Simply excellent, an excellent follow-up to Dogs of War. Original and fascinating premise, great characters, page-turning prose, what's not to like? Highly recommended for people who want something different in Sci-Fi. ( )

As far as sequels to Dogs of War go, this wasn’t quite what I expected. I mean it as a compliment. This is a more complex book, which develops and expands all the issues and ethical dilemmas present in the first book and adds new ones.

I liked the breakneck pace of the plot and the Mars setting; it felt very vivid and somehow realistic. Of all the narrative voices, I enjoyed Jimmy’s snarky one the most – with Honey being the best of all the characters, of course ;)

The book is taking a look at populism, discrimination, fear of the Other, representation, the question of who gets to tell what stories. The idea of powerful people as not quite human parasites playing metagames was intriguing. There was a lot of preaching to the choir going on, but thankfully, the author is clever enough so that it doesn’t become irritating, even though I am part of the choir. (I did have one “oh, please…” moment when the final details of the evil plot were revealed.)

I feel that I am filling my blank spot when it comes to Adrian Tchaikovsky rather nicely; this is my fifth book by him. Onwards, I say, onwards.
( )

This is a follow-up to Dogs of War and it definitely would benefit anyone to read that one first as the mentions of characters from that book which start to appear - Bees, for example - make a lot more sense if you've read the first book. The viewpoint characters are Jimmy, a lowly construction worker in the Mars colony, Carol, the long-suffering PA to a very unpleasant politician, and Honey, the genetically engineered bear from book one.

Like all human workers on Mars, Jimmy has had modifications which enable him to survive in lower air pressure and on lower oxygen levels (which would kill an ordinary person) for short periods at least: modifications which he has been promised will be reversed when he returns to Earth at the end of his contract. Initially keen, he has become disillusioned and bored with the tedious repetitive work and resorts to a drug to give him artificial feelings of self assurance and control.

One of the modifications made to both human and Bioform workers on Mars include headware which allow direct thought communication. It transpires in the course of the story that the headware given to the humans, unlike that incorporated into Bioforms, is over-engineered in capacity, something later revealed to have sinister implications. Lacking cash to buy drugs due to his salary being taken to make loan payments, Jimmy approaches a local petty crook who pays him to rent his headspace and house software which promptly comes to life as an uploaded personality. Said personality is a key character from the first book, and gradually the story unfolds of what happened in the intervening decades since the end of book one.

The sections from Carol's viewpoint are horrific: despite the supposed outlawing of technology to render human beings into slaves after Rex's self-sacrifice in book one, her employer funds its development at a lab he controls and has had it installed into his assistant as well as into his dog-Bioform bodyguard. Not only can Carol refuse him nothing, including enduring rape by him, but her own feelings are pushed down and denied and she is made to hero worship him, punished by the software for any negative thoughts. It was quite a strain to read about this man who was an obvious analogue of the ex-president of the USA, and this and the fate of Honey were my principle reasons for not enjoying this book as much as 'Dogs of War'. Therefore, I rate it at 3 stars. ( )

Somehow never noticed that this was book 2 of a series, even including all the way to the end. It all hangs together well without any reference to past events. A subtle wry glance at the extreme politics of today cast through onto the development of a colony of mars. If you have narcissist in charge what does it mean for the way the world works. I'm especially impressed to learn that the Southampton Prisonner's dilemma exploit is actually a real thing.

Of course there are animals in it. But these Bioform mods are very much just people and characters in the story, without any particular animal characteristics per se. It does mean they have fewer legal rights than their human equivalents too. The distributed intelligence of Bees was delightful.

Really fun - one of his better books, and they're all good! ( )

This was one of my most expected books for the year, and it took me till mid-December to actually finish reading it, and it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

I think the main reason for why this left me wanting more was the over abundance of unpleasant characters. I loved Dogs of War, not the least bit because I could sympathize with the characters. This one though, requires you to root for characters you don't really like, or whose personalities are left quite thin. This also includes quite a lot of abuse towards a female character, both sexual and otherwise, which I'm not used to with Tchaikovsky's writing (and don't really generally want in my sci-fi).

Tchaikovsky still excels at writing about his chosen themes, specifically otherness, humanity, greed, power structures, organized religion, and dehumanizing the opposition. To name a few. He even drops a version of Niemöller's famous anti-nazi quote ("First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…").

So topically this is very clear and laudable in it's message, and Tchaikovsky writes well. I just, personally, would have liked to be able to get more emotionally invested in at least one character. ( )