Rating: 
Summary: An intriguing premise leads to disappointment
Review: I bought this book after I heard it described on NPR; I thought any first novel with a title that good was worth a look. Unfortunately, the execution fails to live up to the premise. The writing is often thin, as in the frequent fictional excerpts from newspapers and magazine or journal entries in which the author's tentative voice never adapts to the tone of the purported source. The plot, which proceeds briskly, never really goes anywhere -- there are hints of sinister secrets that are simply left hanging, foreshadowing of malevolent intentions that either never surface or are frustrated too easily. The novel ends up feeling like a story that gets by on an eye-catching premise and nothing more.As a footnote, the premise never really adds up anyway. Why would anyone think that walking, talking, intelligent dogs would be the perfect super-soldier? Why not robots? Or gorillas? Or chimpanzees? Or, or, or... robots?
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.
Rating: 
Summary: I NEED a sequel ;)
Review: I'm a huge dog lover and found this story of walking, talking, intelligent dogs very interesting. There is a sad undertone to the whole story and an underlying thread of darkness , cruelty and the grotesque (the cow, the cow!). Very original and imaginative. The only small complaint I have, and it is because of the way the story is being told (in journal entries and by several different points of view) I'm unable to become connected to any one character or know any of them on an intimate level. My only complaint? I do wish it hadn't ended with so many questions left unanswered.
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: A Diamond in the Ruff
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: 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: 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: 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.
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