Dogs of War
Rex is seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. He's part of a Multiform Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, Mexico. As a genetically engineered Bioform, Rex is a dealy weapon in a dirty war. But all he wants to be is a Good Dog. And to do that he must do exactly what Master says and kill a lot of enemies. But who, exactly, are the enemies? What happens when Master is tried as a war criminal? What rights does the Geneva Convention grant weapons? Do Rex and his fellow Bioforms even have a right to exist? And what happens when Rex slips his leash?
Stats for nerds
12recommend
16mentions
15people
2020–2025years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- So many lesser known modern books to recommend.
Memoires of an imaginary friend
Dogs of war (Adrian Tchaikovsky one)
The devil's detective
Red rising
The painted man
- Ach, great writer of operational background stories; his logistical build-up takes up almost the entirety of Dogs of War for instance. Strangely riveting accumulation of preparation notes considering it would probably be unenticing if describing, say, conference planning rather than a military coup!
I'm not sure earlier books like that would pass these days without considerable liberal angst; that one for instance celebrates a certain lost kind of man of action with a brute uncompromising view of the mercenary perspective of the world.
For lovers of intelligent action novels though like me, he's one of those writers I always considered a sure bet when taking a punt with an Audible credit. RIP.
- I'll be having a toast to him. The man's character development may have been a bit wooden and even absurd at times, but the procedural descriptions were curiously captivating, and the plots were just wonderful.
Day of The Jackal is a novel I can read again and again across the years without ever getting finally bored of it. Dogs of War is almost as good and The Avenger is wonderful from start to finish, to name just a few praiseworthy examples.
- Suggested reading: Dogs of War, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Essentially a biotech cyborg variant on the theme of mind control meets Island of Doctor Moreau.
- Relevant book rec: Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky. https://adriantchaikovsky.com/dogs-of-war-series.html
- I didn't get into his medieval insects one, but if Cage of Souls is the one with the jungle prison, that was really good, reminded me of the Book of the New Sun, except with less obscure words.
Also Dogs of War was good.
