by Andreas Karpf ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 8, 2022
A fast-paced, if slightly uneven, spacefaring tale.
There’s a new threat brewing against Earth, and the old crew of the spacecraft Magellan reunites to fight it off in Karpf’s SF sequel to Prelude to Extinction (2019).
It’s been three years since the Magellan’s crew members completed their last mission and went their separate ways. Jack Harrison, who’s now in charge of the alien archive program and the only holder of a precious set of alien files, finds himself facing many challenges. First and foremost is the ongoing threat of multiple, inbound Kuiper Belt Objects on their way to Earth; although humans have decades to prepare to intercept them, the sheer number of objects is worrying experts. A possible solution lies with alien tech, which Magellan crew members Kurt and Nadya Hoffman are hoping to use to increase the speed of Earth ships. But when the first engine test goes awry, causing multiple fatalities, Jack find himself cut off from communication with his old crew and under scrutiny from people who seem bent on accusing him of treason. Meanwhile, an old ally of Jack’s returns, but their willingness to help humankind is predicated on terms and conditions that Jack isn’t very happy about—and later, he faces an entirely new enemy. This short sequel offers readers familiar crew members confronting a different set of challenges, from existential threats from deep space to internal, earthbound conflicts caused by a break in diplomacy and politics. As it does so, it keeps up a brisk pace as characters (and readers) barely have time to digest one threat and understand the rationale behind it before another hurtles their way. The characters’ reactions can be frustratingly bland at times—the word calmly, for example, pops up dozens of times—and the action-driven plot is filled with sudden shifts that some will find jarring. That said, the high level of excitement makes for a diverting read, particularly for fans of the previous installment.
A fast-paced, if slightly uneven, spacefaring tale.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2022
ISBN: 979-8844498039
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
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
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Blake Crouch ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 26, 2016
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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