My Five Word TL:DR Review: Futuristic drama with political shenanigans

Bear Head is the second book in the Dogs of War series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Two small provisos before starting this review.  First, Do I think this can be read as a standalone?  Yes, I’m confident that readers could pick this up without having read the first.  Of course, having thoroughly enjoyed Dogs of War I obviously recommend you read it as it will provide a deeper strength of feeling for the characters who appear here.  Second, if you are intending to read Dogs of War then you should probably avoid this review as it will contain spoilers (I do of course try to avoid spoilers but just seeing certain names appearing in a second instalment can sometimes give away plot points for the first book).  So, you have been warned.

Space: the final frontier.  Bear Head jumps forward by a few years following the conclusion of Dogs of War and we follow a new character named Jimmy.  Jimmy was wowed by the thoughts of getting off earth and having a fresh start and jumped at the chance of a job on Mars. A few genetic modifications and a little space travel later and Jimmy is working on a new project – the building of a city (fondly known as Hell City), set in a crater covered with a silk membrane (that will eventually lead to a more livable atmosphere.  Of course, the grass isn’t always greener and building luxurious accommodations for the elite is not quite as glamorous as living in them.  Jimmy is at the bottom of the food chain.  He’s trapped really, underpaid, overworked and has fallen into a few money pits.  In desperation he turns to a last resort and this is when he ends up with a different personality inside his head, talking to him, nay arguing with him, and in fact exerting some firm control.

I enjoyed Bear Head. It’s a little crazy at times, it can also be a bunch of fun with Jimmy and his ‘head’ passenger exchanging some amusing banter as they wrestle for control.  It’s also quite shocking and a little sad at times but still manages to give off a message of hope.

Following Dogs of War the rights of bio-engineered animals are once again coming under threat.  Some people think they should be collared and controlled whilst others actively speak out against such measures.  Honey (a modified Bear from book No.1) is now something of a celebrity.  She’s intelligent and frequently invited to public events and functions however, she soon realises that her status is little more than a sham.  On the face of it she has a good life but scratch the surface and she’s really little more than a performing bear who is rolled out as the occasion warrants to demonstrate ‘good behaviour’.  She becomes very aware of this the moment she actually speaks her mind and draws some very unwelcome attention.

Now, as the story begins there is a little jumping back and forth between Mars and Earth and also a slight disparity with the timeline but eventually things escalate and the two storylines come together.

Jimmy and Honey are the central characters and then there are various others split between the two locations.  Back on Earth we have a corrupt politician called Thompson who is very interested in mind control and we follow his story which involves his assistant and the doctor he regularly meets with – I’m not going to lie, this particular thread can be decidedly unpleasant, probably made more so because without the very thin veil it wears it’s rather uncomfortably close to the current political climate.  I don’t mention this as a negative, just to alert readers more than anything else.  On Mars the characters are Jimmy, Honey. a self-styled ‘gangster’ called Sugar and her two modified bears, a bunch of people on the periphery and also ‘Bees’.  Now if you’ve read Dogs of War you’ll know exactly who that character is and you’ll also probably be jumping for joy.  I won’t spoil the fun though.  You can discover about Bees for yourself.

I won’t elaborate too much on setting.  We have the earth setting, which very much revolves around the political situation and the way things escalate dramatically and of course the Red Planet.  Thankfully the author writes this as a fairly small, self contained city and it’s tight confines and almost claustrophobic feel are easy to imagine and to work with in terms of the scope of the story.

I wasn’t expecting to read more from this particular world and so it was a lovely surprise to find a second instalment that returned me to a few of the characters I’d already formed attachments to. This is a fairly fast paced story from an author that I always enjoy.  I must say that Tchaikovsky can really pull on the heart strings and he has this talent to describe a situation so well and yet in such an easy manner that the scene just springs to life.  This is also a story that takes the opportunity to look at some deep issues (exploitation, oppression and illegal experimentation to name but a few).  Plenty of food for thought here and a book that definitely left me with much to think about.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 stars