Dog Soldiers Audiobook By Robert Stone cover art

Dog Soldiers

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Dog Soldiers

By: Robert Stone
Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
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In Saigon during the waning days of the Vietnam War, a small-time journalist named John Converse thinks he'll find action - and profit - by getting involved in a big-time drug deal. But back in the States, things go horribly wrong for him. Dog Soldiers perfectly captures the underground mood of America in the 1970s, when amateur drug dealers and hippies encountered profiteering cops and professional killers - and the price of survival was dangerously high.©1973, 1974, 1994 Robert Stone (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

  • National Book Award, Fiction, 1975

"A dark descendant of Conrad's and Hemingway's adventure stories...Goes hell-for-leather across the landscape." (The New York Times Book Review)
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The entire book feels like a fever dream.

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Very strange book.

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Would you consider the audio edition of Dog Soldiers to be better than the print version?

I have not read the print version.

What did you like best about this story?

the subtleties of the characterizations

Which scene was your favorite?

inside the mountain

If you could rename Dog Soldiers, what would you call it?

I would not rename it. This is a silly request in my opinion.

intense narrative of a dark and complex time

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The dialogue between the characters and the narrator's performance makes this audiobook a great listen. This was my first experience with a Robert Stone book, and I’m definitely going to explore more of his work. After listening to this, I’ve decided to start “following” narrators in addition to authors, as I’m sure many of you know they can significantly impact the quality of an audiobook.

Fantastic performance.

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Robert Stone’s novel about a drug deal gone bad. It’s a dark novel so be prepared. The book was recommended to me as one of the best novels about Viet Nam. Maybe I misunderstood but the novel is about a drug deal gone awry and really nothing about Viet Nam except that the story started in Viet Nam and moved to stateside about 1/4 through the novel. Stone is heavily influenced by Ken Kesey and partially by Jack Kerouac.

More about a drug deal gone bad than Viet Nam

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John Converse was once a successful playwright. But his ideas dried up and he found himself working as a correspondent during the Vietnam War. But, even at this job, inspiration escaped him. So, he decided to smuggle heroin into the United States, enlisting his old friend Ray Hicks to transport the drugs to his wife Marge in California.

Things go terribly wrong. The bad guys learn about the drugs and try to steal them. They threaten Hicks and Marge; then, kidnap Converse. Hicks and Marge go on the run, trying to find a way to sell their product and escape their pursuers.

"Dog Soldiers" by Robert Stone is a thriller with a suspenseful buildup and an exciting climax. But it is also a commentary on the cynicism that swept America after the idealism of the 1960s counterculture. American soldiers are selling narcotics, cops are corrupt, and young people are bored with LSD and trying more dangerous drugs.

Stone intersperses the action with philosophical musings via the inner dialogue of each character. There are moments of humor, of reflection, and of fear.

The thoughts of one character as he slowly dies while trying to escape through the desert is particularly poignant.

"Dog Soldiers" won the 1975 National Book Award. It is not a classic, but it is an exciting and well-written novel, with enough ideas to exercise your brain.

Very good suspense novel about a Vietnam-era drug

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An hour and a half into this, I give up. No Mas. Maybe it is me, but I just can't follos it.

oy gevalt

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10 percent of this book was good. 40 percent was average and 50 percent was hoping this toothache of a book would go away or at least get better. Long stretches of this book drug like an anchor on a ship. The narrator was good. The last quarter of the book was the best part

Not as good as reviews

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This book is well read and has a superficially plausible plot. It was good enough that I managed to listen through to the bitter end, but that's the best I can say for it. A tale of a not-very-bright journalist's foray into the drug business, the story never becomes believable or engaging. We have deep exploration into the human psyche. We have page after page of slow, unredeeming death. The book is dull and painful and depressing - Conrad without the magic.

dull and painful and depressing

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