Had Steele spent as much effort deepening the characters as he does explaining a plasma gun, Captain Future might have a...
Captain Future and friends struggle to save the solar system from a separatist plot in a rebooted 1940s pulp science-fiction franchise.
Curt Newton—aka Captain Future—is the child of two scientists murdered by greedy Sen. Victor Corvo and raised by unlikely guardians: Grag, an intelligent robot; Simon Wright, his parents' sometime colleague, now a brain housed in a drone; and Otho, an android originally intended to be Wright's replacement body. Curt is trained as the typical action-adventure Renaissance man until Wright tells him of his parents' murderer. Curt sets out for vengeance but accidentally discovers—and foils—a presidential assassination attempt instead. Curt is drafted by the authorities to find the assassins' leader with the aid of obligatory love interest/space cop Joan Randall. The assassins are revealed as some of the setting's "aliens": humans genetically modified to settle other planets who identify now as Martians, etc. If all of this sounds familiar to pulp fans, it's because there's precious little new here. Steele's nostalgic devotion to the original leaves the narrative trapped in the 1940s. Curt is a Boys' Own hero who is cringingly immature around Joan, supposedly because of social naiveté (yet Otho, raised the same way, manages not to stare at Joan's breasts); Curt's character arc is the simplistic realization that you shouldn't murder people for revenge (but offing nameless thugs is fine); and the "aliens" are, awkwardly, drawn entirely from non-Anglo cultures. The cast of supposed geniuses are frequently idiots to further the plot, and whenever the story risks getting interesting—such as exploring the legitimate frustrations of the Martians—things quickly revert to bar fights.
Had Steele spent as much effort deepening the characters as he does explaining a plasma gun, Captain Future might have a future; as is, this effort flounders in the past.Pub Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8218-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
The narrator is researching for his book, The Day the World Ended, when he comes up against his karass, as he later understands it through Bokononism. It leads him to investigate Dr. Hoenniker, "Father of the A-Bomb," whom his son Little Newt says was playing cat's cradle when the bomb dropped (people weren't his specialty). The good doctor left his children an even greater weapon of devastation in ice-nine, an inheritance which won his ugly daughter a handsome husband; little Newt, a Russian midget just his size for an affair that ended when she absconded with a sliver of ice-nine; and made unlikely Franklin the right hand man of Papa Monzano of San Lorenzo, a make-believe Caribbean republic. On the trail of ice-nine, the narrator comes in for Papa's death and is tapped for the Presidency of San Lorenzo. Lured by sex symbol Mona, he accepts, but before he can take office, ice-nine breaks loose, freezing land and sea. Bokonon, the aged existentialist residing in the jungle as counter to the strong man, formulates a religion that makes up for life altogether: since the natives are miserable and there is little hope for changing their lot, he takes advantage of the release of ice-nine to bring them a happy death. The narrator's karass is at last made clear by Bokonon himself, leaving him to commit a final blasphemy against whoever is up there. A riddle on the meaning of meaninglessness or vice versa in a devastation-oriented era, with science-fiction figures on the prowl and political-ologies lanced. Spottily effective.
Pub Date: March 18, 1963
ISBN: 038533348X
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1963
A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.
The first volume in Carey’s Rampart trilogy is set centuries into a future shaped by war and climate change, where the scant remains of humankind are threatened by genetically modified trees and plants.
Teenager Koli Woodsmith lives in Mythen Rood, a village of about 200 people in a place called Ingland, which has other names such as “Briton and Albion and Yewkay.” He was raised to cultivate, and kill, the wood from the dangerous trees beyond Mythen Rood’s protective walls. Mythen Rood is governed by the Ramparts (made up entirely of members of one family—what a coincidence), who protect the village with ancient, solar-powered tech. After the Waiting, a time in which each child, upon turning 15, must decide their future, Koli takes the Rampart test: He must “awaken” a piece of old tech. After he inevitably fails, he steals a music player which houses a charming “manic pixie dream girl” AI named Monono, who reveals a universe of knowledge. Of course, a little bit of knowledge can threaten entire societies or, in Koli’s case, a village held in thrall to a family with unfettered access to powerful weapons. Koli attempts to use the device to become a Rampart, he becomes their greatest threat, and he’s exiled to the world beyond Mythen Rood. Luckily, the pragmatic Koli has his wits, Monono, and an ally in Ursala, a traveling doctor who strives to usher in a healthy new generation of babies before humanity dies out for good. Koli will need all the help he can get, especially when he’s captured by a fearsome group ruled by a mad messianic figure who claims to have psychic abilities. Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s (Someone Like Me, 2018, etc.) immersive, impeccably rendered world, and his speech and way of life are different enough to imagine the weight of what was lost but still achingly familiar, and as always, Carey leavens his often bleak scenarios with empathy and hope. Readers will be thrilled to know the next two books will be published in short order.
A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-47753-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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