Oy. OK I just finished it. In this very short story so far, you have changed time, setting, point of view, and perspective rapidly. You have no "sympathetic" characters, no one that captivates your audience and makes them want to connect to said character. Who is the protagonist? Who IS the character? What is THEIR quest? The reason for this story? You haven't set up any relevant story line at all. What is this dog doing exactly? Is he just trying to survive? Is he trying to get somewhere? You haven't set up any kind of story yet. Who is the antagonist? Who is the person or thing the protagonist has to overcome? The war? The aliens? Religion? It's like you haven't actually picked a story at all...try sticking to what's necessary to the story. Otherwise, these little side notes that aren't important to the story make it long-winded and difficult to follow. Does it matter that Africa and America were fighting? I mean...you bring up an entire new war. You bring up World War III! And for such a HUGE thing like a World War, you just glaze over it. And now it doesn't even matter, because alien angels are here with purple goo. Pick ONE story and go with it. You're trying to combine all these stories together. You insult the intelligence of the reader by writing as though they couldn't *possibly* understand. Well. People don't read books they can't understand. Structure is very important in any story and this particular story lacks structure all-together. What in the hell is the conflict in this story?? What is the ONE...MAIN...conflict in this story? No plot, everything is just happening. I mean, you can start a story in the middle of a setting and make up for it, but so far there's been no "story". And all these statements you're trying to make in this story (i.e. religion bad, America bad, humans bad, weed good....) it's like....you've taken everything that you rant about and tried to wrap it up in this one story. Put simply, start smaller. Try writing a short story about this dog. Like...the dog in the church...or him meeting Charlie (I think that's his name)...take that one day and make it a short story so that you get some practice writing from your dog's point of view. It's better to make one really good point with your book, then a hundred different ideas you feel need addressed in society slammed in between two hard covers. One good idea that a hundred people read is more effective than a hundred good ideas that no one reads. (Don't run with that, now...I am not calling these "good ideas").