Sheepdogs

By: Geoff Brown

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

“Sheepdogs, Tom,” Jerry said. He got a beer from the ice bucket and handed Tom one. “We’re the convoys’ sheepdogs. You know the difference between a shepherd dog and a sheepdog?”
Tom leaned back in his own chair and sipped his beer. “I thought they were about the same.”
“Oh, sheepdogs and shepherds are very different. The sheepdogs live with the sheep. When they’re puppies, they sometimes even nurse from the ewes. They look like the sheep and they love the sheep. Then some animal shows up – a strange dog or a wolf. Out west it’s mostly coyotes but sometimes it’s bears or cougars. Well, that sheepdog comes running out of the flock of sheep, hollering and ready for a fight. That ball of wool turns into a monster in a hurry and the coyote or whatever it is usually slinks off. If the bad guy keeps coming, the sheepdog mixes it up with him and gives his all if he has to. That’s us. We’re sheepdogs in the sky and on the sea.”

AI Doesn't Even Try

What probably is a great story is systematic destroyed here by the artificial intelligence reader. What little emotion or inflection there is in the AI reader is misplaced. The whole thing comes off in a robotic manor that ruins any sense of sincerity to what could have been an interesting story.

Note to publishers:
Spend a little extra and pay some poor schlub to actually read the book. A 5th grader could have put more emotion into this book.