Lives of the Monster Dogs

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A postmodern Mary Shelley, taking the parable of Frankenstein's monster several giant steps farther, might have written this fable of a novel about a tragic race of monster dogs--in this case, genetically and biomechanically engineered dogs (of several major breeds). Created by a German mad scientist in the 19th century, the monster dogs possess human intelligence, speak human language, have prosthetic humanlike hands and walk upright on hind legs. The dogs' descendants arrive in New York City in the year 2008, still acting like Victorian-era aristocrats. Most important, the monster dogs suffer humanlike frailties and, ultimately, real suffering more serious and affecting than the subject matter might at first glance suggest.


From Publishers Weekly
Cosmopolitan Manhattan of 2008 embraces a new breed of immigrant in this weird, fanciful tale of surgically enhanced, talking, bionic canines out on the town as they search for their history and place in the world. Conceived by 19th-century Prussian mad scientist Augustus Rank as an army of superior, fiercely loyal dog soldiers, the monster Pinschers, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Dobermans and other sturdy breeds became fully empowered only many years after his death. Rank's followers, secluded in a remote Canadian village, continued his work, ultimately developing a race of super-intelligent, longer-living dogs trained from birth to use surgically attached mechanical hands, speak fluent German via a mechanical voice box, walk erect and dress in the elegant human fashions of the 1880s. NYU student Cleo Pira develops friendships with a few of the dogs in New York and becomes their liaison to the human press, writing insider articles for Vanity Fair and other chic magazines. Cleo narrates the novel, incorporating excerpts from the papers of Ludwig Von Sacher, the dogs' historian. First-novelist Bakis holds the reader in thrall for much of her imaginative tale, but, disappointingly, the dogs never emerge as strong characters. Though the reader gains some understanding of Ludwig through his writing, Cleo's conversations with the dogs are uniformly abrupt and anti-climactic. Instead, Bakis offers more of a dream vision that, ultimately, might be all in Cleo's head. Fortunately, that vision is engaging in its own right and, through Bakis's storytelling skill, makes for an audacious, intriguing and ultimately haunting debut. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A clever, compelling Frankenstein story for the millennium, Bakis's first novel draws the reader into an improbable near-future phenomenon and makes it beguilingly real. In 1897 German scientist Augustus Rank flees with his followers to a remote Canadian location, where they labor in secret toward Rank's dream of engineering an advanced race of soldier dogs. A century later, the dogs are perfected?natural but hyperintelligent canines fitted with voice-boxes and prosthetic hands, trained in human pursuits and standing erect. They revolt, destroy their makers, and, dressed in 19th-century formal wear, find their way to 21st-century New York City. This book is the story of New York's experience of these now-peaceful marvels, of their history and misleading glamor, and, particularly, of the relationship between human narrator Cleo Pira and the wise and troubled canine historian, Ludwig von Sacher. This classic monster story, tragic and philosophical, is simply marvelous. A poised and accomplished debut; highly recommended.?Janet Ingraham, Worthington P.L., OhioCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, M.G. Lord
I look at dogs differently these days. Where once I saw slavering lumps of fur, I now see intelligence, grace, the hint of a personality. I owe this transformation to Lives of the Monster Dogs, a bizarre, haunting, fiercely original first novel. . . . Ms. Bakis has built her fantastical edifice on emotional bedrock. At its core, Lives of the Monster Dogs is about love and death and loss--themes so strong that they transcend even the boundaries of species.... Writing the lives of "monsters," Ms. Bakis has produced a dazzling, unforgettable meditation on what it means to be human.


From AudioFile
As presented here, this first novel has a split personality. Owing much to Huxley's Brave New World and Wells's Island Of Dr. Moreau, it tells of dogs made humanoid by a mad scientist who make quite an impression when they first appear in civilization. The narrative ping-pongs between two first-person eyewitnesses, a male monster dog and a female human. Mary Jo Smith's human has no personality to speak of. She warms up after the first half-hour, growing more interesting, if not more adept. In her amateurish mouth the tale sounds silly. George Delhoyo's melancholy dog growls in deadpan, low tones that suggest a sly wit in the writing. So whether you smile knowingly with the author or snicker at her depends upon which reader has the mike. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
In Bakis' first novel, the "monster dogs" of the title have intelligence, voice boxes, and human hands, thanks to mad Prussian scientists working to perfect "dog soldiers" in a secret town in Canada, frozen in the year 1882, though the story is set in 2008. The dogs massacre their masters and move to New York, where they become celebrities. The narrator, Cleo Pira, is a struggling NYU student chosen as the dogs' human scribe by Klaue ("Claw"), their paranoid, power-drunk leader. She also befriends Ludwig, the monster dogs' historian, and Lydia, a gentle Samoyed. Cleo must learn about (and from) them quickly: the dogs are reverting to animal states for increasing intervals. This parable imagines society's privileged as dogs and explores how power and wealth corrupt (they corrupt Cleo, too) and how traditions and values fade. Journals, dreams, letters, and even a libretto vary the tale telling, though the writing suffers from occasional heavy-handedness and foreshadowing that leaves few surprises. Still, this book will delight those seeking fantasy and intrigue. Kevin Grandfield


From Kirkus Reviews
New York is colonized by giant talking canines in newcomer Bakis's wry variation on the traditional shaggy dog story. Imagination is the key here. We need to understand that at the end of the 19th century a crazed German biologist named Augustus Rank performed a succession of medical experiments that resulted in a weird genetic mutation of his subjects and created a race of ``monster dogs''--giant rottweilers and Dobermans who can speak and walk on their hind legs. After living for more than a hundred years in the seclusion of a remote Canadian settlement called Rankstadt, they are forced to move in the year 2008 to New York (where 150 of them take up residence at the Plaza Hotel) when Rankstadt is destroyed. In their 19th-century garb--Prussian military uniforms for the ``men,'' bustles for the ``women''--they cut impressive figures on the streets of Manhattan, where they quickly become celebrities and philanthropists. At Christmas they parade down Fifth Avenue in sleighs, and shortly after their arrival they construct an enormous Bavarian castle on the Lower East Side. When an NYU coed named Cleo Pira writes about them for a local newspaper, the dogs adopt her as their spokesperson and bring her into the inner life of their society. From Cleo's perspective the dogs are benign, quaint, and deeply tragic, and the more fascinated she becomes by their history--both as they relate it to her and as she discovers it for herself through Rank's own archives--the darker and more doomed their society appears. By the time Cleo has learned the secrets contained in Rank's past, it's too late to save his descendants, who have unknowingly brought about their own destruction. Serious enough, but also funny and imaginative: a vivid parable that manages to amuse even as it perplexes and intrigues. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


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As presented here, this first novel has a split personality. Owing much to Huxley's Brave New World and Wells's Island Of Dr. Moreau, it tells of dogs made humanoid by a mad scientist who make quite an impression when they first appear in civilization. The narrative ping-pongs between two first-person eyewitnesses, a male monster dog and a female human. Mary Jo Smith's human has no personality to speak of. She warms up after the first half-hour, growing more interesting, if not more adept. In her amateurish mouth the tale sounds silly. George Delhoyo's melancholy dog growls in deadpan, low tones that suggest a sly wit in the writing. So whether you smile knowingly with the author or snicker at her depends upon which reader has the mike. Y.R. cAudioFile, Portland, Maine Read all 8 "From The Critics" >


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