A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson, with the latter...
After Minnesota is overrun by ancient Scythians and a wasp-borne plague, 16-year-old Macy and her family embark on adventures of ever-escalating weirdness as they make their way down the Mississippi toward safety that no longer exists.
DeNiro (stories: Skinny-Dipping in the Lake of the Dead, 2006) opens his debut novel in semi-comic register, as the family struggles to adjust to a weird new order involving soldier-looters in Lakers jerseys, the shuttering of all non–fast-food businesses, SUV chassis towed by mules and a scar-faced guard at the family’s riverside internment camp who sends Macy a looted necklace via her younger brother Ciaran. “I had a disfigured stalker with a sword,” she wisecracks. “This made going stag to junior prom look like a joke.” The mood grows steadily darker and grimmer. First Ciaran gets involved in intrigues among factions of the anachronistic warriors who have overrun the entire country and are battling for turf from coast to coast. The family manages to escape on a boat that limps south toward St. Louis, where Macy’s father, an astronomer, keeps insisting that a university job awaits him. Along the way both Macy and her mother are stricken with the plague; Macy’s sister runs off and is sold into indenture; they encounter elephants and giraffes, a wooden submarine and a talking dog. Eventually Ciaran is captured and sent south to Nueva Roma for trial and execution. Their father, now thriving in the former St. Louis as an astrologer, dispatches the recovered Macy to the grand delta capital to see if anything can be done to help her brother.
A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson, with the latter winning out—to the benefit of those reading for plot and perhaps the disappointment of those looking for literary ambition.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-553-59254-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
Everybody talks about the weather; but Jane Unger and her band of Storm Troupers hack the weather. In the late 2030s, as a legacy of the greenhouse effect, millions of people have died or been displaced due to heavy weather. A renegade band of meteorologists and computer experts, the Storm Troupe, prowls the Texas plains, chasing funnel clouds, gathering data, and waiting for the meteorological equivalent of the Big One: an F-6 tornado, a twister so big that it could mean the end of civilization. Using flying robots, cross-terrain vehicles, virtual reality, and raw courage, the Troupe risks life and limb for the sake of scientific knowledge (and for the attendant thrills). Into the somewhat unstable society of the Troupe comes Jane's younger brother Alex, professional invalid and family ne'er-do-well. To everyone's astonishment, Alex thrives and brings a perspective on loyalty, family, and sacrifice that helps pull the Troupe into the solid team they will need to be if they are to survive an F- 6. Lucid and tremendously entertaining. Sterling (The Hacker Crackdown, 1992, etc.) shows once more his skills in storytelling and technospeak. A cyberpunk winner.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-553-09393-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
Dotted with cliché and melodrama but driven–and driven well–by good old-fashioned sci-fi storytelling.
A sci-fi adventure steeped in the lore of an ancient civilization that will appeal to children and adults alike.
Max Quick's life drastically changes after time suddenly stops. The young man of 12–harassed by bullies, living as an orphan in a violent home for boys and about to be thrown into juvenile hall–is mysteriously immune to this chrono-freeze. He soon discovers other children who are impervious as well–namely, Casey Cole and Ian Keating–and the three find themselves embarking on a thrilling quest to save the world from an all-powerful foe from outer space. Heavily inspired by the folklore of the Sumer civilization of ancient Mesopotamia, the narrative shines brightest in the chapters that focus on the re-telling of this fascinating history. Jeffrey skillfully infuses the story with an authentic historical context, and then thrusts the narrative into the future by introducing aliens, time travel and massive gems with the power to stop time and minds–a difficult task indeed, but one that he successfully accomplishes. Alas, the story does suffer from thin character development and some amateurish dialogue, which, in many instances, is plain unrealistic, with the characters' voices often coming across as affected. Furthermore, the characters tend to have thoughts or make pronouncements that belie their actual age, or take actions that do not seem in line with their previously established personalities. (Casey, age 12, vacillates constantly between a spoiled, temperamental eight-year old and a sexually conscious adolescent vying for male attention.) Fortunately, the story is compelling enough to supercede these minor quibbles.
Dotted with cliché and melodrama but driven–and driven well–by good old-fashioned sci-fi storytelling.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2004
ISBN: 1-4116-1323-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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