Kirsten Bakis: Lives of the Monster Dogs review

Kirsten Bakis' book almost has it. As I found the book from our apartment house's downstairs, read the text from the back cover and found out it is "a cult book" in the States, I took it with me and gave it a chance to start a relation with me.
But, something's missing.

The story is about a mad scientist (yes, indeed!), who in the 1900th century starts to build his dream: an army of modified dogs. He dies later on, but his people finish his work and so the monster dogs are born: they walk in their back paws, they have plastic arms instead of front paws, they have a device which makes speaking possible and their brains are modified so they're much smarter.

The story follows the dogs' effort to make it in the normal world. The narration is devided in three ways. The main narrator is Cleo Pira, a woman who make the acquaintance of some of the dogs. Then there is Ludwig, one of the monster dogs, who wants to write the biography of the mad scientist, and finally the diary pages of Augustus Rank, the scientist.

The book makes you think the animal experiments and how some people are capable of doing them. But in addition to a critisism of our human superiority, you can also read the book as science fiction situated in the nearby future.

Bakis' book had lot of potential, but something was missing. It almost had it, but the end in my opinion was a bit disappointed. I waited a bit more.. surprising things, I might say.
Nevertheless, it makes you think.

/ [Caterin S.]

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