The Plague Dogs: A Novel Paperback – November 28, 2006

I was amazed to come to this page and see all the glowing reviews. This was one of the most frustrating and unpleasant books I've ever read...stress on the unpleasant. It is hard to believe that a master writer such as Adams could have turned out such a mess.The basic story is interesting. Two dogs escape from a medical research facility, and must struggle to survive. While they do, escalating issues iwth publicity and misunderstandings cause them to be hunted with a fervor that probably wouldn't have happened if they were just two dogs on the loose. That is interesting. The ending is kind of gripping, save that narrative choices the writer makes dilutes any suspense, and the deus ex machina ending is so overtly out of left field that the author pretty much warns you it is going to be. But there's an interesting story in there, hence the two stars.So what's wrong with it?Well, first, just in terms of the dog story, one of the two dog characters has been put through experimental surgery that makes him incapable of distinguishing reality from illusion, so all his dialogue is punctuated by incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness stuff, referring to random things in his head.. It makes for very hard reading. There's a sequence near the end where his delusions actually get interesting, and impact the plot in a meaningful way, but for most of the book you're just fighting to understand what he's saying. It gets really exhausting.Second, the descriptions of animal cruelty are not only stomach turning, but go on way past the point of serving any narrative purpose. Even for someone used to reading dark books, this book get very, *very* hard to read. Picture every abuse you have ever read about animals suffering, for any experimental cause, from rabbits having cosmetics dripped in their eyes to see how long it takes them to go blind, to the famous psychological experiement whereby a monkey is put in a little metal cylinder where it can't move , and left in utter isolation and sensory deprivation for 42 days. It's all taking place in one facility, at the same time, and every experiment is described in excruciating detail, plus some additional ones of such over-the-top cruelty it exceeds even those reports. In the beginning it make sense, as you are being shown how awful the place is that the dogs are escaping from, but the author returns to it over and over again, subjecting the reader to stomach turning descriptions of new and terrible tortures long after the point has been made. For instance, at one point the POV switches to someone in the lab, who is going to have a conversation that is important to the plot...but first we have to witness him fastening rabbits into boxes with only their heads sticking out, so that they are pinned in place while acid slowly eats away their eyes. Only once the reader understands that there is a whole wall with the heads of tortured rabbits sticking out in neat rows while their eyes dissolve, and has it described in detail, can we go on with the plot. And of course the callousness of the staff is way over the top, except for one character, into the realm of utterly inhuman sadism. Perhaps not a surprise since it turns out one of the people in charge worked for the Nazis...cause it's not enough just to have bad people in this book, they have to be the most sadistic people ever to walk the earth!Then there is the writing style. Oh my God, what was Adams thinking? The descriptions are beautifully written, but they go on and on and on and on and on. Sometimes twenty pages of landscape description while you are waiting for the plot to resume. And the landscape isn't anything interesting. It's apparently a real place in Britain, so he's describing real ridges and trees and gullies and an abandoned mine, and you even get pictures of ridges and trees and gullies, in case the verbal descriptions weren't enough. Except for the mine opening (of which there are no pictures) it's an utterly mundane "place with a lot of trees and hills", and you just don't care about any of it. I dare anyone, even the five star reviewers, to tell me they didn't start skimming.The dog plot is interrupted by very long sequences describing the politics surrounding the research facility, which sounds like it might be interesting, and maybe if it had been edited down to key points it could have been, but it's really tedious. In his attempt to make a political point, Adams lost sight of the story that was actually driving the narrative, and just had characters describe political arguments.Every time a new character appears, there is a long, and generally dry, description of his background. The worst offender is the deus ex machina character. When he appears, the narrative takes a hiatus and a three-page resume of his awards and experiences is listed. In resume form! This is in the only truly gripping part of the novel, the last desperate fight of the dogs to find a safe haven in a world that has turned against them. Of course prior to that the author takes a 20 page break from the plot completely, to have two characters describe philosophies of animal consciousness, so it's fair to say we're no longer on the edge of our seats, though you do want to know what happens to the dogs.Towards the end the style just gets crazy. At one point when the dogs are about to die the narrative stops dead and a script format takes its place, with the Author and Reader arguing about the ending. Basically, the Reader wants the dogs saved, but the Author says sorry, there's no reasonable way they could be saved, that's not the ending of the book. The Reader says pllllllleeeeeeease (I'm paraphrasing) and the Author agrees to create a character just to save them. Seriously? This is all in dense, obtuse poetic form. Only after all that--and the philosophizing, and the new guy's resume--do we get the end of the story.Oh, and in the middle of all that the * characters* start talking about whether Richard Adams does or doesn't really know how rabbits.behave. Seriously.Bottom line..there's a decent story in here, but it's buried in so much self-indulgent writing that it's hard to find. No new writer would ever have been able to publish a book like this. Read Watership Down for sure, it's a brilliant novel and a classic one, but avoid this one unless you feel a need for self-flagellation. Or you enjoy skimming. Or you like reading about animals being tortured by ex-Nazis.

Like a lot of you readers, I check out reviews before I commit to reading novels. A Couple of the reviews here said it was difficult to understand 'the Tod' when he spoke in his Tyneside-Geordie dialect. Couldn't be further from the truth. Adams supplies a glossary in the front of the book... the dialect is in context of the story and if you read it to yourself it is always understandable and actually makes the book a lot of fun. You'll be a reet mazer hinny, by the end of the book. Adams' description of the Lakeland makes me want to go there and FEEL like I have been. He draws you into the main characters and by the end You'll love and feel Rowf and Snitter like we did Bigwig and Fiver. In fact, those two characters will strongly come to mind if you are a watership fan. Bigwig and Fiver against the elil, which in this case is nigh the entire world. The stream of consciousness that Snitter brings to the book is some pieces of the best literature I have ever read. Poetry crashing into cold, merciless prose with a touch of tourette's. Good stuff. Fiver on steroids. Rowf is solid, prosaic and reliable. Their devotion to each other is very realistic if you are a dog person. Many other's have posted good plot synopsis' so I'll leave it there. This was a great read. My only gripe is it could have had a little more meat in the denouement and perhaps a longer epilogue. Buy it. Read it.Out

I barely made it to the end of this book, and after finishing didn't feel rewarded for sticking all the way through it. I liked Snitter and Rowf enough to WONDER whether they might make it through alive or not, but never actually CARED. This was due to the style of writing in the book. Be warned that this book is not at all in the style of Watership Down. There is little action and too much characterization (at least of the humans - the dogs are done well) is displayed by the writer out in the open, in long and plodding pages of biographical history and personality description rather than letting the characters act from the get-go. Even so I didn't feel that the human characters acted entirely in a realistic manner, and two (!) of them are transformed by a change of heart from practically evil to practically pure - think puppies and rainbows type changes! (Even one of the dogs, I felt, depending on how you interprete the ending, had a radical change of heart to make things less complicated for the writer.) There are also long and plodding pages of descriptions of, well, hills. Lots and lots of hills. With all of this in between the story of the dogs and the pursuit of them, I lost interest and emotion for Snitter and Rowf.There are also absolutely ridiculous conversations between the author and some "reader" he imagined in his head. Take this example: "And what the devil (I hear you asking) has all this got to do with Snitter and Rowf...[etc etc...] Nothing, you have concluded? Your Highness shall from this practice but make hard your heart. In fact...[etc etc...]" I wasn't even asking such a thing! This was written after one of the few parts I actually found entirely engrossing (if only for personal reasons), and Adams had to go and ruin the flow with strange insults. It's like Adams looked at his work, found that he was lacking in some areas, and covered it up by chiding the audience if they should see it too. The ending was entirely ruined for me simply because Adams again had a page-long conversation with the "reader" - in poetic form no less!The ending also reminded me of the end of The Dark Tower series, where Stephen King gave one ending, and then wrote that if the reader didn't like that ending they could read on and they'd have the ending they really wanted. Both endings also had writer insertion and a deus ex machina (the latter of which The Plague Dogs runs on).It's a very British book. I'm not even sure what that means, since I don't watch or read much British stuff, but there are lots of British words (even besides the accents) and references to literature or popular culture (I'm guessing that's what those were anyway). And good God, the hills. So many hills.Well this is all just my opinion, and I felt that I should put it up since so many of the negative reviews on here don't seem to actually point out what was disliked (probably why I ordered the book!). There were parts I enjoyed - much of the second half was partly engrossing, the messages were well argued and well taken, and Snitter's madness was wonderful. The rest of the reviews on this page will tell you all about these things. But still I could not like the book overall. If things like what I wrote above drive you nuts as much as they do me, stay away. If you like dog books, I suggest instead James Oliver Curwood's books Kazan and Baree (in that order), though I'll admit I read both long ago but they were very engaging at the time.

I love this book but it's one that I find very hard to read.I've recently been re-reading books from my childhood, this one's from my just-turned-teen years and is definitely a sad one. It marked me profoundly; I'm approaching 50 now and only just been able to read it again.Great book, but a harsh story, not easy to stomach if you like animals. Supposed to be an adventure story, and yes it is. But the backdrop is about vivisection and generally how animals are treat badly by humans. (To be fair, the author acknowledges through one of the dog characters that people "probably treat each other badly, too".)Enjoyable as a well-written book (and yes an exciting adventure story); nothing like Watership Down, and definitely not for kids.The first time I read it I was surprised and delighted by the happy ending because from the rest of the book I couldn't see how this would end well. How naive was I? When planning to re-read the book I did a bit of 'reading around' and I found out that wasn't the original ending - the original idea was to end it after the dogs 'escape' from the beach. But apparently the author changed it on advice from his editor and others who felt it was just too bleak. (I gather the animated version of the story does end as per the original.)May seem strange to say but despite that this is still one of my most favourite books. Some people have 'that book' that upsets them so much they can hardly bear to read it, but it means a lot to them just the same. This is mine. Not 'easy' but enjoyable in it's way and one I'm glad I've read.If you're an animal / dog lover then you've been warned - open this book at your peril!

Before buying a copy of The Plague Dogs I took out a request from the library and ended up with an older edition. It was a wonderful hardback - the illustrations of the Lake District by the late Alfred Wainwright complimented Adams' rich, vivid prose perfectly. Sadly though, the illustrations have been removed from this recent (2015) re-issue, hence why this book loses a star in my estimation. The story itself remains unaltered, and it's as good as it's ever been.The Plague Dogs is a simple tale as its core, treading the fine line between fact and fantasy, but it's certainly not a kid's book - there's too much hard swearing and gory imagery to recommend it for such audiences. It's an excellent YA novel, however, and will almost certainly inspire thought and conversation among anyone with an interest in animal welfare issues.Want more of a challenge from talking animal stories? Then look no further than The Plague Dogs!

Arrived promptly and in good condition, good value for money.

This was shown on Amazon with one cover, but actually arrived from the seller with the same cover as the copy I read and re-read many times in my youth. That put me in a good mood right away, and the book is still my favourite of those I have read by Richard Adams.Younger readers might find the political interludes a distraction but this is an excellent tale well told.

Adam's anthropomorphism is really directed more at adults I can't help but feel, with its classical references and Geordie speaking foxes, and a guaranteed tear jerker finale