Reviews

Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

twotonteddy88's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

empoi's review against another edition

4.0

An improvement on Dogs of War, while still simplifying "hacking" to something more action-filled. That always gets me cringing.

At the end we get this moral dilemma where one of the protagonists gets the opportunity to grab dictatorial power for themselves. The way Honey has been written so far makes me think she wouldn't think about abusing that power. Struck me as going against the charater while maybe I can see you arguing that being a "distributive intelligence" changes you? 

sophietica's review against another edition

5.0

The main antagonist is eerily reminiscent of a current political figure, and that makes the entire premise of the book feel entirely believable, and very scary.

poiv8's review

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

nina_bloodsworn's review

informative medium-paced

3.0

joshyoung130's review against another edition

5.0

What I thought would be a story about genetically modified animals colonizing Mars ended up being an even better story about human rights and fascism. I'd strongly recommend both this book and Dogs of War to anyone who wants to read a sci-fi thriller with really interesting ideas and themes.

crasherbelmont's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This is a thrilling and important book.

Carrying on from Dogs of War, this book dives into themes of populism, sociopathy, human rights and the darker side of technological innovation. 

From almost the first page I was enthralled by the story, Mars being Terraformed, bioform rights being curtailed and sentient AI being otherised and hunted down - it's incredible to say that the way Tchaikovsky tells this story makes all these futuristic concepts feel so familiar to modern life and so terrifying.

As a fan of the first book it was great to see more from Honey's perspective and to explore how Bees has grown and changed since being a part of Rex's squad.

I can't recommend this book highly enough especially if you are interested in exploring the rise of populism and the threat technology could pose to our individual rights through a wonderfully original dystopian lens.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, and Violence

roots2080's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

johhnnyinla's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

annakak's review against another edition

4.0

Donald Trump's Martian takeover is thwarted by bears.