Wardog was a fun read which starts with a straightforward premise of an Earth a generation post-alien invasion and the struggles of those that are left enslaved by the alien conquers, the Mek.

The book was an enjoyable and surprisingly quick read, the story moves at a quick pace and has enough tension to keep you engaged. It has some clever ideas and while it does have plenty of world-building and a reasonable amount of character development, it also leaves enough space and scope which clearly setups a possibly grander continuation of the story.

Overall it was fun and invested me in the world and characters and I look forward to what might come next.

Gundog is a fun adventure story that will appeal to fans of sci-fi featuring giant mecha and robots.
The parallels to properties such as Neon Genesis and Pacific Rim are apparent right from the prologue but the dystopian future ‘road movie’ setting also reminded me of Gary Whitta’s film The Book Of Eli and the novel Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargil.
As with many authors who have come from the screen writing world, Whitta’s prose is very cinematic and easy to visualise.
I only found out this had previously been released as an audio drama after finishing the book and while I’m curious to listen, I’m glad I read it first so I could have an unbiased take on the characters.

3.5 stars

Gundog is a fun sci-fi romp that starts off with a pretty standard premise-an alien race, in this case the Mek, comes to Earth, conquers and enslaves humanity--but twists it in an interesting way (although the twist reveal was a little underwhelming due to lack of buildup). The main character is Dakota AKA Dak, a young girl trapped in a Mek work camp who had survived on her own with her brother Sam for a long time before being captured. It's in this camp that Dak is presented with an opportunity for adventure, and maybe revenge and freedom.

The book reads pretty quickly, which is especially good for the early portions of the book, which could've gotten bogged down in back story. The characters other than Dak are a little under-developed, but it's clearly set up for a sequel, so likely some of their backstories and personalities will get filled out. Whitta's writing is solid and to the point, painting the picture without belaboring anything.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Gundog and would recommend it to any sci-fi fans. I'll be keeping an eye out for book #2 in the series!

Interesting premise, but the beginning part was dull and I got tired of plowing on. It might be a good idea to compress the planning for the escape and explain more about the Mek. I thought the part where the story teller in the camp tells a story about DDay and the main character doesn’t believe it’s true!

I had no expectations going into this great read. The description really made me want to check it out and I was very pleasantly surprised. This was a very easy to read book, full of great characters that you can relate to, and was action packed throughout. I would recommend this book to anyone that is into sci-fi, especially those that enjoy great world building and dystopian themes.

Dystopian world? Check. Post-alien invasion hellscape? Check. Giant mechs vs evil robot aliens? Check and check.

So why didn't it work out for me? The whole premise sounds interesting, if not overly tropey. I feel like it's miscategorized and should be under YA sci-fi due to its tone of voice. It's also technically a novel, but it felt more like a novella to me. The supporting characters didn't feel fully developed. While we get to know Dakota, her motives, her feelings, etc., her relationships with her brother, Sam, the newcomer, Falk, and Runyon, the township kid who clearly has a crush on her, were underdeveloped. We barely get to know Sam before he becomes a background character. And while I was rooting for Dakota/Falk, Falk also suffers the same background character fate. Dakota, the MC, is the only one who's fully fleshed out.

The fact that two kids can learn how to operate a machine that's supposed to take months of practice screams YA. Which isn't a bad thing, if only this novel was categorized properly. Because suspension of disbelief and all that.

The penultimate moment in the story and the ending felt very deus ex machina. Even when things went wrong, everything turned out well. The novel tells you that the stakes are high, but it felt very artificial. Like it was hard for me to wrap my head around it because nothing went badly enough for the MC. Everything went by in a breeze. There would be a problem, and then it'd get fixed in a scene or two. That's pretty much how everything unfolded.

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed tbh.

Thank you to Inkshares and NetGalley for this arc.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.

I truly enjoyed Rogue One. Of all the Star Wars films that have come out over the years, it has been my favorite. Seeing this book pop up and knowing Gary wrote the screenplay / story outline, I wanted to see how good his writing skills were.

Gundog while not perfect or bad is a GREAT launch into what could be a really good film series. The story takes place in the future where a race of aliens come and basically take over the planet. They changed the information accessible to future generations as if mankind rebelled and or pushed them into the state they were in. When in actuality, the aliens came and just decreed world domination from the get-go.

Our main character is a twenty year old girl who is born to a mother who is a general in a group of resistance soldiers who create a gundam / pacific rim type robot (just not that tall) to fight the aliens. Her mother dies, leaving her in the care of her older brother. Her older brother and her are on the run for a while and eventually get caught and take them to a compound where they work as slaves to the aliens.

The strengths of the story is that I liked the main character, the world, the plot, and I liked the characters. I just felt that the story was almost too thin. You never see the aliens. You never really get any chapters besides them conversing through a computer to one another when she escapes. I also felt that there needed to be more character development when it came to the two men that are both championing for her heart. One was the son of a general who used to work with her mom, the other was someone who looked up to her / crushed on her while in the compound. While both are really interesting drafts as characters, there needed to be a bit more depth.

And that comes down to the only fault of this book. The book ends where there is supposed to be a sequel (that's what I took it as) and if there will be a sequel, there needs to be more depth, more agency to the villains and better grasp on the love story.

I really liked it though and I think there is great potential for this to be a film. With some more work, it'll be a fun sci-fi movie with a great female protag with two cute guys who can kick ass.

3.5 rounding down.

This reads a lot like someone pitching a sci-fi/action movie. In its book format, I could have used much more world building and time to get to know the characters (some of the moments that were set up to be emotional just were not). However, I very much enjoyed the Mek chatter interludes (especially Rosie v Mek at the Hanger!) and I can't fathom how I'd get the same enjoyment in movie format.

Gundog is fast paced, sure to be a good read for sci-fi fans, and sets itself up well for a sequel. I had my qualms with this one, but I will definitely be reading what comes next..

this had what I was hoping for when reading the description, it worked well in the scifi genre. The plot was what I expected and really enjoyed the created world and the characters going on. It had a great writing style and I was hooked from the first page. I enjoyed the way Gary Whitta wrote this and look forward to more.

"Dakota almost screamed. She checked his neck for a pulse, then exhaled with relief when she felt one. It was weak and erratic, but there. He’d passed out from shock or from blood loss, or some combination of both. But he wasn’t dead. Yet. That was when she saw the first Mek searchlight. Then another. And though she was distraught beyond anything she’d ever felt, she somehow found the presence of mind to do the last thing she knew she had to before she left him."