Voyage of the Dogs
Written by Greg van Eekhout
Narrated by Patrick Lawlor
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Dogs in space! Share this book with middle graders who enjoy stories about dogs, space adventures, or action adventure stories—or all three!
Lopside is a Barkonaut, a specially trained dog who assists human astronauts on missions in space. He and the crew aboard the spaceship Laika are en route to set up an outpost on a distant planet.
When the mission takes a disastrous turn, the Barkonauts on board suddenly find themselves completely alone on their severely damaged ship.
Survival seems impossible. But these dogs are Barkonauts—and Barkonauts always complete their mission.
SOS. Ship damaged. Human crew missing.
We are the dogs. We are alone.
Greg van Eekhout
Greg van Eekhout lives in San Diego, California, with his astronomy/physics professor wife and two dogs. He’s worked as an educational software developer, ice-cream scooper, part-time college instructor, and telemarketer. Being a writer is the only job he’s ever actually liked. You can find more about Greg at his website: writingandsnacks.com.
More audiobooks from Greg Van Eekhout
Cog Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Job Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fenris & Mott Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Voyage of the Dogs
Related audiobooks
Space Station Rat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Turning Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Shelterlings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Deadlands: Trapped Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cog Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Darkening of Dragons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Second Dad Summer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Ghost Hoax Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Daybreak Bond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Journey Beyond the Burrow Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Knitbone Pepper Ghost Dog And A Horse Called Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Leopard Behind the Moon Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Stolen Spear - Wolfsong, Book 1 (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCity of Thieves (Battle Dragons #1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tiger Who Sleeps Under My Chair Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nightingale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Underwater Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Bear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monster Hunting For Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scary Stories for Young Foxes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Front Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Disaster Days Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Forever Birchwood: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Griffin's Egg Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret of Glendunny: The Haunting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cold Cereal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve Nights Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Skeleton Tree Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Children's Animals For You
Voyage of the Dawn Treader Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coraline Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amari and the Night Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Horse and His Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warriors #1: Into the Wild Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pax Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wind in the Willows: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The True Story Of the Three Little Pigs: By A.Wolf Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mouse and the Motorcycle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winnie-the-Pooh Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Bear Called Paddington Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Green Ember: The Green Ember Book I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wish Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Days With Frog and Toad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One and Only Bob Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grumpy Dragons: Dragons Teaching Kids They Have Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who's Got Game?: The Ant or the Grasshopper?, The Lion or the Mouse?, Poppy or the Snake? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The One and Only Ivan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Frog and Toad Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once There Was Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wind in the Willows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Continent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mossflower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Darkness of Dragons (Wings of Fire #10) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warriors #2: Fire and Ice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Library Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Flames of Hope (Wings of Fire, Book 15) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Voyage of the Dogs
18 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I need to get over bad or incomplete science in books for middle graders. I mean, this was a good, solid space adventure starring dogs for goodness' sake and all I'm worrying about is who tested all the flora and fauna on Stepping Stone to ensure they were safe to eat. Like, seriously, the stuff on Stepping Stone was maybe 10% of the book and I'm letting it ruin my enjoyment of the whole book. Suspension of disbelief, woman. Suspension. Of. Disbelief.
Sigh. My problem, not the book's.
But can we talk about the dead astronauts..? - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll just say this up front, because I'm one of the people for whom this is important: No dogs die in this book. We do get the story of Laika*, told by one of the dogs to the others so that, at a critical point, they can make an informed choice, but Greg Van Eekhout kills none of his fictional dogs in the course of this story.
Lopside, Bug, Daisy, and their pack leader, Golden retriever Champion, are Barkonauts, dogs specially trained and equipped to be part of the crew of Laika, the first Earth ship to head out to start a colony on an alien world in a distant solar system. There are four human crew as well, and we only meet two of them before one, Roro, helps the dogs into hibernation for the FTL portion of their travels.
When the dogs wake up, the humans are gone, having taken the lifepod, and the ship is badly damaged.
They're on the outskirts of their destination star system, but with with the ship's drives not working, too far from their destination planet, Stepping Stone. The dogs struggle to make repairs. They manage to redirect the communication antenna, and send a call for help to Earth.
They are good dogs, and they are Barkonauts. Barkonauts complete their missions, and their mission is to get to Stepping Stone.
There are real personalities at work. There is both conflict and cooperation among the dogs. Lopside, a little terrier mix, the only non-purebred, is our viewpoint character. From time to time he reminds us that unlike the others, he wasn't bred to please everyone. (Champion's a Golden, Bug is a Corgi, Daisy a Great Dane puppy. All bred to work with people, not to consider people's opinions and then make their own decisions.)
Looming over their efforts is the name of the ship, Laika. They know Laika was the first dog in space, the very first Barkonaut, but for some reason, her story is missing from The Great Book of Dogs, the book Roro read to them, full of the stories of heroic dogs. Lopside really wants to know that story. He's sure it would help inspire them to even greater heroism and ingenuity.
But with or without the story of Laika, these dogs love their people and their jobs, and are determined to succeed They don't quit. They don't fail.
This is a very satisfying story.
Recommended.
I bought this book.
*Considering how long it's been, and how much younger than me are the people raising young children today, I think I have to say outright what Laika's story is. She was the first dog in space, yes. She went up in Sputnik 2, on November 3, 1957. There was never a plan to bring her back, but she died within hours, when a malfunction caused the Sputnik cabin to overheat. This was the result of the Soviet space program taking barely four weeks to design Sputnik 2, and that wasn't enough time to make a reliable temperature control system for Laika. Laika's story is one of humans behaving badly. Greg Van Eekhout, on the other hand, is a good human, who gets well-deserved cuddles from his dogs.