Smartly written, cleverly paced, but wanting for passion.
The watchful Collective, and those who oppose it, form Safronoff’s futuristic tale of biological manipulation and the battle for individuality.
In a not-too-distant future, mankind has relegated much of its need for self-motivation to the all-knowing Collective. But all that could change, thanks to former Collective officer Eve and Joshua Falken, a man who could very well undermine the Collective’s power. Safronoff’s novel offers readers a glimpse into a world buried under the weight of its technological advances, such as GEaRS biotechnology that boosts the power of the human mind and body to inhuman levels. Technology such as the Desk, which functions similar to a computer, and Glass, the equivalent of an iPhone on steroids, form commonplace hardware in Safronoff's carefully constructed world—one in which the entire Eastern Seaboard sits under the watchful eye of the Spire, the Collective’s dark base of operations. The characters are often attributed simple titles that mark the importance of their roles, such as the unrelenting Leader. Like George Orwell’s seminal 1984, Safronoff’s tale delves into the question of personal freedom and takes it a step further. The novel owes plenty to other speculative science-fiction writers as well, particularly those of the glorious pulp era, such as Philip K. Dick’s pioneering tale Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, where everyday people struggle to understand the deeper meaning of technology. First in a planned series, the novel’s weakness comes in the form of sterile characters, predictable delivery and action sequences reminiscent of the Matrix films; too often, in fact, the novel reads as if it were written to be a film. Those who enjoy hip reads of sublime, indifferent control, bucking the system and inspired technology will find exactly what they’re looking for in Safronoff’s debut.
Smartly written, cleverly paced, but wanting for passion.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-1463682187
Page Count: 358
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word, and the power of many kinds of love.
An independent young girl finds a blue door in a field and glimpses another world, nudging her onto a path of discovery, destiny, empowerment, and love.
Set at the turn of the 20th century, Harrow's debut novel centers on January Scaller, who grows up under the watchful eye of the wealthy Cornelius Locke, who employs her father, Julian, to travel the globe in search of odd objects and valuable treasures to pad his collection, housed in a sprawling Vermont mansion. January appears to have a charmed childhood but is stifled by the high-society old boy’s club of Mr. Locke and his friends, who treat her as a curiosity—a mixed-race girl with a precocious streak, forced into elaborate outfits and docile behavior for the annual society gatherings. When she's 17, her father seemingly disappears, and January finds a book that will change her life forever. With her motley crew of allies—Samuel, the grocer’s son; Jane, the Kenyan woman sent by Julian to be January’s companion; and Bad, her faithful dog—January embarks on an adventure that will lead her to discover secrets about Mr. Locke, the world and its hidden doorways, and her own family. Harrow employs the image of the door (“Sometimes I feel there are doors lurking in the creases of every sentence, with periods for knobs and verbs for hinges”) as well as the metaphor (a “geometry of absence”) to great effect. Similes and vivid imagery adorn nearly every page like glittering garlands. While some stereotypes are present, such as the depiction of East African women as pantherlike, the book has a diverse cast of characters and a strong woman lead. This portal fantasy doesn’t shy away from racism, classism, and sexism, which helps it succeed as an interesting story.
A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word, and the power of many kinds of love.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-42199-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Redhook/Orbit
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Mandel’s solid writing and magnetic narrative make for a strong combination in what should be a breakout novel.
Survivors and victims of a pandemic populate this quietly ambitious take on a post-apocalyptic world where some strive to preserve art, culture and kindness.
In her fourth novel, Mandel (The Lola Quartet, 2012, etc.) moves away from the literary thriller form of her previous books but keeps much of the intrigue. The story concerns the before and after of a catastrophic virus called the Georgia Flu that wipes out most of the world’s population. On one side of the timeline are the survivors, mainly a traveling troupe of musicians and actors and a stationary group stuck for years in an airport. On the other is a professional actor, who dies in the opening pages while performing King Lear, his ex-wives and his oldest friend, glimpsed in flashbacks. There’s also the man—a paparazzo-turned-paramedic—who runs to the stage from the audience to try to revive him, a Samaritan role he will play again in later years. Mandel is effectively spare in her depiction of both the tough hand-to-mouth existence of a devastated world and the almost unchallenged life of the celebrity—think of Cormac McCarthy seesawing with Joan Didion. The intrigue arises when the troupe is threatened by a cult and breaks into disparate offshoots struggling toward a common haven. Woven through these little odysseys, and cunningly linking the cushy past and the perilous present, is a figure called the Prophet. Indeed, Mandel spins a satisfying web of coincidence and kismet while providing numerous strong moments, as when one of the last planes lands at the airport and seals its doors in self-imposed quarantine, standing for days on the tarmac as those outside try not to ponder the nightmare within. Another strand of that web is a well-traveled copy of a sci-fi graphic novel drawn by the actor’s first wife, depicting a space station seeking a new home after aliens take over Earth—a different sort of artist also pondering man’s fate and future.
Mandel’s solid writing and magnetic narrative make for a strong combination in what should be a breakout novel.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-35330-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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