An unwieldy setup volume, bearable for its baroque tweaks and twists.
Characters with distinctly oddball psychic powers or attributes save this other-planet odyssey from sinking under its own weight.
Violent times have come to Geyser—a city perched high atop a towering geyser nozzle on the giant planet Gliese. When Clyde, a robotic, tuxedo-clad young man with hazy memories and the ability to “sponge” guilt from anyone’s troubled conscience, sets out to track down his beloved master’s killers, he finds the city wrecked and virtually empty. He gets help from several allies including Nevele, a sliced-up woman who literally keeps herself together with telekinetically controlled stitches, and a cultured hive mind, collectively named Rohm, made up of over 1,000 tiny “frisk mice.” With them, Clyde travels through noirish ruins, deep into a mine and up the geyser’s massive spout while surviving vicious attacks from oversized insects and a maniacal serial killer/hired assassin. Ultimately, he runs into dazzling revelations about both his true identity and the source of the strange powers dubbed “fabrick” that he and others display. It’s a very long journey. As Post also shoves in several elaborately developed side plots that are left to be resolved, presumably, in sequels, it’s also a wearisome one. Still, dogged readers will be rewarded with exotic locales aplenty, sometimes-grisly battles and a particularly colorful multispecies cast.
An unwieldy setup volume, bearable for its baroque tweaks and twists. (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60542-501-6
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Medallion Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK TO SCREEN
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