Bee Speaker
Book 3 of the Dogs of War and if you’ve read the first two (Dogs of War, Bear Head), I’m not even sure you need to read any reviews before putting down the pre-order or libby request for this book. Its yet another Tchaikovsky book that delves into humanity put in various scenarios, there’s always a gross-out segment, there’s always a deeper insight that comes as part of the story line, and there’s always something strangely alien that is beyond human ken. Oh there’s always a happy ending.
This book does not deviate from the Tchaikovsky formula.
Its about 100 years past the events of Bear Head, and Mars is now a thriving environment (as thriving as Mars can ever be), while Earth has devolved. Years of wars and environmental failure has made the Earth go backwards in terms of society and technology such that its barely above that of a medieval failed state. That’s the setting of the story, and where the protagonists come into play. Mars has received a SOS from Earth Bees and after some consternation, Mars has decided to send a small delegation to help Earth Bees. Partly because Mars Bees was responsible for the survival of the Mars Colony, they felt they had a sort of obligation to Earth Bees.
The story starts off halfway into the rescue mission and immediately there are a lot of things that went wrong. First of all, bioforms and humans now adapted to Mars cannot tolerate Earth gravity and environment. The Dogs of Mars have now been adapted such that they no longer look like Dogs that humans on earth would recognize. Same for the humanity segment of Mars. Coming back into the story are the reptilian bioforms, something that was touched upon in Dogs of Wars and mostly skipped in Bear Head.
No bears however. And that’s sad becuase that was always the main star of the show in both of the previous books, but this one has quite a few more tricks up its sleeve to entrap the reader.
The cover gives away quite a bit of the enemy that the martians face, and its always interesting to see bioforms be the antagonist for once. The other pieces of world building is gorgeous as usual, from the mad max style environment to how super rich owners of bunkers might eventually end up. How the shadow of the older bioforms might influence communes and villages that try to keep up with basic survival.
Told from the POV of a few characters, the action moves quickly and there’s hardly a spare chapter that doesn’t move the plot along. The philosophical big question this time is “at what point does humanity cease to be humans. is that when their physical changes are so much that they can no longer relate to humans as a whole, or is it when their mental ken changes so much that they cannot recognize help”. Its an interesting question, and the explorations makes good points for both sides.
Highly recommended, but you really do need to read the first 2 books of the series first.