A grand series opener that introduces characters worthy of further sci-fi adventures.
In this YA debut, a teenage cadet at a space academy on the moon becomes unsettled by the abundance of mystery—and potential danger—surrounding the school.
After checking on a strange light in his bedroom closet, 15-year-old Bobby Sterling somehow wakes up strapped to a table. It’s not an alien abduction, as Bobby guesses, but merely professor Bink checking the teen’s vitals. The professor welcomes Bobby to Apeiron Academy, a prestigious school on the moon. Bobby is just one of numerous cadets, though most of them are there voluntarily as opposed to his unwitting recruitment. The cadets train in combat, using specialized technology for teleportation. Bobby, meanwhile, has no idea why the academy specifically chose him, but then he can’t get straightforward answers from any of the Apeiron faculty. Why, for one, does a machine called a Hovee appear to be searching the hallways? Bobby suspects the professor and others are hiding something, which may be related to a rumored incident at the academy 25 years ago. Fed up with murky details, Bobby starts questioning the cadets’ assigned missions. One in particular involves cloaking antennae for communication, which suggests that something out there is a threat to everyone at the school. Mueller’s launch of a sci-fi series establishes a convincing, likable protagonist. Bobby’s relentless questions are perfectly understandable, as is his resultant frustration with adults telling him relatively little. The story primarily revolves around Bobby’s learning about unfamiliar tech (for example, the telepathic thoughtboard) and interacting with peers. Though action is fleeting, the story deftly molds characters and relationships: Bobby has two possible romantic interests and an antagonist. The teen likewise recognizes and struggles to overcome his faults. All cadets get a robopanion, and Bobby becomes envious of others’ (his dog initially pales next to roommate Max’s dragon). Mueller’s prose is rich and ample but does occasionally fall flat: “a GPS like looking device” and an amusement park gate that’s “gloomy and science fiction like.”
A grand series opener that introduces characters worthy of further sci-fi adventures.Pub Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73212-850-7
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Graphixela
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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