An intriguing, unpredictable, but uneven dystopian tale.
In this SF novel, two artificial intelligence rulers oppress what is left of humankind in a post-apocalyptic future.
“Your service is required” is the daily call to “Human Service Attendants” like David 00472. It’s part of a life that includes routine exercise, nutritional (but barely edible) food rations, and the menial maintenance work the attendants do to sustain a society that is primarily made up of robots living in the ruins of human civilization. Everything is preordained and arranged by the planet’s two AI overlords, Angela and Malcolm, who control every aspect of human life, from birth and childhood education to death at 45 (the most suitable age for termination). What is not expected: any form of rebellion or human interactions like friendship and love, although sex is sometimes demanded for procreation. Thus, it comes as a big surprise to David when a man named Aaron 01778 makes him an offer of friendship. While David, compliant as ever, avoids the offer (and thankfully so since Aaron is immediately terminated, his services “no longer required”), the seed of a feeling starts to sprout. This seed develops into something that includes his infatuation with fellow commuter Elizabeth 00691. David also feels a growing sadness and depression, both of which place him squarely under Angela’s seemingly benign protection and spark Malcolm’s belligerent suspicions. A standoff involving all three is all but inevitable. In his ambitious dystopian novel, Walker depicts a nightmarish scenario that grows more claustrophobic and oppressive as the bleak tale progresses all the way to its surprising climax. Both AI rulers rigorously study the human condition, the lengths that humans will go to when pushed to their limits and how they can avoid the worst and most basic human emotions—“They are a species born into hate, aggression and violence.” The author offers a captivating conceit with rich details and a twisty ending. But the story’s execution is frequently flawed, with prose that often delivers exposition, some underdeveloped characters, and a lot of pontification.
An intriguing, unpredictable, but uneven dystopian tale.Pub Date: April 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4357-9536-5
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Lulu.com
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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