‘Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky:' A Book Review
Another month, another book by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This time, returning to his irregular but excellent Dogs of War series. Each book nominally stands on its own. Indeed, I read book 2, Bear Head , before reading book 1, Dogs of War, with little detriment. Having said that, to fully understand the world Tchaikovsky has created, I would recommend reading at least Dogs of War before commencing Bee Speaker.
If you haven't read the Dogs of War trilogy, I wholeheartedly recommend that you do. They remain my favorite of Tchaikovsky's books, and some of the best science fiction I have read.
The main premise of the Dogs of War universe is that humans have invented bioengineering and used it to create 'Bioforms.' Engineered dogs, bears, and even snakes and reptiles, to be used in the theatre of battle. Both Bear Head and Dogs of War explore the ethics of using non-human sentient creatures to do one's dirty work. Both books are utterly compelling and hooked me from the very first page.
Another key component of the books is distributed intelligence systems. Essentially, in the series, hive minds were distributed across Earth and later, Mars. Bees are one such system, and they play a pivotal role in Dogs of War. Unsurprisingly, they take center stage in Bee Speaker.
Bee Speaker takes place some time after the previous two books. Civilization has collapsed on Earth, leaving them with some pre-collapse technology, but few ways of recreating it. Mars, meanwhile, is beginning to thrive. The citizens of Mars receive a distress signal from Earth – from bees – and decide they need to investigate.
The novel opens with that investigation underway. The Martian explorers have arrived on Earth, and things are about to go very, very wrong.
Tchaikovsky delivers again. If a little more slowly. Unlike the other two novels, it took me a while to work my way into Bee Speaker, and I can't quite put my finger on why. It might be because there are several different competing factions (Earth's citizens, as depicted here, have a feel of the Fallout factions to them). The story contains humans and bioforms from both Earth and Mars, and I initially struggled to identify fully with any of them.
I think there was some deliberate vagueness for plot reasons, too and I could only appreciate this once I was deeply immersed in the book. And deeply immersed I became! Bee Speaker is a sparkling construct that examines the power and limitations of distributed intelligence (and therefore, by extension, in a more real-world context, AI).
Once again, (as he did with Alien Clay as well as the other Dogs of War novels), Tchaikovsky makes us rethink how we see ourselves. Makes us consider the nature of life and the definition of sentience. There is also, as there often is in his novels, a subtle examination of power structures and, in this case, the absurdity of doomsday-prepared billionaires.
After reading Bee Speaker , I am happy to maintain that the Dogs of War series are my favorite of Tchaikovsky's books (though his output is so large, I have barely scratched the surface). If you haven't read them, I thoroughly recommend you do. I've yet to encounter anybody who doesn't like them.
Will there be more? Who knows? Each story mostly drives down its own cul-de-sac, yet Adrain Tchaikovsky keeps revealing pathways to new roads. May the exploration long continue.
If you would like to pick up a copy of Bee Speaker, you can do so here in the US and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
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