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A review by macroscopicentric
An Oath of Dogs by Wendy N. Wagner
3.0
A great concept (the intersection of space travel, colonialism, and ecology) that trailed off into mysticism and a heavy-handed (even for me) anti-Songheuser motif. Started satisfyingly messily biological but tied itself up a little too neatly, while simultaneously giving unsatisfactory explanations for the weird phenomenons.
Among other things, I was disappointed in the wrap-up after Mattias’ death (the other Believers just accepted Standish all of a sudden? Did they even stop being dogs?), the conflict between the ecoterrorists and the corporation that ultimately had no conclusion, and the assumption that a large amount of the bad done by Songheuser was instrumented by a few actively evil people instead of a lot of apathetic or clueless people. The book also never really investigated Standish or Peter’s own direct impact on the planet or their (sometimes knowing, sometimes unknowing) complicity. Tying everything together, the book felt closer to anti-corporations than anti-capitalism, and it felt very weird for a book to be at “colonialism is evil and this corporation is evil” without ever going further.
Among other things, I was disappointed in the wrap-up after Mattias’ death (the other Believers just accepted Standish all of a sudden? Did they even stop being dogs?), the conflict between the ecoterrorists and the corporation that ultimately had no conclusion, and the assumption that a large amount of the bad done by Songheuser was instrumented by a few actively evil people instead of a lot of apathetic or clueless people. The book also never really investigated Standish or Peter’s own direct impact on the planet or their (sometimes knowing, sometimes unknowing) complicity. Tying everything together, the book felt closer to anti-corporations than anti-capitalism, and it felt very weird for a book to be at “colonialism is evil and this corporation is evil” without ever going further.