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Conscience of the Beagle
Traveling to the planet Tennyson to confront a terrorist, tough Earth cop Major Dyle Holloway realizes that the ghosts of his past are threatening his mission as he is thrust into a vortex of paranoia and betrayal. Reprint. K. LJ.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
201 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 26, 2014
Top Cop Major Dyle Holloway leads a crack forensic team from Earth to the colony planet Tennyson. Murders that could be the work of terrorists have occurred seven times now on this normally peaceful and affluent planet. Anthony’s team includes a construct, their name for a cyborg, who is a master at determining patterns within the most obscure series of events. He is the Beagle. There is also Szabo the psychic and Milos the munitions expert. They have been lovers in the past. The thought is that this team will have the little situation cleaned up in a jiffy, but what they find on Tennyson is a rat’s nest of intrigue, simmering anger, and untrustworthy assistants.
From what the reader picks up in conversation from the principles, Earth has become a miserable place. It is over-populated and polluted and its society is oppressively stratified. Tennysonians refers to Eathers as Ticks. The Earthers are flabbergasted by the blue skies and available space on Tennyson. They are offered food that would be reserved for only the most elite in their homeworld, and their hotel rooms are the size of their apartments on Earth.
Tennyson was founded as a Christian planet, and its leader is the Chosen of God. A group called God’s Warriors keep an eye on things, ticketing people for bad language and any other un-Christian behavior. Oral sex is a misdemeanor and homosexuality is a crime. Needless to say the central city of Hebron, with its streets all named after holy scripture or Biblical concepts, has a seedy southside peopled by malcontents and those that have fallen into poverty, drink, or drug addiction. As one character, who may or may not be the head of the secret police says, “…You’ve heard of our unrest here. People get disgruntled. It happens in a theocracy.” Another bombing occurs shortly after the Earth team arrives.
There is trouble in paradise, but the Earth team has problems of its own. There is tension between the ex-lovers and Major Holloway himself is obsessed by remorse and plagued by fears that come from the recent, unsolved murder of his wife. The nonhuman Beagle is the most clear-headed of the lot.
Holloway narrates the story in first person and present tense, using short sentences that move the plot along quickly at a staccato pace. No one can be trusted, many people will die, and one major scientific breakthrough will instigate a finale on a grander scale than anything the novel to that point implies.
From what the reader picks up in conversation from the principles, Earth has become a miserable place. It is over-populated and polluted and its society is oppressively stratified. Tennysonians refers to Eathers as Ticks. The Earthers are flabbergasted by the blue skies and available space on Tennyson. They are offered food that would be reserved for only the most elite in their homeworld, and their hotel rooms are the size of their apartments on Earth.
Tennyson was founded as a Christian planet, and its leader is the Chosen of God. A group called God’s Warriors keep an eye on things, ticketing people for bad language and any other un-Christian behavior. Oral sex is a misdemeanor and homosexuality is a crime. Needless to say the central city of Hebron, with its streets all named after holy scripture or Biblical concepts, has a seedy southside peopled by malcontents and those that have fallen into poverty, drink, or drug addiction. As one character, who may or may not be the head of the secret police says, “…You’ve heard of our unrest here. People get disgruntled. It happens in a theocracy.” Another bombing occurs shortly after the Earth team arrives.
There is trouble in paradise, but the Earth team has problems of its own. There is tension between the ex-lovers and Major Holloway himself is obsessed by remorse and plagued by fears that come from the recent, unsolved murder of his wife. The nonhuman Beagle is the most clear-headed of the lot.
Holloway narrates the story in first person and present tense, using short sentences that move the plot along quickly at a staccato pace. No one can be trusted, many people will die, and one major scientific breakthrough will instigate a finale on a grander scale than anything the novel to that point implies.
July 25, 2020
It begins as an interplanetary police investigation. A team of four talented specialists from Earth are sent to a human-settled theocratic planet which has experienced a series of bombings. Each of the 4 have some issues. The team leader, who narrates the story, is haunted by the murder of his wife 18 months ago. He's also emotionally fraught about the never-caught killer, about who he should trust on his team, and who he should trust in general.
The story develops into a web of intrigue - both on the planetary and interplanetary level.
"Beagle" is an unkind nickname the team leader gives to a member of the team who is a "construct." This is a humanoid artificial intelligence with a mind based on a deceased murder investigator. He is especially talented in finding patterns and drawing conclusions from them.
There is a believability question about the planet's top intelligence officer (although there is a factor which lessens the implausibility.)
It was also odd having a woman author having a male protagonist - and including a heterosexual sex scene from his perspective. This includes his mental perceptions which might be interpreted as showing male biases, but it wasn't clear to me whether Anthony meant this as male bias or just human self-oriented bias...or just someone who's emotionally messed up.
The story develops into a web of intrigue - both on the planetary and interplanetary level.
"Beagle" is an unkind nickname the team leader gives to a member of the team who is a "construct." This is a humanoid artificial intelligence with a mind based on a deceased murder investigator. He is especially talented in finding patterns and drawing conclusions from them.
There is a believability question about the planet's top intelligence officer (although there is a factor which lessens the implausibility.)
It was also odd having a woman author having a male protagonist - and including a heterosexual sex scene from his perspective. This includes his mental perceptions which might be interpreted as showing male biases, but it wasn't clear to me whether Anthony meant this as male bias or just human self-oriented bias...or just someone who's emotionally messed up.
May 2, 2018
I would rate "Conscience of the Beagle" by "Patricia Anthony" a 3/10...
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So I very much disliked this book, it read like an old school mystery novel with sci-fi stuff thrown in randomly, you are dropped into the middle of it and have no idea what's going on and it's seriously a pain to figure out the backstory of the world you are in.
Each chapter is only roughly 4-5 pages long and it switches to a different scene or moved forward in time and jumped around only giving you a few moments to try to figure out what's going on. The main character is insane (as well as the other 3 main side characters) and he will be talking or having something explained to him and just wander off into different thoughts right in the middle, combined with the chapters jumping you around it's shocking there is actually a story in there and that you can see it (and one thing I will say good about it is there is actually a story and you can figure it out if you try and get past the headache inducing reading).
I did not enjoy reading this book and it really annoyed me the entire time I was doing so and I wanted to tell at the main characters to stop being idiots, if you ever want to get the feel for being messed up in the head and insane though this will give you an idea...
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So I very much disliked this book, it read like an old school mystery novel with sci-fi stuff thrown in randomly, you are dropped into the middle of it and have no idea what's going on and it's seriously a pain to figure out the backstory of the world you are in.
Each chapter is only roughly 4-5 pages long and it switches to a different scene or moved forward in time and jumped around only giving you a few moments to try to figure out what's going on. The main character is insane (as well as the other 3 main side characters) and he will be talking or having something explained to him and just wander off into different thoughts right in the middle, combined with the chapters jumping you around it's shocking there is actually a story in there and that you can see it (and one thing I will say good about it is there is actually a story and you can figure it out if you try and get past the headache inducing reading).
I did not enjoy reading this book and it really annoyed me the entire time I was doing so and I wanted to tell at the main characters to stop being idiots, if you ever want to get the feel for being messed up in the head and insane though this will give you an idea...
December 20, 2018
A very odd book. The way it's written very effectively puts you in the mind of the main character - meaning you absolutely don't trust him and you usually don't know what's going on. It was very hard to get a grasp on the world, but after I got used to it, it was hard to stop reading.
I was not at all satisfied with the ending, however. It seemed to be going in one direction, and then suddenly it wasn't. It felt like a lot of build up but then the ending seemed unrelated to what had been going on the rest of the time. So much of it depended on the world itself, which made it difficult to follow because the world was never properly introduced.
I was not at all satisfied with the ending, however. It seemed to be going in one direction, and then suddenly it wasn't. It felt like a lot of build up but then the ending seemed unrelated to what had been going on the rest of the time. So much of it depended on the world itself, which made it difficult to follow because the world was never properly introduced.
May 7, 2011
I've been a fan of Patricia Anthony for years (probably about 20). I came across this one in my stacks and had to re-read it while waiting for new novels to come into the library.
It's still a great sci-fi novel. A little hard to follow the main character's line of thinking at times, and I had to re-read the last few pages to fully understand what happened, but a very satisfactory novel.
Wish her publisher would put out her latest book.
It's still a great sci-fi novel. A little hard to follow the main character's line of thinking at times, and I had to re-read the last few pages to fully understand what happened, but a very satisfactory novel.
Wish her publisher would put out her latest book.
August 13, 2016
God, this book was painful to read. I really don't know why I finished it. Maybe I thought something would be revealed. I still have no clear idea about what (or why it) really happened. The writing is decidedly oblique, and very choppy--like a bad, developed 8th grader. How was this published? Lowest rating.......
February 11, 2011
Psychologically damaged cop tries to solve crimes on colony world. Anthony is an author who makes me want to read everything she'd written, however this was not as good as either Brother Termite or Flanders.
July 12, 2013
I don't mind a protagonist who is not likable, or isn't a good person. But I can't stand a stupid, tedious protagonist.
December 17, 2014
I honestly finished this book a little confused about what was going on. A fun read I guess, but hard to understand the plot at times.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews