Customer Reviews

The Dog Said Bow-Wow

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I stumbled upon this anthology after scanning a list of past Hugo winners, looking for some authors with whom I was not yet acquainted. I wish I had discovered Michael Swanwick years ago. I couldn't put this book down. My wife got sick of me saying, "You know, this guy is really good." All of the stories were engaging, but I particularly enjoyed "Slow Life." It had a satisfying interplay of ideas that I won't spoil for you. And if you're a fan of Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser, you'll certainly enjoy the three Darger and Surplus stories. Don't let the simplicity of the title put you off; these are complex and well crafted stories woven by a master. I'm definitely going to add more Swanwick to my collection.

This book is simply a pleasure to read. I have recently read books of short stories by Gene Wolfe and Larry Niven and (surprisingly in Wolfe's case) the collections were not very good. Bow-Wow as the opposite. While some stories are stronger than others, I enjoyed them all.

Michael Swanwick, along with Connie Willis and Kelly Link, is one of the best science fiction short story writers out there. His re-imagining of fable and fantasy and setting it in a modern society where fairies and elves talk like your neighbor next door while wielding magic that lives in a our faintest memories is sometimes so good it can change how you look at the world we currently live in. Maybe there is still some magic out there.

Anyone that appreciates serious and challenging science fiction and fantasy short stories should gift themselves with this collection.

This collection has a little bit of everything in it from dinosaurs to a bordello in Fairie. This is a good intro to Swanwick's work because his main areas of interest are all covered and if you like a certain story in the book you can find more like it. If you like this then check out his best collection in my opinion, Tales of the Old Earth.

I first read a Swanwick story in an anthology, then loved a bigger taste of him in Tales of the Old Earth, and loved the stories here just as much. Incredibly inventive. Great variety. Swanwick's use of language is lovely. No plot spoilers, but here is a sampling of a few turns of phrase from him:

"The woman who had taken the key away from her had said something about 'loyalty imprinting.' Now Ellie understood what that term entailed." (p. 153);
"Every man enters by a different door. House rules. It's that kind of place." (p. 182);
"He did not believe in the existence of a benevolent and loving God who manipulated the world in order to maximize the happiness of His creations. Still, on a morning like this, he had to admit that all the evidence was against him." (p. 210);
"Darger wanted to spurn the offer, if for no other reason than his dignity's sake. But, being merely human -- and male to boot -- he complied." (p. 231)
"Women never ceased to amaze Darger. One might make free of their bodies in the most intimate manner possible, handling them not only lustfully but self-indulgently, and denying oneself not a single pleasure... yet it made them like you the better afterwards." (p. 209-210, ellipses original).

I was given this book by a friend. As soon as I finished it, I gave it to another friend, because it was just that great. I've now bought 3 copies of this book to give to other people, and another for myself, because I couldn't wait to reread it. Swanwick is a master of short fiction.

One of our great masters of short fiction in any genre, Michael Swanwick demonstrates the artistic depth and range of his talent in his latest short story collection "The Dog Said Bow-Wow". Included are three Hugo-Award winning stories, amidst a compelling collection of riveting tales about dinosaurs in Vermont ("Triceratops Summer"), a deadly game of hide and seek on inhospitable Venus ("Tin Marsh"), an ogre murdered in the magical realm of Faerie ("A Small Room in Koboldtown") and a young man's unusual sexual encounters in Faerie ("The Bordello in Faerie"). Among the most memorable tales are the three chronicling the "post-Utopian" adventures and misdeeds of confidence men Darger and Surplus in London ("The Dog Said Bow-Wow"), Paris ("The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport") and Arcadia ("Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play"). And then there is a most masterful work of steampunk fiction, "The Skysailor's Tale", which makes its debut in this very collection.

Those doubting that Swanwick is one of the greatest living American writers of fiction should regard this collection as required essential reading, since it reaffirms his status as among the finest prose stylists of science fiction and fantasy. A writer of lesser talent could not pull off Swanwick's poignantly sweet tale about a herd of Triceratops visiting a Vermont town ("Triceratops Summer") or have it end like this:

"So there we stood in the late summer of our lives. Out of nowhere, we'd been given a vacation from our ordinary lives, and now it was almost over. A pessimist would have said that we were just waiting for oblivion. But Delia and I didn't see it that way. Life is strange. Sometimes it's hard, and other times it's painful enough to break your heart. But sometimes it's grotesque and beautiful. Sometimes it fills you with wonder, like a Triceratops sleeping in the moonlight."

A good collection of short stories, some are really good, some skipable. The Darger and Surplus stories are fun and the Farie Bordello and the Urdumheim stories are top notch. I couldn't get into The Skysailor's Tale nor the dinosaur-time travel story. "A Small Room in Koboldtown" is a 2008 Hugo nominee, a fun and cool setting, but not much of a locked room mystery. Advisory warning: there's a fair amount of sex in the stories.