Title The Puppies of Terra Series --- Author Thomas M. Disch Cover Art --- Publisher Nelson Doubleday - 1980 First Printing 1966 Category Science Fiction Warnings None Main Characters White Fang, Pluto Main Elements Aliens

The Masters arrived in the late 20th century - godlike entities who regarded humans as mere pets to be pampered and played with. Most men and women flocked to the kennels eagerly, because the "leash" by which the Masters controlled their pets gave pleasures and abilities that undomesticated humans could never hope for. But not everyone was content with the situation, and gradually the dissenters and rebels began to band together to fight for their freedom...

Nice concept, alien beings made of energy come to Earth and decide they want to domesticate mankind. They create kennels, and keep track of bloodlines. I wouldn't say they train us to do tricks but they do enjoy educating us in literature or music or ballet, whatever happend to be the thing that particular Master was into. And there are leashes, not a physical rope around our necks, but more what you would call a direct contact with the Master, and it was pleasurable. It made your pain go away, made you happy, the Masters would compliment you or comfort you. In fact, being a pet seems like a really nice thing to be, it would be hard to find an argument why you wouldn't want to live like that. You can more or less do whatever you want, and you can more or less have whatever you want.

And yet, when one starts breeding an animal for domestication, and then for pleasure you end up with some strange creatures that could not survive on their own. Take pigs that were supposed to grow big and fat fast, but are such nervous wrecks the slightest disturbance drives them into fits and they can die of stress. Some chickens are bred to have such big breasts they keep toppling over on their face. Or the bulldog which is incapable of giving birth without surgery, since the female's hindquarters have been bred to be so small, while her puppies heads have been bred to be so huge. None of those are viable animals! And of course, while you have a lot of freedom to do what you want, you can't do just anything you want, you're still a pet and subject to the whims of your master.

And those who don't want that life, or that the Masters don't want (who'd want someone ugly, damaged, mean, etc as a pet, right?) are called Dingoes while the pets are called Puppies. The Dingoes want to overthrow the Master's control, and most stories would have a Dingo as the protagonist. But this one has a twist, it picks a Pet to tell the tale. And we hear how happy he is, for the most part, sometimes he can go a decade in absolute bliss. And you have to think, would it really be so bad to live that way? Image a world where you could jump from asteroid to asteroid, and each one would play music appropriate to your mood or time of day. You can conjure up anything you like in your rooms. And you're safe, don't have to work to buy food, your Master will heal you, and you can educate yourself in any topic you like. So it was hard for our main character to sympathize with the Dingoes, and yet, he is forced to help them after learning to see their point of view. But in the end, he's still not sure if he wouldn't have rather gone back to being a pet.

I didn't love this story but it was certainly interesting and worth a read, especially considering I picked it out of the reject bin of a university book fair as a freebie. I'll probably donate it back so someone else can have the chance.