2018/80: Dogs of War -- Adrian Tchaikovsky

Master says we must kill all of them. Honey says this is because we are on a covert operation. Bees concurs. Dragon doesn't care now he has neutralised his target. I don't care because I am doing what Master wants and Master will be happy with me. I am Rex. I am a Good Dog.

Rex is a Good Dog, who is happy when he does what his Master tells him to do. He is also a Bioform: a genetically and biologically enhanced supersoldier based on canine stock, leading a multiform pack consisting of Bees, Honey and Dragon, each of whom has a different skillset. Bioforms, says the Pope, have no souls, but Rex and his pack have distinct personalities, quite aside from their engineered behaviours. Rex in particular relies on the programmed hierarchy to understand his world: without it, he finds himself (and other members of the pack) beginning to question the rectitude of his Master's comnmands.

At first unexpectedly free, and then obliged to interact with humans who are not defined as enemy nor as friend, Rex -- who is only one of the viewpoint characters in Dogs of War -- struggles with ethical and practical dilemmas. The humans, and post-humans, in the story have different issues to deal with. Is Rex an individual or a weapon? Should he and his pack be imprisoned, or decommissioned, or something else?

Dogs of War, recommended by New Scientist as 'a gripping dive into bioethics and artificial intelligence', is unashamedly manipulative. (By which I mean I cried.) It's a quick and fascinating read, with distinct narrative voices and vivid descriptions, and it explores a number of themes: slavery and freedom, culpability, sacrifice, intelligence, dirty wars ('The human he was talking to named some places that might need a war, and Master said that we should just make one if we couldn't find one...' [loc 3031]) and notions of post-humanism. It's often humorous, and there is a warmth to the interactions -- not just the ones involving humans, either -- that makes the book emotionally powerful as well as philosophically interesting. Plenty of strong female characters, too: again, not all human. I really enjoyed this.