Dogs of Truth: New and Uncollected Stories [Paperback]

Kit Reed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2005

The Dogs of Truth contains 17 new or previously uncollected short stories. Included are "High Rise High," about a student revolt at the ultimate "secure" high school; "Focus Group," where a star-struck fan dictates the fate of soap opera characters through a biochip implant; "Escape from Shark Island," which looks at an extreme version of today's trendy "family bed;" and "Precautions," where germ-phobia reigns supreme.

The new stories tell of the "Grand Opening" of the world's largest mega-mall, study the relationship of a writer and his muse in "Getting It Back," and, in "The Shop of Little Horrors," take a dark look at the child-free lifestyle.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reed (Thinner Than Thou) transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary in this impressive story collection. A nonagenarian Salman Rushdie finally meets his fatwah in "Grand Opening." A determined fan and a little technology control megahit television in "Focus Group." Teenagers in super-secure "High Rise High" rebel and run amok without bothering parents. Toddlers ("Playmate") and infants ("The Shop of Little Horrors") are threats to sanity, while old age ("Old Soldier") is insanity itself. Life ("Incursions") crumbles before we notice, and even if we mastermind our escapes, as in "Into the Jungle" and "No Two Alike," things never go anything at all as expected. Even "The Zombie Prince" isn't what one anticipates. As "Captive Kong" reminds us: "Because things like disease and Armageddon happen to other people, never to us because we are special, what really happens always comes as a surprise." No matter how absurd, these horror stories still sting with truth and ring with humor, often ending with an odd happiness.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Reed's stories sometimes have happy endings despite bleak subjects. She says the high-school story has to end well, so in "High School High," the kids take over a maximum-security high school and wreak havoc until they lose interest; then equilibrium is mostly restored. TV proves to be more than just a show in "Focus Group," two sisters can't escape their father even after he dies in "Yard Sale," and bed sharing goes to terrible extremes in "Escape from Shark Island." Not every story is all fun and games, though. "Precautions" considers germphobia taken past the breaking point, and "Captive Kong" is a charming apocalyptic tale of a boy and the bodybuilder in his basement. There's even a story, the almost-sweet creepy "The Zombie Prince," in which zombies get to be something other than moaning hulks out to eat brains. OK, this isn't cheery, upbeat stuff. Instead, it is a set of marvelous glimpses of the darker side of everything from megamalls to family bonding. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765314142
• ISBN-13: 978-0765314147
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,258,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kit Reed's new short story collection, "What Wolves Know," just out from PS Publishing ( Spring 2011), includes stories originally published in venues ranging from Asimov's SF to the Kenyon Review and the Yale Review.

Called "a gripping dystopian thriller" in a starred review in Publishers Weekly, Kit Reed's novels, Enclave, The Baby Merchant and Thinner Than Thou a winner of the A.L.A. Alex Award, and her collection, Dogs of Truth, are available in trade paperback. The New York Times Book Review has this to say about her work: "Most of these stories shine with the incisive edginess of brilliant cartoons... they are less fantastic than visionary." Other novels include @​expectations, Captain Grownup, Fort Privilege, Catholic Girls, J. Eden and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse. As Kit Craig she is the author of Gone, Twice Burned and other psychological thrillers published here and in the UK. A Guggenheim fellow, she is the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize.

A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she serves as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Horror with a Twist, April 13, 2007

By 

Frank "Blaupanzer" (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Dogs of Truth: New and Uncollected Stories (Paperback)

Ordinarily, when reading a book of short stories in the horror genre, the more normal the lead-in and middle of the story, the more horrible the ending. The reader comes to expect this, anticipate it, and therefore, discount it. Not so with these stories. Ms. Reed still manages to surprise the reader with the twists at the end, or the way in which the "normal" part draws you in, only to shock in the wrap up. Based on her short stories, Ms. Reed is an excellent author, and this is a much better than "normal" book of short stories.

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Cute, January 12, 2007

By 

MWA "MWA" (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dogs of Truth: New and Uncollected Stories (Paperback)

A few in this book are gems but most are a little too cute and contrived.
Keep this as a "C" List selection.