Dogs of War

Written by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by Laurence Bouvard, Nathan Osgood and William Hope

My name is Rex. I am a good dog.

Rex is also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear.

With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he's part of a Multiform Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, Mexico. A genetically engineered Bioform, he's a deadly 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?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781705096765

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, has practised law and now writes full time. He's also studied stage-fighting, perpetrated amateur dramatics and has a keen interest in entomology and table-top games. Adrian is the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series, the Echoes of the Fall series and other novels, novellas and short stories. Children of Time won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Children of Ruin and Shards of Earth both won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. The Tiger and the Wolf won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel, while And Put Away Childish Things won the BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction.

Reviews for Dogs of War

[yendao42 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great fun! Well written and engaging, especially if you like a little hard tech with your sci-fi.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This deeply affected me, I found it a moving story about a dog who is modified to be a weapon learning about the truth about his master and trying to make better choices for his life. The story starts with him with some very simplistic thinking but as the story unfolds you can see him changing, becoming more thoughtful and introspective, with some help from some of his fello bio-forms.It's a pretty deep look at what could happen and I found it fascinating. One of the best books I've read this year.

[Benjamin Bernstein · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What makes a being sentient? This massively entertaining (and thought-provoking) tale of augmented animals and the degree to which they're willing to remain subservient to their human masters is an absolute masterpiece. I've only recently started reading Tchaikovsky's novels, and can't wait to dive deeper!

[sunyidean · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another brilliant book

I'm floored and surprised l over again. As ever not a book I could have imagined reading or being written but it far exceeded its own simple premise to deep dive into all kinds of artificial life exploration. Just brilliantly thought out and sad and engaging.

[spaceandsorcery · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The three books by Adrian Tchaikowsky that I read so far showed me his uncanny ability to take creatures from the animal realm and turn them into full-fledged protagonists of his stories, not so much by anthropomorphizing them but rather by enhancing and strengthening their peculiar characteristics. That’s what he does with Dogs of War, breathing life into some amazing creatures and putting them at the center of the novel through thought-provoking narrative, but he also builds a very emotional story that at times brought me close to tears - not a condition I experience often.In the near future humanity has found a new way to wage wars, using genetic engineering to create constructs that are an amalgam of human and modified animal DNA: these super-soldiers, or bioforms, possess a modicum of sentience but are heavily conditioned to seek the approval of their “Master”, which can be gained through blind obedience to any given order. Rex, a 7-foot tall canine bioform, is the leader of a Multiform Assault Team, and his companions are Honey (a huge bear analog), Dragon (an equally huge reptilian) and Bees (a hive mind distributed among a swarm of bee-like creatures). We get to know them, and their frighteningly impressive abilities, in the course of an assault against their preordained target: the team is being deployed in the south of Mexico, where an insurgence is being quashed with ruthless efficiency, and since we see the action through Rex’s eyes we cannot be sure who the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ guys are - all we know is that the four of them must obliterate the enemy, as defined by Master’s orders.The augmentations that have turned Rex and his companions into such terribly efficient killing machines make them an impressive, nightmarish sight, made even more chilling by the detached observations of the carnage relayed by Rex, and by the constant feedback he receives through his implants that keeps assuring him he is being a good dog - a corroboration he needs to confirm he is acting correctly. Yes, because Rex does not possess an independent will, nor does he want it: all he wants is to have orders to follow so he cannot make mistakes and become a “bad dog”. That’s why, when the group of bioforms loses the connection to Master, Rex finds himself forced to make choices and to look at the world through his own eyes: the conflict between the conditioning and this new unfiltered evidence is cause for enormous stress, underlined by a constant, very canine whining, but at the same time represents the first step toward the kind of evolution his creators had not foreseen.Once Rex is forced to make his own decisions, to determine who his enemies and friends are, he starts a journey of transformation that strongly reminded me of the characters in Flowers for Algernon, with the huge difference that while Algernon’s curve went downward after a while, Rex’s keeps improving adding shades and facets to a character that is far more human than his creators and handlers intended. Rex’s fascinating story of self-awareness runs together with the equally engaging discussion about the moral standards for the creation of artificial intelligence and the rights of lab-created individuals: the courtroom proceeding that must establish responsibility for the bioforms’ actions in the various conflicts all over the world open the door to the question of these creatures’ status, and of their rights. Are they property? Are they nothing more than a guided missile or a drone? Or did the humans who gifted them with intelligence also give them the means for self-determination? If you are familiar with ST:TNG’s episode The Measure of a Man, you will find here the same kind of questions laid on the table.Seeing Rex struggle with his nature and conflicting impulses first, as he’s put on trial together with his Master, and then as he suffers some kind of limited, fearful acceptance by humans, means to see his inherent humanity - for want of a better word, because humankind at large does not fare so well here. At the beginning of the novel, despite the actions he is trained to perform, he is basically a guileless creature and it’s wonderful to see how he slowly gains consciousness of himself and his brethren, finally accepting the role of leader and example - not out of superior physical strength or because someone told him so, but through the acknowledgment of his nature and of the role he can perform in society.A while ago I reviewed a story concerning the plight of augmented soldiers returning to civilian life and needing to fit into a society that is basically afraid of them and what they can do: Rex and the other bioforms face the same kind of dilemma here - they were created as weapons to be wielded and now their former managers keep them out of sight to try and forget their existence, and the primal fear it engenders. It is when we talk, rather than shout and bark and snarl, that the humans fear us most. I do not understand that. To talk is human: why are we more frightening when we are human than when we are dog?Rex’s journey finally brings him to the understanding that he does not need human acceptance to realize his potential, that he can be his own person and that the only validation he needs is his own:I was born an animal, they made me into a soldier and treated me like a thing. […] Servant and slave, leader and follower, I tell myself I have been a Good Dog. Nobody else can decide that for me.This is an intensely poignant story that left a deep mark on my consciousness and imagination, one whose characters - particularly Rex - will stay with me for a long time. So far the very best Adrian Tchaikowsky novel I read.

[vinjii-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Adrian Tchaikovskiy is a brilliant author. He goes from fantasy (Empire in Black and Gold) and pure sci-fi (Children of Time) to Flintlock (Guns of the Dawn) and then writes Dogs of War, which is innovative, bewildering, thoughtful and a read I could not put down.Dogs of War tells the story of Rex, a bioform engineered for war, but ultimately an enhanced dog with sentience, an integrated weapons system and the urge to be a good boy. It's a tale of ethics and morality, and the reader gets to explore what makes us human, what gives us the right to exist and what happens if such a dog turns against its master.They're not easy questions and there's no easy answer.I recommend this to everyone who thinks the blurb sounds at all interesting because damn this book is good.

[kindleifier · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not at all what I expected and completely enthralling..I picked this up as an Audible deal of the day, thinking I would give it a go, despite feeling it would turn out to be over-hyped. Was I wrong!The character of Rex was excellently voiced by Nathan Osgood. Rex is a bioform, engineered from dog with a bit of human, and a lot of implants to create a huge and monstrous weapon of war with the ability to think and follow orders, and most of all to be loyal. All Rex wants is to be a “Good Dog”. It is touching and sad to see how the simple dog loyalty that is his essential nature is abused and suborned by “Master” until others act to interfere with the electronic control over Rex’s mind and emotions.There are a lot of characters to keep track of - some bioforms, some human - though for me it is Rex who carried the story and who I cared about the most. Underlying everything are the ethical questions: can/should an intelligent being that has been engineered by man have rights, or is it a “thing” that can be destroyed when it has served its purpose? What if the electronic control that has been developed for bioforms were extended to humans?

[tuusannuuska-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A story about a genetically engineered soldier called Rex, who only wants to be a Good Boy, but of course, humans.

The story takes place in a future plausibly not that far from ours. The world was believable, even though it wasn't particularly detailed (possibly entirely because it's so close to the one we're living in.) The characters felt deep and realistic even considering how far fetched some of them could be considered. Tchaikovsky has the ability to give us characters that are unique and real and relatable (as well as despicable in certain instances).

The story was more a vehicle for the themes and concepts covered in the book, but it held my interest and carried the characters from point A to point B successfully. Tchaikovsky's writing is exactly to my taste, and I love his ability to write distinct voices for his POV characters. Once I got going with the book, I had a really difficult time putting it down.

The tension held throughout the book and I really felt for the internal struggles Rex went through. The relationship between Rex, Honey, Bees and Dragon was heartbreaking, as well as the relationship between Rex and Murray (for different reasons). This book also had unexpected flashes of humor in it, and while this was by no means a tearjerker, I still felt incredibly emotional by the end.

The most interesting concepts covered were artificial intelligence, shared consciousness, and the singularity. The overlaying theme of how gray the waters surrounding Good and Bad are, was handled well as a part of the storyline, and only at the end did I in part start feeling like the author was too obvious in his attempt to drive his point home.

For what the book is about, I think it read pretty credibly and definitely cemented my belief that Adrian Tchaikovsky might well be on his way to becoming one of my favorite authors.

Well worth the read.

//Edit after re-read: there's no question about it, Tchaikovsky is definitely a top 3 author of all time for me.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting and enjoyable read about genetic engineering and war.

[james_knupp · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A genuinely interesting take on free will, slavery, ethics, and so much more. And all told through the perspective of a bio-engineered monstrosity.

[aadyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A clever conceit by one of the leading figures in British science fiction. This dealt with artificial intelligence being inseminated into bio forms. It was action packed and filled with cyberpunk like references. The philosophical nature of this and the development of the narrator from a mere passive, direction this dog to something much more Was very moving.