A well-crafted thriller that offers both a warning and hope for the future.
A dystopian sci-fi YA novel about a teenager whose unexpected discoveries hold the promise of a revolution against a totalitarian regime.
In compelling prose, debut author Hughes weaves an intriguing story of an epic battle of good against evil. Readers will find the plot easy to follow but not overly simplistic as they accompany the teenage protagonist in his existential campaign against the hegemony of the Sovereign Regime. Set in 23rd-century Los Angeles, the story immediately emphasizes the totalitarian nature of the worldwide regime, introducing Goro as he narrowly escapes SR operatives with his brother, Josiah, and friends Cory and Alex. Readers soon learn the source of the SR’s power and control: a zettabyte identity chip implanted in everyone’s right wrist. The technology records every fact of a person’s existence, and this has caused a resistance movement to emerge. Unbeknownst to Goro, he has information about the identity chip that contains the seeds of its destruction. It’s only when he accidentally eavesdrops on a conversation between SR authorities and his father that he comes to understand that he holds the power to destroy the chip. The promise is realized in a nail-biting conclusion in which he and his friends attempt to sabotage the ruling power’s central computer. With its convincing, engaging characters, Hughes’ novel is certainly entertaining, yet it also will give readers pause about a future in which a single authority has too much power. The author also challenges readers to consider themes of ethnicity, youth empowerment, and social and moral values. Secular readers may find the subtle but tangible religious undertones irksome, as Goro variously praises and gives thanks to God with increasing frequency as he heads toward a climactic confrontation with the villain Sheitan (the Arabic word for “devil”). However, this is a minor quibble given the book’s taut writing, credible colloquial dialogue, and dark portrayal of a possible future world.
A well-crafted thriller that offers both a warning and hope for the future.Pub Date: July 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63047-820-9
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A somewhat fragmentary nocturnal shadows Jim Nightshade and his friend Will Halloway, born just before and just after midnight on the 31st of October, as they walk the thin line between real and imaginary worlds. A carnival (evil) comes to town with its calliope, merry-go-round and mirror maze, and in its distortion, the funeral march is played backwards, their teacher's nephew seems to assume the identity of the carnival's Mr. Cooger. The Illustrated Man (an earlier Bradbury title) doubles as Mr. Dark. comes for the boys and Jim almost does; and there are other spectres in this freakshow of the mind, The Witch, The Dwarf, etc., before faith casts out all these fears which the carnival has exploited... The allusions (the October country, the autumn people, etc.) as well as the concerns of previous books will be familiar to Bradbury's readers as once again this conjurer limns a haunted landscape in an allegory of good and evil. Definitely for all admirers.
Pub Date: June 15, 1962
ISBN: 0380977273
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962
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