The Dog Said Bow-Wow

The Dog Said Bow-Wow

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91  ·  rating details  ·  144 ratings  ·  26 reviews
Science fiction and fantasy's most adept short-story author reinvents some classic themes in an engaging collection that includes three of his Hugo award-winning stories. These smart expansions of traditional themes summon dinosaurs, dragons, peril in space, myths, faeries, and time travel, each undergoing artful alchemy to create serious genre literature that is playful,...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published September 1st 2007 by Tachyon Publications
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Adam
A really fun collection by Swanwick, for the most part lighter in tone than his death haunted collection Tales of the Old Earth. These tales use tropes of science fiction, fantasy, mythology, and trickster tales but plays with them and the reader’s expectation of the story. There is great range from dark jokes, pastoral visions, to epic battles. Highlights include all the Darger and Surplus tales (three of them…I hope Swanwick makes of novel on them), who are con men in a flamboyant bioengineeri...more
John
Yet Another Great Collection of Short Stories from Michael Swanwick

One of our great masters of short fiction in any genre, Michael Swanwick demonstrates the artistic depth and range of his talent in his latest short story collection “The Dog Said Bow-Wow”. Included are three Hugo-Award winning stories, amidst a compelling collection of riveting tales about dinosaurs in Vermont (“Triceratops Summer”), a deadly game of hide and seek on inhospitable Venus (“Tin Marsh”), an ogre murdered in the magi...more
Alytha
Finished Michael Swanwick's short story collection The Dog Said Bow-Wow.

Something I find really annoying about short story collections is that it is pretty much impossible to find listings of which stories are in which collection. Not even on the author's homepage, whose bibliography is horribly out of date...if you're stuck in a country where is is almost impossible to buy English books in physical bookshops, and you can't just open the books and compare, that means you end up with having stuff...more
Wealhtheow
Absolutely fantastic short stories. Swanwick writes with a verve and imagination I have rarely seen in sf, and his fantasy is always fresh and fiesty. The only story I didn't love was "The Skysailor's Tale," which meandered.
Terry
I must first off state that I am generally not an avid lover of the short story. There are a few writers that I think really excel in the genre and whose stuff I will read without hesitation (Poe, Ashton Smith, Howard, Doyle, Leiber), but in general I am often underwhelmed by the format. Keep that in mind when I say that Swanwick’s collection _The Dog Said Bow-Wow_ was quite good, but didn’t blow me away or make me into a believer.

The various “Darger & Surplus” tales (“The Dog Said Bow-Wow”...more
Ketan Shah
A decent collection of shorts.Swanwick demonstrates his ability to write both Science Fiction and Fantasy here. There's a bit of filler but Stories like Triceratops Summer,Tin Marsh and The Bordello in Faerie stand out. If you enjoyed this you might like Swanick's Earlier story collection .You might also like the work of Ted Chang in Stories of Your Life and Others and Paolo Bacigalupi's OPump Six and Other Stories. You'd probably also enjoy most of Robert Silverberg's short stories.
Jim
I love Michael Swanwick's writing because he boils his stories down all the fascinating moving parts that make so many sci-fi books worth reading, without making you get to know characters your never going to care about. The people in his stories are usually fascinating snap shots of interesting folks in strange situations.
Fiona
Feb 01, 2009 Fiona rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: loan
A very engaging collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, by an author who I'd seen interviewed earlier in the week. On the evidence so far he talks a story with more bite and depth than he actually writes (he really gave an excellent interview), but I'm looking forward to reading the novels and seeing what he does with more space.
Elizabeth Hunter
Marvelous! This collection of short stories runs the gamut across fantasy and science fiction, from ancient legend to speculative futures, always with a clear narrative voice and masterful prose. His characters are funny and touching and intensely human. Reading more of his work goes high on my to-do list.
Casciato
Another fine collection of Swanwick's short fiction, perhaps not quite as good as his previous two. Still, he's a master of the short story and, in my mind, the heir to Philip K. Dick. So, yeah. Pretty fucking great.
Mathew Carruthers
Never read any Swanwick before - now I need to find my old copy of "Stations of the Tide" and get after it. I really enjoyed the Darger and Surplus stories - thought-provoking and amusing, as are the other stories in the book.
Kathleen
Some of these are wonderful, others left me a bit tepid; that's usually how it is, for me, with short stories. Definitely worth a reading or two.
Sara
Aug 03, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2009
Awesome time travel, awesome dinosaurs, and equally awesome faerie brothels.
Erin Hoffman
This is one of my favorite short story collections.
Jack
Fantastic SF short stories.
Mike
Feb 17, 2008 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Science fiction readers
Swanwick's one of the best science fiction writers around, and perhaps unequalled in the short story there. He is both a blast to read and a genre bomb-thrower, writing stories (like this collections "Legions in Time") which pointedly recreate some generic styles and conventions yet fully inhabit them as well. I find myself fully engrossed (what a story!) and reflexively analyzing (what kind of story?).
Charles
A collection of short stories, any one of which is better than most of Swanwick's excellent novels. The stories are accessible, and wryly humorous. Swanwick writes SF like fantasy, creating compelling character-driven stories in which the technology is incidental rather than the central focus.
Bruce
Short stories. Some achingly beautiful writing in here. Not all stories reach that level, but a lot do.

Has a couple of stories that are expansions of material from the Dragons of Babel, which play much better here than in DiB.
Ed
Dec 22, 2007 Ed rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: sf
Even though I am only halfway through it I am still going to go ahead and give it four stars. Between Swanwick, Willis and Kelly Link you would be hard pressed to find three better short story SF/Fantasy writers.
Jeremiah
A fine collection of short stories. I rather liked the ones about the rogues in a post-singularity-type world ruled by bizarre biotech.
Zsuzsanna
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Terri
"Legions In Time" is my new favorite time travel story, and time travel stories are one of my favorite things.
Rebecca Schwarz
I really enjoyed these stories. Some scifi, some fantasy, all just good, solid, entertaining little pieces.
Annie
FANTASTIC collection. I will be checking out more by Michael Swanwick for sure!
Forrest Norvell
Nobody writes short stories like Michael Swanwick. He's almost too smart.
Nick
A fun book of short stories on the sci-fi bent.
Andrew
May 12, 2013 Andrew is currently reading it
Astrid
May 09, 2013 Astrid marked it as to-read
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The Dog Said Bow-Wow (ebook)
The Dog Said Bow-Wow (Kindle Edition)
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