Rating: 
Summary: THIS BOOK BITES!
Review: Why did this book get so many good reviews when it bites so hard? I can only assume that book critics & literati do not read real sci-fi fantasy, so they don't know bad sci-fi fantasy when they read it. There is nothing in this book that has not been done before, and done better, by many other authors. Unfortunately, since sci-fi fantasy is not a respectable genre, mainstream literary types never read, and are ignorant of, the many quality sci-fi fantasy books written, and they think pompous pretentious crud like this book is good. If you really want to read a well written adult book about a genetically modified intellegent talking dog with a human love interest/plot twist read "Sirius" by Olaf Stapledon, not this pile of raw compost.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, poor ending.
Review: It's almost as if she gave up. I made the mistake of recommending this to some friends while I was still in the first hundred pages. For a while it's really a cool story. Theres some dark and original stuff going on, and the book moves at a strong pace. Around page 113 it started to seem like the author had run out of steam. The concept just wasn't enough to base a story around. She phoned the last half of the book in. I kept reading, hoping that the end would reveal some redeeming twist, only to be more and more dissapointed. Thank god none of my friends took my advice and bought this crappy book. Steer clear.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Mad scientist creates a race of talking dogs. Poorly written, cliched, barely coherent plot . Might have worked as a cheesy 50's sci-fi movie or comic book, but as a novel it doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: Scientifically engineered dogs escape their mad maker and go to New York City. The writing is poor and the characters are weak. The way the story unfolds is cliched. What I'd thought a good premise degenerated into the banal and predictable. I didn't feel for the bland characters, though I hoped there would be plot redemption. I was wrong. The end, while somewhat suspenseful, went where cliche took it. Plot Writing 101.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Premise Grows Weaker as It Develops
Review: Talking, and talking articulately, dogs take New York and the reader by storm -- for the first 100 pages or so. The best sections of the novel are the moments of the dogs' arrival, when the narrator hears their helicopter passing overhead and writes of that moment just before the moment when all that is known before changes irrevocably, and of her first meeting with Ludwig, the dog historian. But the deeper I at least got into the novel, the less sustainable the conceit became. Time and again as she was having a conversation with Ludwig, or Lydia or the Klaue, the dog spinmeister and Svengali, I found myself thinking more and more, "she's talking with and to a dog" and unfortunately, the dog sounded more and more like just another human character who in the novel's context had been indentified as a dog. And the love angle just doesn't work at all for me. Still, this is a fairly enjoyable read. Just be prepared to suspend your disbelief far more than usual when entering a novel.
Rating:
Summary: scary
Review: It may be a cliche, but yes, this book has something for everyone. Rather than a tired old bestseller about one woman's struggle with weight gain (groan) or dealing with one's quirky New England (or Provence) neighbors, this plucky little debut novel offers more...much more.The Germanic penchant for precision, discipline and the scientific method, blessing or curse? This story has an opinion. The "infinite monkeys" problem...if a single-minded community worked tirelessly for a century with only Victorian technology, could they produce altered life-forms? This book says probably...but there would be important differences, wouldn't there? The "monster dogs" are thought by some readers to be metaphors, but maybe they reflect our anxieties and preparation for someday living among genetically engineered animals (and people). In a world full of transgenic organisms, talking dogs who walk upright and wear silk and velvet are not so far-fetched. Would dogs manipulated into human intelligence behave just like humans? Why not? The pace of the book is quickened by multiple viewpoints, flashbacks and foreshadowing. The "mad scientist" diary entries are counterbalanced with the libretto of an opera written by the monster dogs, chronicling their liberation from the mad scientist's doomed enclave. Similar to other classic science fiction from the 50's, this work will probably be more well-known in 50 years than it is now. Do yourself a favor and get in on the ground floor.
Rating:
Summary: Ruff!
Review: Lives of The Monster Dogs, is an interesting premise, and for the most part effective. The overwhelming and most effective feeling Bakis conveys is one of sadness. Sadness because a mad genius has bred a race of dogs with prosthetic limbs, mechanized voice boxes and a higher intelligence (for dogs) and the dogs are fiercely unhappy, for, they are more or less machines in an otherwise organic body, a body that is rapidly deteriorating and they know it. One of the places the story fails to hold me is within the dialogue. It isn't bad, but it isn't good either. And the further I read the less interesting the story is. The climax I just sort of skim. The sense of action is too minimal to keep me interested. Plus, Bakis isn't very successful in the complete personification of the dogs . After awhile I just can't take the story to heart. A good effort, but not a real memorable one.
Rating: 
Summary: Stuck with me after several years.
Review: I read this book on a recommendation around 3 years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I make no pretense that I am of book critic calibur, but I will say that I woke up this morning thinking deeply about the book. Impressed that it could affect me for so long, I decided to buy it as a birthday gift for a friend. Not the most brilliantly crafted prose, but sometimes you WANT to take a wild ride in a Jeep through the deep woods and high mountains. If you're looking for the tonic experience of a Cadillac, look elsewhere.
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