Really enjoyed this follow up to Dogs of War.
I accidentally read Dogs of War in 2018 - I never went looking for it and loved it. Equally, I can't remember when I found out about Bear Head but I knew I wanted to read it if it existed in the same universe. So finally I get around to it.
Overall well written, well drawn characters with distinctive voices in a universe that's really not that hard to conceive. I've read a few of Tchaikovsky's books now and as much as I enjoy them, for some reason it does take me quite a stretch to read the books (this one being just ~315 pages and took me a month) - not sure what's up with that.
The story is told from three protagonist's perspective: Honey, the bear from Dogs of War - once soldier, now an academic arguing for rights for others. Jimmy, the "grunt worker" placed on Mars to prepare it for the colonies that plan to settle and Carole (Springer…I want to say), the PA and "collared" assistant to the antagonist Warner S. Thompson.
Similarly with Dogs of War, Bear Head discusses self and identity (can a person be entirely digital?), freedom and slavery, and the untouchable super rich and their power.
There's some pretty horrible scenes around human slavery where people are compelled to perform, both involuntary physically but also compelled to think in certain ways (i.e. being submissive by design).
With a lot of what I'm reading lately, I can't help but associate it with today's real life events (in 2025-2026), and thinking of the corruption throughout politics we're seeing today - though I can see how this book being published in 2021 aligns fairly well with Trump's first regime from '17-21. Perhaps it's that backdrop that makes me a slow reader!
5 Highlight(s)
Wellbeing and contentment and not feeling just how rubbish everything is, that's the gift Stringer gives you,
One of them is called Murder. The other one's called Marmalade. I don't know which is which and I'm sure as goddamn not going to ask.
they're still trying to make the laws on what a saved personality is, right? Whether it has rights, whether it's a person, gets the vote, all that. Thirty years they've been a thing, and a million lawyers and philosophers and politicians all got an angle.
well-meaning men can cause just as much damage, if not more
But then a woman's bruises were usually invisible in the shadow of a powerful man.
Others I've read in the "Dogs of War" series: