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A review by graculus
An Oath of Dogs by Wendy N. Wagner
3.0
I was looking for a standalone book to read and picked An Oath of Dogs up when it was on sale, so I probably shouldn't complain when I found it to be readable but nothing that especially makes me want to seek out any more of this author's work. I am, however, quite hard to please at the moment so all my current reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt...
The basic premise of An Oath of Dogs is that it's about commercial colonisation of a moon which is immensely different to our own and what happens when that colonisation goes wrong - firstly by the mismanagement of supplies to its first settlers and the lengths they are subsequently driven to, then secondly by attempts to make money off the moon and the problems that causes.
One of our main characters has just landed a job there when she discovers that her immediate superior has been killed and she just got an immediate promotion. Maybe not the best news for her either, since she's still recovering from the effects of an incident that was her employer's fault and now relies heavily on an assistance dog to make it through her day-to-day life. That's also not particularly good news on a moon where dogs have a nasty habit of running wild and digging up anyone who's been recently interred in the community cemetery, not to mention attacking unwary locals.
Our other main character is the ex- of the man who was killed and whose own relationship with the company that employs everyone is ambivalent at best - this relationship is strained to the maximum when he becomes a suspect following an attack by eco-terrorists-, a group towards whom he feels quite a bit of sympathy.
Anyway, everything kind of sort itself out in the end and the truth is revealed, some of which I'd already figured out (since heavy hints were dropped earlier in the book) but it was ultimately a little unsatisfying. So, not the worst thing I've read and ideal if you want something that's not a commitment to a multi-book series, I guess?
The basic premise of An Oath of Dogs is that it's about commercial colonisation of a moon which is immensely different to our own and what happens when that colonisation goes wrong - firstly by the mismanagement of supplies to its first settlers and the lengths they are subsequently driven to, then secondly by attempts to make money off the moon and the problems that causes.
One of our main characters has just landed a job there when she discovers that her immediate superior has been killed and she just got an immediate promotion. Maybe not the best news for her either, since she's still recovering from the effects of an incident that was her employer's fault and now relies heavily on an assistance dog to make it through her day-to-day life. That's also not particularly good news on a moon where dogs have a nasty habit of running wild and digging up anyone who's been recently interred in the community cemetery, not to mention attacking unwary locals.
Our other main character is the ex- of the man who was killed and whose own relationship with the company that employs everyone is ambivalent at best - this relationship is strained to the maximum when he becomes a suspect following an attack by eco-terrorists-, a group towards whom he feels quite a bit of sympathy.
Anyway, everything kind of sort itself out in the end and the truth is revealed, some of which I'd already figured out (since heavy hints were dropped earlier in the book) but it was ultimately a little unsatisfying. So, not the worst thing I've read and ideal if you want something that's not a commitment to a multi-book series, I guess?