Brian David Johnson

MWD stands for Military Working Dog. This is the story of Liz, a dog handler who served in Iraq and has just come home after being severely injured in the conflict. Liz is suffering from PTSD with flashbacks, nightmares, mood swings and the consequent substance abuse taking a toll on her life. She also comes home to a world where everyone else has stayed the same and she has changed - where, on the one hand there is a welcome home banner and ceremony, but on the other, her grandmother has rented out her room and all her stuff in storage has been sold off due to unpaid bills. One day, her on again, off again boyfriend Ben nearly runs over an escaped dog in the forest. This leads Liz to the local pound run by an ex- Vietnam war vet and his steadfast second wife . Can Brutus, a vicious dog destined for euthanizing, help Liz gain back some control over her shattered life?
Unfortunately this book is littered with the F-word and worse so it will be hard to justify keeping it in my school library. This is a real pity because the story is very engaging and you can tell by reading it that it was once a screenplay. It touches many issues including the fact that gays were not allowed in the military until 2010 and you could get thrown out of the army if you were even hinted at gay. Through the side story of Ben throwing a championship game to honour a severely disabled veteran that goes quite wrong, we also see the guilt played out by those who did not serve and have no concept of what it was like to serve. A gripping graphic novel in the true sense of the word.… (mehr)

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book from reading the description on the back. It's been catalogued in my library under science fiction, which I'm not entirely sure is the right designation; though non-fiction isn't quite right either. There are some definite drawbacks to the system we use! Anyway. 21st Century Robot is a manifesto, sci-fi book, and user manual. There are lots of people involved, not least of which is rel="nofollow" target="_top">Intel. This book goes through the 21cR manifesto: A robot is imagined first, easy to build, completely open source, fiercely social, intentionally iterative, filled with humanity and dreams, and thinking for him/her/itself. Sounds good to me! The tone is a little overly excited and back-patty for me - lots of exclamation points.

The manifesto is explained, and the conception and creation of Jimmy (the robot) is described. The process of designing and building Jimmy is really interesting, as he is meant to be as accessible as possible. If I had to describe this book/manifesto/robot/idea in one word, it would be social. The robot they designed was meant to be cute and appealing to humans while still looking like a robot. The point of the robot is not to be a slave to humans, but to be a friend. They talk a little bit about why it's important for your robot to have its gender or non-gender specified - male, female, or neither - but I didn't really buy it. Something-something we would treat a robot differently based on its gender something-something gender roles something-something we got an expert to talk about this!

Jimmy's designs were given to some robotics students, and each group got a different budget to work with. He was designed to be as affordable as possible - his shell is 3D-printable, in smaller pieces that are then fitted together - I think they said it took a few days for one version of Jimmy to be printed. The website (http://www.21stcenturyrobot.com/) has a bunch of plans for building Jimmy for less than $500 up to over $12,000. The code is designed so that each robot can have a different personality - for example, your robot might be kind of nervous so you could have it run away when it hears loud noises or look at the floor when someone talks to it. The best part is that everything is open source (or at least it will be when the website is complete, I guess) - anyone can tweak the designs at any level from hardware to code to build something personal. If you have the knowledge, you can build your own robot based on the designs on the website or your own design, and if you're not so inclined, you can buy a kit for $1,600 (that includes all the moving parts and inside bits - you still have to print the outsides). If you are a pro coder, you can mess with all levels of the code for Jimmy - if you're not, they are developing robot apps that you can mix and match to develop your robot's personality, which I think is one of the coolest parts of this project. Being able to manipulate your robot's personality quickly and easily would be so great for someone who doesn't want to or can't put in the time and effort it would take to become proficient enough with coding to do that all from the beginning.

So as much as I think this is a really cool project, the "anyone" I've been talking about is not all-encompassing. You need the know-how to build something, more so if you want something cheaper. You can get a kit with all the parts you need (minus the shell) and presumably easy instructions to put it all together, but $1,600 is still prohibitive for many people. For the less than $500 version, you need to know where to buy the parts, have access to all the necessary tools, and understand the jargon enough to follow the directions. With every version, you need access to a 3D printer for enough time to print out the pieces and the money to purchase the material - based on what I skimmed in the robot designs, that ran from $70 to over $250. The library that I work at has a few 3D printers accessible to the public at a low cost, but printed projects are limited to 2 hours. There have been many larger projects printed in 2 hour increments and then attached, but doing that with Jimmy's shell would require the know-how to break up the 3D image files into the 2 hour pieces in a way that could be easily fitted together, not to mention a lot of time to print and the cost.

In between all of this information about designing and building social robots are a few Asimovian short stories about a roboticist who goes around the solar system trying to figure out why a particular robot would attack its owner or steal a dead body. The ideas were pretty compelling, though the writing left a little to be desired for me. Here is one of the author's short stories that wasn't included in the book, about mining robots who start going to church (that pdf includes some really nice watercolours too!).

I've giving this book 4 stars because the sci-fi interjections reminded me of [b:I, Robot|41804|I, Robot (Robot, #0.1)|Isaac Asimov|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388321463s/41804.jpg|1796026] in a good way, and because all the meat of this book is pretty exciting. I look forward to seeing what comes out this project in the future!… (mehr)

I thought having dogs and a female veteran would help this graphic novel rise above generic troubled-soldier-returns-home works of fiction, but the execution makes lands it in the below average range of the genre.

(Funny thing: After reading the book, I had no idea what the MWD in the title meant until I came here to write my review. Is it really not in the text of the story or did I just miss it? I now see that military working dog is referenced on the dust jacket, but I rarely read cover copy to avoid spoilers.)… (mehr)

Literary Merit: Very Good
Characterization: Great
Reading Level: Upper High School/Adult
Recommended: Highly recommended for mature readers and collections

Johnson & Egleson present the tale of a traumatized veteran trying to heal an aggressive stray dog – and herself – in a simple but powerful tale. With well-researched, nuanced storytelling, the writers and artists respectfully touch on PTSD, sexual assault, and the small cruelties that can be inflicted on veterans by even the most well-meaning people. This graphic novel is definitely for mature readers, with adult language, suggestions of sexual assault, graphic violence, brief nudity, and alcohol abuse. However, readers ready for the content will be rewarded with a thoughtful story sure to linger with them for a long time. The art style can make telling characters apart a little difficult at times.… (mehr)