Dogs of War
by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Henry-Luc Planchat · first published 2017
80% recommend20% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Gritty military sci-fi about a bio-engineered dog soldier in a private military company. Readers praise its logistics-heavy plotting, worldbuilding, and questions of loyalty. Suits fans of mercenary and coup stories.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 a
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What Hacker News says
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Two I enjoyed recently-ish * Adrian Tchaikovsky's Dogs of War: can a bio-engineered, cybernetically enhanced animal soldier still be a Good Dog when he's working for/owned by a PMC with questionable ethics? * Kate Mascarenhas's The Psychology of Time Travel: deals…
on “The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade” ↗…series there. I highly recommend anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky. His themes and ideas are deep and fascinating. https://www.amazon.com/stores/Adrian-Tchaikovsky/author/B002... (Children of Time Series, Dogs of War and City of Last Chances are great). Him and Dan Simmons are my favorite new(ish) authors. If you haven't read the Hyperion quadrilogy, it's my favorite sci-fi series ever. I hate to be that guy, but…
on “Show HN: Crunching 1,200 Authors' Favorite Reads of 2023” ↗I'm about two hours into the audiobook version of Dogs of War by Tchaikovsky. The narration is a little rough on the non-dog chapters, but the plot and setting is interesting so far. I'll always recommend his Shards of Earth series for sci-fi enjoyers, I love the…
on “Arthropod Intelligence? The Case for Portia (2020)” ↗Suggested reading: Dogs of War, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Essentially a biotech cyborg variant on the theme of mind control meets Island of Doctor Moreau.
on “Rifle-Armed Robot Dogs Now Being Tested by Marine Special Operators” ↗Relevant book rec: Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky. https://adriantchaikovsky.com/dogs-of-war-series.html
on “First Bioprocessor Powered by Human Brain Organoids” ↗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…
on “Frederick Forsyth has died” ↗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
on “My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before” ↗The book "Dogs of War" by Frederik Forsyth is an excellent semi-fictional description of a mercenary operation very analogous to the ones described in the article. The book is mostly concerned not with gratuitous violence,…
on “The Frenchman who pioneered the modern mercenary industry” ↗Don’t miss Bear Head, the sequel to Dogs of War. For anyone who’s read Children of Time and Children of Ruin, the third book Children of Memory came out a couple weeks ago.
on “The mysterious inner life of the octopus” ↗I always recommend The Dogs of War as a first Forsyth novel, and No Comebacks as a first Forsyth reader. No Comebacks: 1. Are all short stories, so good for the reader who is not yet invested in Forsyth 2. Starts with the titular story,…
on “John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel” ↗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.
on “My mother declared my bedroom a disaster area (1984)” ↗…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.
on “Frederick Forsyth has died” ↗There is also his Dogs of War [1] which is about uplifted dogs. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35827220.Dogs_of_War
on “What's it like to be an Octopus? (2017)” ↗I've only read his Dogs of War, which was also about animals with artificially enhanced intelligence and other abilities --this time a dog, a bear, a lizard of some description, and a swarm of bees with a hive mind, working as soldiers…
on “The mysterious inner life of the octopus” ↗I find it hilarious how Dogs of War is different as the book and the movie. The movie is a classical '80s thing with big guns and explosions. The book on the other hand gets into great detail about the logistics of organizing a coup, holding…
on “John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel” ↗