Lives of the Monster Dogs

Book arrived really quickly and the book is in excellent like new condition. You know the drill, I loaned out my copy to a friend when I bought it new back in the days of QPB, and of course I never got it back! If you are looking for a creative fantasy story you would do well to read this one!

This is a book I read many years ago and since I no longer owned the book, I had to reorder it just to have it on my bookshelf. It’s totally engrossing. You suspend disbelieve and fully believe that the “monster dogs” are truly as human as any of us. I highly recommend this book.

Every single person who I have given or loaned this book to has finished it the same day they started it. It's like Frankenstein meets watership down. Even though the book has many fantastic science fiction elements (notably dogs with electronic voice boxes and mechanical hands so that they can talk and interact with humans..) it still touches on universal themes (what makes humans human? Where is the divide between beast and man? What happens when we start to see the beast side coming alive?). That is you need not be a science fiction buff to enjoy this book. I'm not someone who reads and enjoys many fiction books, but this one gripped me from start to finish and I was compelled to not only buy another copy or two to mail to friends but also to write a great review of this book. If you only buy one fiction book this year this should be it.

Original and powerfully presented, Kirsten Bakis' "Lives of the Monster Dogs" is a compelling tale about 150 anthropomorphic canines -- aristocratic, charming, wealthy and plagued by their own madness and self-perceived hideousness -- descending upon the City of New York in the year 2008. Written with agonizing attention to detail, the story transports you to the lavish flats of the Upper West Side and down to the stinking slums of Alphabet City. The exquisite 19th Century Prussian dress of the monster dogs can almost be seen on the Bull Terriers, Alaskan Malamutes, German Shepherds and other canines of Bakis' tale. The characters themselves are well rounded, with complex personalities which, though only outlined to the reader in some places, are given enough idiosyncrasies as are necessary to be understood and captured. The format of the story takes the reader through several centuries, giving them a feel for times past and present, laying the foundation for not only the character's lives, but their backgrounds as well. All of these elements lead to exotic, otherwise unbelievable, "monsters" whose lives, spirits, minds and emotions thrive in a reader's imagination, keeping them turning the pages. Those, such as myself, whose emotions are moved by the lives, and deaths, of the heroes and heroines of this book will find a wide range of hopes, and sadness, from chapter to chapter. Though not uplifting, "Lives of the Monster Dogs" is still intriguing and gives one food for thought as the dogs explore their reason for being and their conditional acceptance based on wealth. Driven forward by a doomsday plot, the quirky, mad conclusion made this story a 9 instead of a 10. Crippled by the burgeoning weight of an inevitable, forseeable ending, this roller coaster novel comes to an abrupt hault. Though some questions can excuseably go unanswered, one gets the feeling that remaining loose ends were tied up rather rapidly in the final chapters. Still majorily excellent throughout, "Lives of the Monster Dogs" is wonderfully moving, touching and vivid. You'll miss Ludwig too.

This book is the intriguing story of an artificially created race of super-intelligent, slow-maturing dogs with prosthetic hands and voice boxes who descend upon a bemused New York City in the early 21st century. Created by the disciples and descendents of a disturbed and driven 19th century Prussian scientist, the dogs revolt against their human masters in 1999, leave their Canadian wilderness encampment and eventually arrive in the Big Apple. As a group, the dogs are both recluses and publicity hounds (pun intended), lovers of life yet driven by a sense of impending doom. They befriend and are befriended by a young female writer, and they change each others' lives. The work is filled with dazzling juxtapositions: the diary of a 19th century Prussian madman and of a 21st century journalist; the notes of a "monster dog" and the libretto of an opera about their history written by another dog. There are occasional lapses in style and pace, but they can scarcely mar this driven and impressive work. I must admit that my personal interest both in dogs and in the New York neighborhood described so perfectly by Bakis - where my daughter lives - enhanced but did not determine the book's impact on me. Taking a dog to the dog run in Washington Square Park will never seem the same again! The sense of impending tragedy that pervades the book should not dissuade anyone from reading it. It left me shaken but inspired. -Richard H. Rosichan

The thing I love about Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is that he convinces me that he is not being whimsical, and that he is not making it up as he goes along. For me, "Lives of the Monster Dogs" has the same quality. I found it convincing. The city of Rankstadt, the dogs' opera, the genuinely horrifying depiction of the young Augustus Rank--I think these will stick in my mind forever. It does not surprise me at all that the book does not work for everybody. And, yes, I thought the ending was weak.Still, I wish Cleo and Lydia the best. I hope that Ludwig will meet "I, Claudius" in some literary Valhalla; I believe they would like each other. And I will certainly look for the ruins of Neuhundstein the next time I find myself in New York City after 2011. Is it just my imagination, or does something about the expression and bearing of the author, as shown on the back flap of the cover, resemble that of the monster dog on the front cover?

It seems to me there's a lot of nitpicking going on about a tremendous work from an enormously promising author. Everything in this book is hauntingly gripping, like an odd dream you can't shake. Of course, the science of it--transforming dogs into walking, talking, thinking beings--is impossible. However, it isn't any less plausable than stitching together old body parts, and spiking them to life with electricity. It's a stunningly written piece of writing, and it would be a shame to miss out on it.