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Bear Head

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About this listen

In a sequel to the much-praised Dogs of War, Honey the genetically engineered bear takes a ride in Jimmy the Martian's head and starts a revolution on the Red Planet.

Mars. The red planet. A new frontier for humanity: a civilisation where humans can live in peace, lord and master of all they survey.

But this isn't Space City from those old science-fiction books. It's more like Hell City, built into and from a huge crater. There's a big silk canopy over it, feeding out atmosphere as we generate it, little by little, because we can't breathe the air here.

I guess it's a perfect place to live, if you want to live on Mars. At some point I must have wanted to live on Mars, because here I am. The money was supposed to be good, and how else was a working Joe like me going to get off-planet exactly? But I remember the videos they showed us - guys, not even in suits, watching robots and bees and Bioforms doing all the work - and they didn't quite get it right.

©2021 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2021 W F Howes Fiction First Contact Genetic Engineering Science Fiction Space Exploration Solar System Mars Interstellar Robotics Technology
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Another take on uplift from Mr Tchaikovsky and another I enjoyed. I particularly like the adherence to the rules of the Universe he sets out so that there's no cheating deus ex machina to save the day even though there is a deus ex machina to save the day - if you see what I mean..

This one is a bit heavy on the allusions to present day concerns and helps us liberals expiate some of our angst about some of those areas in a nice safe zone with enough future proofing to keep it from feeling too real.

All in all worth anyone's time if you are already on the Adrian animal parade.

One criticism of this narration compared to the Dogs of War story is the female narration when speaking for Bees and Honey on their closed channels - was there any need for the staccato presentation of their voices - for me it took away from the experience and collapsed my suspension of disbelief - only a minor wrinkle though.

If you like this try Children of Ruin.

Kept me listening

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I loved Dogs of War and was worried about this sequel living up to it as I felt the original had left few places for the story to go but Mr. Tchaikovsky manages to take the story in new and interesting directions. The whole cast do a great job of bringing the story to life and I loved listening to them. Highly recommended.

A worthy sequel to "Dogs of War"

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Dogs of War is a favourite, enjoyed all the more on a second listen, prompted by this sequel. But in my view these works sren't just romping good science fiction tales. Through the deep characterisation, we get to explore something of what consciousness in a dog, a bear, a hive mind might be like. These future creatures struggle with the challenges presented by the light and dark of human nature. Bear head exposes the most monstrous human behaviour, beyond the savagery of weaponizing animals in DoW. Pretty blooming thought provoking, an excellent native and with superb readers... a hive mind sequel to follow ?

Engrossing, Superb

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I liked the setting of building a colony on Mars. The story is well paced and has interesting takes on society.

Other listeners have said the changing of narrators between chapters is distracting but all the narration is well done. It’s no different to Dogs of War (or the original recordings of the Wheel of time).

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Excellent sequel to Dogs of War.

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This story does rely somewhat on a previous Tchaikovsky novel 'Dogs of War'

Apart from Adrian's signature inclusion and amazing descriptions of animal minds and their perspectives.

He also adds a near-future political landscape, with elements of current the real world, but dialed up to eleven.

This is combined into an almost haunting, incredible, 'black mirror'-esc story with depth and suspense.

My only hang up is some minor mistakes in the editing/mixing of the audio.

Thought provoking scifi at it's best

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