A leering, immature hero mars this well-paced thriller.
In first-time author Dinoto’s futuristic thriller, an investigative reporter uncovers a dangerous conspiracy as America reels in the wake of a catastrophic oil shortage.
In 2030, huge earthquakes in the Middle East have destroyed the region’s oil supply. Four years later, with gas at $90,000 a gallon on the black market, martial law has been declared in the United States. Mexican rebels take to blowing up American oil wells and, under the leadership of a new and ambitious general, they’re heading north. As a result, federal overseers from the nation’s new Oil Appropriation Committee run border cities like San Diego with an iron fist. Meanwhile, southern oil-producing states are unhappy with the idea of keeping their Yankee neighbors warm for another winter. Details from this oil-starved future are vivid: blackouts, a new rickshaw culture, life in southern California minus air conditioning. Thus is the perilous state of the nation when investigative reporter Brick Sanders heads off on assignment, with photographer Tyra McCord, to check out the latest blown-up gas depot. But government reports are out of sync with what Brick observes on the ground, and his sources paint an even bleaker picture. When he’s not busy chasing Tyra—and several other paramours—Brick uncovers the real story and is faced with a life-altering decision. Dinoto’s brisk, well-paced thriller builds to a satisfying action-filled conclusion. The political scenes introduce several intriguing players, who provide tension-building complications. The book’s sexual politics, however, may as well be set in 1974, not 2034. Many female characters are assessed for sexual appeal, and several incidents pander to male sexual fantasies: On a work assignment, Tyra wears a blouse “with a lacy neckline that plunged to her waist exposing the bare flesh between her braless breasts.” Readers may find it hard to believe that, by 2034, men and women are still discussing who should open the door for whom. Technology, too, could use an update: If contemporary newsrooms don’t rely on darkrooms to develop film, it is unlikely future generations would revert to antiquated methods. A careful edit could have eliminated frequent grammatical errors and chronic misspellings, such as “comon” for “come on” or even “c’mon.” Readers may also find the dialogue structured and punctuated in such a way as to be distracting.
A leering, immature hero mars this well-paced thriller.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Bainbridge Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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