Lives of the Monster Dogs
Kirsten Bakis
An immensely enjoyable first novel set in the near future. About 150 bionic-handed, hind-leg walking, stylishly attired dogs of several breeds descend on Manhattan and become the talk of the town. The talk, by the way, is in English and German; the dogs have enhanced brains and artificial voiceboxes that let them speak human languages. They become mega-celebrities, profiled in Vanity Fair and stopped for autographs in the finest restaurants. The history of the dogs—they began as an experiment in Germany and ultimately overthrew their human creators in the Canadian wilderness—is presented in wonderful detail, in part through the libretto of a canine-composed opera. The elegant robo-dogs, better drawn than the book's humans, are the more believable characters here. Bakis may have started with some pretensions here, hoping to offer piercing insights into the true differences between men and beasts, the definition of human nature, etcetera, but the story reads pretty opaquely...and engagingly. Readers who insist on squeezing their brains to find deep meaning here (Some reviewers have been going to town with the analysis) are, in my mind, refusing to have some pure fantastic fun. This is a shaggy dog tail non pareil. Bow wow wow!
