Blood’s a Rover

Fans have long hoped that Ellison would expand his 1969 Nebula Award–winning novella, “A Boy and His Dog”—the basis of a cult classic 1975 film starring Don Johnson—into a novel. This volume comes close to realizing that dream; it’s composed of the original story and its two previously published companion stories, plus an unproduced teleplay from 1977. In a near-future world ravaged by a nuclear war, Blood, a telepathic dog, and Vic, his teen human partner, make a tight twosome as they navigate the bleak postapocalyptic landscape of marauding gangs scavenging through the remains of civilization for food and weapons. Then they become separated and Blood hooks up with Spike, a young woman who is as tough as Vic. When Vic shows up again, the stage is set for a perverse variation on the screwball comedy love triangle, with Blood trying to convince the two humans that the only way to survive is if they all pull together. Although the teleplay’s stage directions are overly fussy and the references are a tad dated, the arch dialogue throughout carries the stories, and Blood is a perfect smart-mouthed, four-legged hero. (July)