathy to dogs, bees, spiders and octopuses for instance. In this novel the villain is completely devoid of empathy and one of its none human characters learns to be empathetic to human beings.
The plot concerns diabolical attempts at mind control and a small war on Mars. Tchaikovsky is clearly having a great time in writing this and throwing elements as diverse as Watchmen, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers through to King Lear.
medium-paced
It is a good follow up. It expands on the first book, expansion of the idea already explored in it. First book is about different intelligence entity and the society where they live. This book is is about how far human can pushed the tech and the ethics issue of it.
The only thing is I don't invest in the character as much, but as usual the world is rich, with various faction which is the style of the author. So I still recommend it.
The only thing is I don't invest in the character as much, but as usual the world is rich, with various faction which is the style of the author. So I still recommend it.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5 stars
A brilliant sequel to the equally impactful [b:Dogs of War|35827220|Dogs of War (Dogs of War #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501011224l/35827220._SY75_.jpg|57331336].
Bear Head picks up years after the events of Dogs of War, with the pendulum of popular opinion once again swinging away from recognition and protection of the rights of sentient animal Bioforms.
Pusher in Chief of that pendulum, Warner Thompson, has his sights nominally set on a World Senate seat, and actually on just getting control of the whole pie. Thompson is so clearly a reflection of Trump that at times, I just felt exhausted reading about him. That's not a fault of the book, but rather a product of my own feeling that I'm pretty emotionally spent on that whole scene.
But back to the book. Of course there are what I think of as the Tchaikovsky staples, which is wildly creative and excellent world-building paired with incredibly textured characters. Their voices practically leap off the page with seemingly little effort.
Overall, a great story that delves deep into the unpleasant sociopolitical realities inherent in a society that depends upon inequality of all kinds in order to survive and thrive.
[B]ecause effort spent on the metagame is focused entirely about the appearance of virtue, it overshadows those who are actually performing the primary task, it overshadows actual virtue. And this is how human hierarchical structures end up working. This is why the people who end up in authority are generally not those focused on whatever the purpose of the community is, but those who are focused on achieving positions of authority.
A brilliant sequel to the equally impactful [b:Dogs of War|35827220|Dogs of War (Dogs of War #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501011224l/35827220._SY75_.jpg|57331336].
Bear Head picks up years after the events of Dogs of War, with the pendulum of popular opinion once again swinging away from recognition and protection of the rights of sentient animal Bioforms.
Pusher in Chief of that pendulum, Warner Thompson, has his sights nominally set on a World Senate seat, and actually on just getting control of the whole pie. Thompson is so clearly a reflection of Trump that at times, I just felt exhausted reading about him. That's not a fault of the book, but rather a product of my own feeling that I'm pretty emotionally spent on that whole scene.
But back to the book. Of course there are what I think of as the Tchaikovsky staples, which is wildly creative and excellent world-building paired with incredibly textured characters. Their voices practically leap off the page with seemingly little effort.
Overall, a great story that delves deep into the unpleasant sociopolitical realities inherent in a society that depends upon inequality of all kinds in order to survive and thrive.
[B]ecause effort spent on the metagame is focused entirely about the appearance of virtue, it overshadows those who are actually performing the primary task, it overshadows actual virtue. And this is how human hierarchical structures end up working. This is why the people who end up in authority are generally not those focused on whatever the purpose of the community is, but those who are focused on achieving positions of authority.
A follow-up to the also-excellent Dogs of War.
We begin on Mars, with Jimmy who is part of the crew creating Hell City - a place for people from Earth to live one day. He's modified human, so can survive if needed out on the surface for a while. He's got extra headspace too. It's like adding an extra hard drive to your brain and sometimes he smuggles illegal data in there. It's no big deal... except for this one time. This time the data starts talking to him. Like it's a person. Only it claims to be a genetically engineered bear and civil activist...
The book can stand alone (maybe?) but I think you will enjoy it much more if you read Dogs of War first. The world the characters live in is one with intelligent, bio-engineered animals, and a whole host of arguments around the ethical dilemmas in that situation. There are men who want to take advantage of them, and others who want to destroy them all. Then there are the animals themselves, some grappling with their intelligence vs their bio-engineering (which has some control over them), like Rex from Dogs of War, and others like the bear Honey, who want to contribute to making a better world, if people would only listen to her.
This book also focuses on a political character called Thompson. Everything he does is designed to advance his own personal goals. He can barely talk in full sentences, yet he manages to captivate Americans everywhere. Yes, he's rather Trump-like. He uses people, but many of them are social climbers themselves who barely notice. His assistant does, because he controls her in the same way others control the bio-form animals, but she's powerless to do anything about it. Or so she thinks.
So we have Jimmy on Mars, with a bear in his head, and Thompson on Earth, with barely anything in his head except naked ambition... This is where it starts getting really interesting.
A fascinating book and a genuinely interesting exploration of the ethical issues around modifying animals and humans. The characters are great, and I particularly liked spending time with both Jimmy and Honey. I also have a fondness for books about Mars, harking back to when I first read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series years and years ago, and Andy Weir's The Martian more recently, so I enjoyed seeing another take on how we might terraform it one day.
An excellent read.
We begin on Mars, with Jimmy who is part of the crew creating Hell City - a place for people from Earth to live one day. He's modified human, so can survive if needed out on the surface for a while. He's got extra headspace too. It's like adding an extra hard drive to your brain and sometimes he smuggles illegal data in there. It's no big deal... except for this one time. This time the data starts talking to him. Like it's a person. Only it claims to be a genetically engineered bear and civil activist...
The book can stand alone (maybe?) but I think you will enjoy it much more if you read Dogs of War first. The world the characters live in is one with intelligent, bio-engineered animals, and a whole host of arguments around the ethical dilemmas in that situation. There are men who want to take advantage of them, and others who want to destroy them all. Then there are the animals themselves, some grappling with their intelligence vs their bio-engineering (which has some control over them), like Rex from Dogs of War, and others like the bear Honey, who want to contribute to making a better world, if people would only listen to her.
This book also focuses on a political character called Thompson. Everything he does is designed to advance his own personal goals. He can barely talk in full sentences, yet he manages to captivate Americans everywhere. Yes, he's rather Trump-like. He uses people, but many of them are social climbers themselves who barely notice. His assistant does, because he controls her in the same way others control the bio-form animals, but she's powerless to do anything about it. Or so she thinks.
So we have Jimmy on Mars, with a bear in his head, and Thompson on Earth, with barely anything in his head except naked ambition... This is where it starts getting really interesting.
A fascinating book and a genuinely interesting exploration of the ethical issues around modifying animals and humans. The characters are great, and I particularly liked spending time with both Jimmy and Honey. I also have a fondness for books about Mars, harking back to when I first read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series years and years ago, and Andy Weir's The Martian more recently, so I enjoyed seeing another take on how we might terraform it one day.
An excellent read.