Bear Head

Honey was my favourite character in Dogs of War, so needless to say that I was excited to read Bear Head. I got myself amped up to read it, because I’d liked Dogs of War so much. You’d think that I would be setting myself up for disappointment by going in guns blazing, because that tends to be the way things go. You get yourself hyped up about something and it turns out to be a steaming pile of not worth it. That’s not the case with Bear Head. Adrian Tchaikovsky knocked this one out of the planet. Set well after the events of Dogs of War, when humans have begun to colonise Mars, Bear Head is a stand alone novel that shares a universe with Dogs of War. Just like its predecessor, Bear Head is filled with flawed characters and bad people doing bad things. It could almost have been written yesterday with how accurate it is to the current political climate. Tchaikovsky writes each character with a distinctive voice and he does this so well that the chapter titles are entirely unnecessary. We know who we’re with as soon as the first line hits. Each POV character thinks and talks in different ways that are evident on the page. Not only is Bear Head a compelling concept, it’s an incredibly entertaining read that I kept wanting to come back to. Filled with humor, tragedy, and themes of control and power, Bear Head is well worth the read.