In War Dogs by Greg Bear we follow the transformative adventure of one skyrine (or space marine) as he battles unknown enemies on Mars. The book was very slow to grab my attention. If I hadn’t been stranded somewhere with nothing else to read I would probably never have finished it. As it was I read it long enough to get intrigued by the underlying mystery and wound up finishing the book. So the book is straightforward hard core SF. It is set in the future and some of the world is busy fighting a war for mysterious aliens. The war is taking place on Mars. Our narrator is dropped to the world and things begin to go wrong from the get go. Frustratingly, the mystery elements that kept me reading were never satisfactorily answered so we’re left wondering if the aliens the humans are fighting for really are the good guys? What’s going on with the “drift” on Mars? What is it the antags (aliens the humans are fighting) really want? An interesting book that is suitable for someone who really likes SF and doesn’t mind having to extrapolate answers to plot points for themselves.
