But as much as dogs look out for and protect people, so do we need to protect them, these innocent, loving creatures. The Grifter recalls the classic Bear novel Eon with its multiple surprises and unknowns, just ripe for exploration. The book stops short of that, the exploration, so there must be a sequel. One of those "publishing" sequels, split a longish book into two or more, and call the set a series.

Vishnevetsky, Ignatiy (Aug 18, 2016). "The gun-running true story War Dogs is all bark, no bite". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 18 August 2016. I can't say this book is objectively bad. This is the first Bear book I've read, and he's clearly a talented and knowledgeable writer. I just really, really didn't like the style of this book for the following reasons: War Dogs is a futuristic sci-fi military novel. In the future, Earth has visitors are known as the Gurus. The Gurus gave Earth technological gifts and other bits of knowledge. This much is on the cover flap, so I can safely say that I am not spoiling anything. They came in peace and initially asked nothing in return. Eventually they did reveal that their actions were only partially altruistic. More of a reciprocal altruism in fact. They let it be know, to their small cabal, that they have been traveling around fighting their long time enemy which we have come to known as the antagonists. Antags for short. Earth was enlisted to help fight this ancient war as the Antags were making their way into the solar system. This was technically optional, but if you want to get new shiny toys from the Gurus, you became signatory. The middle, however, was plateauing out a bit and I didn't like that the author either didn't know or didn't care to make the distinction between biology and geology (when talking about Mars' ores). And don't get me started on the female spec ops Marines (as a woman, I love that women can serve but spec ops? give me a break!). Still, on we go. Simple-looking story at first. But Bear very gently introduces hints that there's something not quite right here. Then another, and another, and gradually we realize that the story isn't about facing off the bad guys at all. I shouldn't tell you more, but I guess I could say it's about who is trying to do what, and why?Thus, we also got quite a bit of exploration that meant meeting the locals (Elon Musk will have a fit but that shit was hilarious!) and encountering ... whatever the hell that was. I like the hypothesis in the end with the crystals and dust affecting memories. Writing Style. Lots of narration. Breaking up an active plot to insert chapters of world-building that are only semi-relevant. A weird tone, and barely legible dialogue from the humans that live on Mars.

The description of this book that I read described it as a tale of space marines. That is true, but it is more than that. It really is a heavy dose of science fiction. It is almost a cross between Hebert’s Dune and Weir’s The Martian. The book is full of descriptions of Mars and what one would need to do to survive there. It has plenty of advanced technology and descriptions of how such technology would help one survive on Mars.

It's not Moving Mars by a long shot. It's pure popcorn, and while there are a lot of great books similar to this, Bear is far from being simply average at it. He has the writing chops to amaze and put us in the hot seat. :) attributed to George G. Vest] "The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog." (p. 10) The hearing was not the end of Diveroli’s woes. As a convicted felon, he was barred from so much as holding a gun, let alone selling arms. But while he was awaiting sentencing on the fraud charges, Diveroli couldn’t stay out of the business he loved. He contrived to act as a consultant to a licensed importer who wanted to buy Korean-made ammunition magazines. The deal was technically legal — the magazines only fed ammo into the guns, so Diveroli wasn’t actually selling weapons — but it put him in the cross hairs of another federal sting operation. Through my grandfather and his dog, Stubby, I learned that being raised by dogs meant learning the meaning of unconditional love, being both trustworthy and faithful, living with dignity and without hesitation or regret, and caring for others less fortunate or in need." (p. 7) The disorientation in the beginning worked greatly for me. It made me "part of the team". I also liked the hard sf bits in the end.