Customer Reviews

Dogs

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Written as if ripped from the newspapers of a v. slightly alternate Earth, Dogs is fast moving and irresistable from start to finish. The characters -- mostly from a small town not-too near Washington D.C. -- are simply drawn yet interesting; the puzzle stayed one step ahead of me throughout, and the dogs of the title... well, they lived up to their titular role.

Dogs is a look at how people live up, or down, to their true selves in an emergency; a sharp commentary about how we treat pets as children; a sad reminder of how anymore, few of us trust our Government in an emergency, and a compelling page-turner with a wonderfully satisfying ending.

Nice read in this page turner. The heroine is heroic and the hero is a nice guy. The dogs are OK too. Much better than the average Sci-Fi book.

Dogs is well written--it kept me turning the pages--but the plot is so twisty I had no idea who did what and why at the end of the book. There are lots of ambiguous clues that are not tied up at the end. Perhaps I missed something, but I'm not willing to wade through the book again to find that one definitive point.

Even so, I'm still one of Nancy's biggest fans.

There is something you can always count on with Nancy Kress... that her works always flow. She has a writing style that is always very readable and it really doesn't matter what the subject is. I don't understand the negative reviews because I found it to be a page turner. After just 1 hour I was already 54 pages into it and I am not typically a very fast reader. With Dogs it reminded me of Michael Crichton's works. Especially set in a "State of Fear" setting but with a "Next" or "Prey" sort of problem happening. And I just remembered that the back of the book compared it to a mix of Andromeda Strain and Cujo... that also fits nicely. I love Crichton (sad that he is gone) and Nancy Kress has a more readable/fluid style of writing than even Crichton.

I usually have a hard time reading Star Wars novels because they seem stilted and contrived and I really want to enjoy them because I am a Star Wars fan. I bet you if Kress were to write Star Wars novels her "style" would make them very enjoyable.

Dogs isn't her normal fare but I think she handled it great.

Though not typical of Kress' hard science fiction novels, I enjoyed this book. I don't know if Kress is attempting a switch to more "mainstream" stuff, but I think it was successful. You probably won't convince the more hard core scifi folks of the books merits, but this was better than say Greg Bears attempts to leave the genre. I rank it up there with the popular stuff that Preston/Childs or Rollins has put out. I haven't been disappointed in her stuff yet.

I picked up Dogs while visiting the library this past week and was able to read it in an afternoon. That's a bit unusual for me; while I'm a fast reader, I often take at least three or four days to get through one of Kress' novels. They're usually quite dense in terms of plot and I have to stop and "take a break" in order to keep the novel straight in my mind.

Not so this novel, even though there were points where I wasn't certain. Although the narrative stays in the third person this time (one of my past complaints about Kress has been overuse/misuse of the first-person viewpoint), the focus still jumps back and forth. I don't recall a single point in the book where the focus stayed on the same character in two consecutive chapters.

** WARNING - A FEW SPOILERS FOLLOW **

While the narrative is well-structured and tight, the frequent focus shifts meant I wasn't able to drum up any empathy or emotional response as a reader. Just as I would get comfortable with Tessa, the focus would shift to Cami or Ed and their particular take on the events as they unfolded. Kress never stayed long enough with a single character to allow for the in-depth development she has shown herself capable of in other books such as those in the Beggars series.

This detracted from the book, because it meant that Tessa's misadventures in London were, frankly, uninteresting; and the relationship with her sister is so poorly explored that it leaves me wondering why Kress even put the sister in there if not for the oh-so-convenient way it allowed for a passport substitute. It also meant that the developing relationship between Tessa and Jess came across as utterly false. Never once did we see any anger, caring or worry on either of their parts except for two scenes where it felt very artificial.

Had Kress made more room in her books for the main characters by spending less time with the secondary characters, it might have been easier to "get lost in" the plot. As it was, the setup felt more like a collection of news articles than a true novel. I'm not convinced this wasn't intentional, as Kress clearly is trying to make a comment about modern society's relationship with national and international events.

As a concept, the plot and setup are well-executed; and the subject matter is certainly very timely. But as a novel, just like some of Kress' other work, the structure is so weak that it becomes an actual detractor. I'd love to see this revised to be a little more like a novel and less like a loose collection of anecdotes or news articles. In this format, though, it's best for an afternoon of quick reading without much digestion or reflection.

I was very disappointed by this book. I found it at the library, and was excited to see the newest from Kress. I've read most of her previous books and looked forward to getting into this one. However, it turned out to be cliched, with thinly written characters and a predictable plot. I expected far better from Kress. I hope that she will return to her usual style (e.g., the fascinating conceptual and literary qualities in the Probability Moon series), and avoid this screenplay, mainstream style in future. I'll still pick up her next book, but I'll scrutinize it more carefully before I get excited!

As a fan of Nancy Kress who has enjoyed her previous works I was very dissapointed with this book which I did not finish because it was boring, stilted and pointless.