Bee Speaker

Dogs of War, Book 3

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Gabrielle Nellis-Pain, Rod Hallett

Bloomsbury presents Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky, read by Rod Hallett, Gabrielle Nellis-Pain, and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Nominated for Best Audiobook: Science Fiction & Fantasy at The Speakies (The British Audio Awards).

From the Arthur C. Clarke award winner, Adrian Tchaikovsky, comes the third instalment of the DOGS OF WAR science fiction series, a future where genetically engineered “Bioforms” have inherited not the Earth, but the Solar System.

The end of the world has been and gone.

There was no one great natural disaster, no all-consuming world war, no catastrophic pandemic. Only scores of storms, droughts, and selfish regional conflicts. Humanity was not granted a heroic end. Instead, it bled to death from a thousand cuts.

But where Earth fell apart, Mars pulled together. Engineered men and beasts, aided by Bees – an outlawed distributed intelligence – survived through co-operation, because there was simply no alternative.

Fast forward to today. A signal – ‘For the sake of what once was. We beg you. Help.’ – reaches Mars.

How could they refuse? A consortium of Martian work crews gather the resources for a mission: a triumphal return to the blue-green world of their ancestors. And now here they are – three hundred million kilometres from home.

And it has all already gone horribly wrong.

©2025 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Significantly weaker than others in trilogy

I listened to this within a week of the first two books in this series and found this story much less engaging and eventful. It felt like 80% introduction and then a hurried mini-plot that was hard to follow or care about.

The Best of the Trilogy

It’s not fair that AT is such a good writer AND narrator. 😂 But in all honesty, I’m not sure I’ve ever been moved to tears by an audiobook before, but this one did. If I could give the narration 6 stars, I would.

Not the best of the bunch, but not bad.

Bee Speaker is the not as strong as the other 2 in the trilogy but a good listen nonetheless. I would recommend reading the other two first but not to skip Bee Speaker.

Best in the series yet!

A Funny and captivating story about a band of bumbling Martians spiced with Adrian's fondness for animalistic empathy.

A strong finish

I'm a big fan of Tchaikovsky, but I'm frequently disappointed by weak third books in his trilogies. I was pleasantly surprised by Bee Speaker and the whole Dogs of War trilogy with each episode surpassing the last. Bee Speaker is the most ambitious of the three, set in the far future where Earth has collapsed and a few Martians decide to lend a helping hand. The shifting character perspectives keep the story interesting and the cast of narrators do an excellent job of embodying the characters. If you've experienced the first two books in the series, this is a very strong finish, but I'd even reccomend listening to only this book as it stands strong on its own and knowledge of the prior entries only adds flavor rather than being necessary to understand the plot.