Rex is a killer machine – a bioform based on a dog engineered to possess excessive strength, brutality and ability to use weapons. And programmed to obey his masters orders with unfailing reliability. Man’s best friend indeed. Rex leads a team of bioforms which include a huge bear named Honey, a poisonous bees entity called Bees(!) and a lazy lizard called Dragon. The team is sent out to war zones across the world. 

Does this sound a bit daft to you? I am afraid it was. To be fair a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy probably does sound daft when you try to explain it to other people, but this book impressively managed to fulfil whatever daftness potential might be indicated from the blurb. 

A large part of the events are experienced from Rex’s perspective. Consequently the dialogue and language is rather naive and simplistic representing the mind of an enhanced dog. I may suffer from a lack of imagination, but the naive dialogue made it difficult for me to take the story and in particular the protagonist Rex seriously. The statement ‘My name is Rex. And I am a good dog’ is repeated endlessly throughout the book and each time I debated with myself whether to give up. The dialogue occasionally evoked a few giggles, but mostly for the wrong reasons.

Some relevant themes are being discussed in Dogs of War. We humans manipulate nature and technology to serve our own purpose, but can we maintain control of our creations? What happens if engineered bioforms are cut loose from their masters, can they think for themselves? And which choices will they make when they are free? Do they have rights? Or can we just kill them off, when they don’t serve our purpose anymore?

These are not unimportant considerations, but for philosophical aspects relating to human-made intelligent life I would rather recommend something like Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence. 

Dogs of War had a few interesting ideas, but overall it lacked originality. Most of the story was weak and barely held my attention. A couple of times it felt like it reached its natural conclusion, but no, the narrator just went on and on. For 10 hours. The book would have improved somewhat by cutting the weak part 5. 

I realise, I am in the minority, but I was not taken in by Dogs of War. Perhaps I’m just not a dog person.

Title: Dogs of War
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Science Fiction