A straightforward sci-fi story in an unorthodox but entertaining package.
In Woodward’s (Americanisation, 2011, etc.) sci-fi comedy, a New Orleans couple must prevent aliens from exterminating the human race.
College writing instructor Warren Avon spots what appears to be a “long, black acorn” while walking near his home. It’s actually a tiny spaceship containing Jerry and Phthsspitty-snapp, aliens from the planet Xxzzrrrva. The former is a scientist on his 29th planetary mission, and the latter, an intern on her first voyage. Their probe of Earth, which they call “Grawgraw-3,” is halted when Warren captures their ship, so Jerry initiates communication with the human. As he relates their mission, he takes the opportunity to ask Warren about Earth. Jerry finds out that petroleum is a valuable local fuel, and he’s sure that Xxzzrrrva’s Exploratory Board will destroy humanity to keep them from wasting it. The two aliens, along with Warren and his wife, Penny, devise a plan to stop Jerry’s superior, Councilor Hmmm, from authorizing mankind’s eradication. This isn’t an easy task, especially after Jerry inadvertently blows up an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The group also faces another seemingly impossible task—to somehow convince humans to use alternative fuel sources. Unusually, Woodward structures his entire novel as a “TERMS OF USE” agreement. However, this agreement also includes excerpts from a book (with Warren listed as its author) that advance the more traditional story in a chronological manner. This offbeat approach is frequently hilarious, as when the agreement includes an example of plagiarism that simply changes the characters’ names (“Jerry,” for instance, becomes “Larry”). Surprisingly, though, the agreement’s constant interruptions are never jarring. Although the short novel doesn’t delve deeply into its characters, they are distinctive; for example, Penny suffers from a mysterious ailment that results in conflicting diagnoses. The narrative also often provides memorable descriptions, as when Warren explains fishing boats to Jerry. The Terms of Use are more formal in tone but take comical turns; the agreement discourages loaning the book to others, offering “strategies for deflecting loan requests.”
A straightforward sci-fi story in an unorthodox but entertaining package.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9997862-4-6
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Spaceboy Books LLC
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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