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War Dogs #1-3
The War Dogs Trilogy
Collected in a single volume for the first time, the epic War Dogs trilogy of interstellar war from a master of science fiction.
The Gurus made their presence on Earth known thirteen years ago. Providing technology and scientific insights far beyond what mankind was capable of, they became indispensable advisors and promised even more gifts that we just couldn't pass up.
But they were followed by mortal enemies -- the Antagonists -- from sun to sun, planet to planet, and now the Gurus are stretched thin -- and they need humanity's help.
Our first bill has come due.
Skyrines like Michael Venn have been volunteered to pay the price. They face insidious enemies who were already inside the solar system, establishing a beachhead on Mars.
Venn and his comrades will be lucky to make it out alive -- let alone preserve the future of all of mankind.
The War Dogs Trilogy
War Dogs
Killing Titan
Take Back the Sky
The Gurus made their presence on Earth known thirteen years ago. Providing technology and scientific insights far beyond what mankind was capable of, they became indispensable advisors and promised even more gifts that we just couldn't pass up.
But they were followed by mortal enemies -- the Antagonists -- from sun to sun, planet to planet, and now the Gurus are stretched thin -- and they need humanity's help.
Our first bill has come due.
Skyrines like Michael Venn have been volunteered to pay the price. They face insidious enemies who were already inside the solar system, establishing a beachhead on Mars.
Venn and his comrades will be lucky to make it out alive -- let alone preserve the future of all of mankind.
The War Dogs Trilogy
War Dogs
Killing Titan
Take Back the Sky
- GenresScience Fiction
960 pages, Paperback
Published September 12, 2017
About the author
Greg Bear
231 books2,135 followersGreg Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict (Forge of God books), parallel universes (The Way series), consciousness and cultural practices (Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (Blood Music, Darwin’s Radio, and Darwin’s Children). His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 23, 2018
Not my favorite. I may have too much going on right now to really appreciate this book. The plot has a lot of twists and turns, but it left too much unexplained and it really did not make sense to me. Worth reading if you don't have much else on your list.
May 21, 2019
Not up to Bear's hard SF writing. Felt a little juvenile like it was written more for a game or TV series.
(re: Heinlein's Starship Troopers) I still have faith in him not giving in to the trend and am waiting faithfully for The Unfinished Land (2020 and not SF).
(re: Heinlein's Starship Troopers) I still have faith in him not giving in to the trend and am waiting faithfully for The Unfinished Land (2020 and not SF).
July 20, 2026
Rec. by: The Bookloft in Enterprise, Oregon; previous work; Providence
Rec. for: Grunts, dupes and reluctant rōnin
I called the proprietor of The Bookloft "evil" to her face, during my visit to that establishment in June 2026. It's okay, though—she understood. I found so many good books there, ones that wanted to come home with me, and that doesn't happen very often anymore.
If you are ever in eastern Oregon, and if you like books at all (or art, or Western memorabilia), then this shop in the small town of Enterprise, Oregon, will amply reward your time. (And, to be clear, this is an entirely unsolicited endorsement.)
*
The first book I read from my Bookloft haul was this omnibus edition of Greg Bear's The War Dogs Trilogy, and while "MilSF" is certainly not my favorite genre, this trilogy... isn't that anyway, really—despite appearances, and despite Bear's dedications to military members of his family. To be sure, these books do start tightly focused on Earth's soldiers in space combat, but Bear significantly expands their scope later on. Some readers seem to have reacted badly to this bait-and-switch, but I thought the series as a whole was amazing.
One quick note: pagination is continuous in this edition—it doesn't start over with each novel.
*
War Dogs
Michael Venn—Vinnie, to his comrades—is a grunt, a foot soldier, a space marine (they call 'em "Skyrines"). He goes where he's sent and points his weapons at the targets he's told to, without asking a lot of questions (out loud, anyway). Mostly, that means combat on the Red—on Mars, that is—against the Antagonists, birdlike aliens who want the Solar System for themselves.
Fortunately, humanity has help... the Gurus, mysterious and benevolent beings who revealed their presence on Earth shortly before the Antags came to our neighborhood. The Gurus arrived bearing gifts—sorely needed technologies, and even more vital techniques for getting along, that have helped humans unite and hold their own against the Ants.
As we first meet Vinnie, he's just returned to Earth from another tour on the Red. He's heading toward Seattle (Bear's own stomping grounds), to a Pike Place Market that my own experience tells me isn't much different from our own:
What we fight for.
And what we fight against...
As you may be able to tell, I was already finding the War Dogs trilogy to be gripping. And quotable.
But then... well, Bear introduces the Muskies, as a generic term for the leftover human colonists on Mars that must have seemed plausible at the time... although, as this graffiti I saw on the southern Oregon coast just a few years later confirms, "Elon Musk cannot run a sustainable Mars colony."
Bear uses the acronym SNKRAZ several times before defining it, on p.132... .
*
Killing Titan
The second installment in The War Dogs Trilogy starts without fanfare, or indeed much recapitulation... keep up, soldier!
Vinnie does get sent past the Red this time, to Saturn's most unusual moon, further expanding the physical scope of Bear's story.
And although it is the longest section, I found very little to say about or quote from it. This is not a complaint, but Killing Titan is the bleakest part of the trilogy—despite ending with this warning:
*
Take Back the Sky
I found rather more to quote in this final volume, in which Bear expands his work's perspective even more, in time as well as space, and from which we learn a lot more about Vinnie, boy and man...
And this may be the author's own point of view, coming through very near the end...
*
I last read something by Greg Bear in 2021. He died in 2022, at the age of 71. I'm sorry I never got a chance to meet him (he lived just up the road, really... Portland's not that far from Seattle), but I'm very glad I got a chance to read The War Dogs Trilogy.
Rec. for: Grunts, dupes and reluctant rōnin
I called the proprietor of The Bookloft "evil" to her face, during my visit to that establishment in June 2026. It's okay, though—she understood. I found so many good books there, ones that wanted to come home with me, and that doesn't happen very often anymore.
If you are ever in eastern Oregon, and if you like books at all (or art, or Western memorabilia), then this shop in the small town of Enterprise, Oregon, will amply reward your time. (And, to be clear, this is an entirely unsolicited endorsement.)
*
The first book I read from my Bookloft haul was this omnibus edition of Greg Bear's The War Dogs Trilogy, and while "MilSF" is certainly not my favorite genre, this trilogy... isn't that anyway, really—despite appearances, and despite Bear's dedications to military members of his family. To be sure, these books do start tightly focused on Earth's soldiers in space combat, but Bear significantly expands their scope later on. Some readers seem to have reacted badly to this bait-and-switch, but I thought the series as a whole was amazing.
One quick note: pagination is continuous in this edition—it doesn't start over with each novel.
*
War Dogs
Michael Venn—Vinnie, to his comrades—is a grunt, a foot soldier, a space marine (they call 'em "Skyrines"). He goes where he's sent and points his weapons at the targets he's told to, without asking a lot of questions (out loud, anyway). Mostly, that means combat on the Red—on Mars, that is—against the Antagonists, birdlike aliens who want the Solar System for themselves.
Fortunately, humanity has help... the Gurus, mysterious and benevolent beings who revealed their presence on Earth shortly before the Antags came to our neighborhood. The Gurus arrived bearing gifts—sorely needed technologies, and even more vital techniques for getting along, that have helped humans unite and hold their own against the Ants.
As we first meet Vinnie, he's just returned to Earth from another tour on the Red. He's heading toward Seattle (Bear's own stomping grounds), to a Pike Place Market that my own experience tells me isn't much different from our own:
A little girl in a pink frock sits astride the pig, grinning and slapping its polished flank. What we fight for.
—p.7
A nice Laotian lady and her sons and daughter sell fruit and veggies and flowers. Their booth is a cascade of big and little peppers and hot and sweet peppers and green and red peppers, Walla Walla sweets and good strong brown and fresh green onions, red and gold and blue and russet potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes, pole beans green and yellow and purple and speckled, beets baby and adult, turnips open boxed in bulk and attached to sprays of crisp green leaf. Around the corner of the booth I see every kind of mushroom but the screwy kind. All that roughage dazzles. I'm accustomed to browns and pinks, dark blue, star-powdered black.
—p.8
What we fight for.
And what we fight against...
Physics is what kills you, but biology is what wants you dead.
—p.16
The stars are waiting for me to fuck up.
—p.27
As you may be able to tell, I was already finding the War Dogs trilogy to be gripping. And quotable.
But then... well, Bear introduces the Muskies, as a generic term for the leftover human colonists on Mars that must have seemed plausible at the time... although, as this graffiti I saw on the southern Oregon coast just a few years later confirms, "Elon Musk cannot run a sustainable Mars colony."
Bear uses the acronym SNKRAZ several times before defining it, on p.132... .
*
Killing Titan
The second installment in The War Dogs Trilogy starts without fanfare, or indeed much recapitulation... keep up, soldier!
Vinnie does get sent past the Red this time, to Saturn's most unusual moon, further expanding the physical scope of Bear's story.
And although it is the longest section, I found very little to say about or quote from it. This is not a complaint, but Killing Titan is the bleakest part of the trilogy—despite ending with this warning:
The next part is going to be very, very hard.
—p.626
*
Take Back the Sky
I found rather more to quote in this final volume, in which Bear expands his work's perspective even more, in time as well as space, and from which we learn a lot more about Vinnie, boy and man...
My grandmother was a fine Army wife and very smart. One of the things she taught me is that God can do anything except change a man's mind.
—p.637
I'd gladly ash-can my brain, or at least my imagination, just to be a dumb grunt again.
—p.757
I'm not a naturally cheerful and optimistic fellow. Had that beat out of me a long time ago, either at home or on the playground.Now that hit hard... I know from experience that playgrounds can be harsh places.
—p.774
We could say we were manipulated. Only true in part. We lie to ourselves like cocks in a pit. We bloody enjoy death and destruction. Sex is obscene. War is holy. We'll have only ourselves to blame when it's all over, humans and Antags, that we could be such fucking dupes.
—p.902
And this may be the author's own point of view, coming through very near the end...
Silly ideas keep me going.
—p.911
*
I last read something by Greg Bear in 2021. He died in 2022, at the age of 71. I'm sorry I never got a chance to meet him (he lived just up the road, really... Portland's not that far from Seattle), but I'm very glad I got a chance to read The War Dogs Trilogy.
March 23, 2019
Don't think it's worth enumerating the ways I hated this book. No more Greg Bear for me.
May 28, 2019
Liked most Bear books but this one I had to wade through. I finished it but why - it left lots open and ended like he ran out of plot and time.
July 17, 2019
The first two books rate 4 stars, but the third...
January 4, 2024
Liked the first third, tolerated the second, slogged thru the third
I liked the first book quite a bit, both the action and mystery worked. The second tried to build on the second but started changing the characters and by the time I got to the third book it was unrecognizable to me. The secret has been revealed and outside of where they are there is no mystery or suspense left.
I liked the first book quite a bit, both the action and mystery worked. The second tried to build on the second but started changing the characters and by the time I got to the third book it was unrecognizable to me. The secret has been revealed and outside of where they are there is no mystery or suspense left.
December 21, 2017
Hard core epic battle science fiction that gets weird and trippy towards the end.
July 22, 2019
Great characters, good storyline just a little long winded at the end.
June 6, 2020
I am disappointed in the conclusion. After reading three books, a more epic finish was required.
October 27, 2023
Too predictable and unnecessarily long
September 6, 2026
A Long Way Home
An emotional roller coaster in the best possible way. Mind expanding and very satisfying. Writer as though it actually happened.
An emotional roller coaster in the best possible way. Mind expanding and very satisfying. Writer as though it actually happened.
March 17, 2021
This was a very difficult read. I was assured it was fantastic sci-fi and a must read but 700+ pages only to find out that it was all just leading to a [Spoiler Alert] season 2 episode 16 rip off of the original Star Trek. That was a tad disappointing.
It just dragged.
The last book of the trilogy - ie the final 200 pages - did finally turn interesting, which oddly is the poorest of GR ratings, but even still, the ending seemed so terribly rushed considering the pace of the previous 500 pages. Almost like the author himself just wanted to mercifully end it after blessedly finding an escape route by ripping off Mr Roddenberry.
It just dragged.
The last book of the trilogy - ie the final 200 pages - did finally turn interesting, which oddly is the poorest of GR ratings, but even still, the ending seemed so terribly rushed considering the pace of the previous 500 pages. Almost like the author himself just wanted to mercifully end it after blessedly finding an escape route by ripping off Mr Roddenberry.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews