A skillfully rendered, thoughtful offshoot of the original story.
An isolated, sunless planet faces challenges in another adjunct to the Imperial Radch trilogy.
Readers of those books will remember that the battle among various factions of Radchaai ruler Anaander Mianaai destroyed several gates that made it possible to travel across vast distances in space. This novel explores the ramifications of that action on the remote and frozen planet of Aaa, which still chafes under the Radchaai occupiers who annexed it 30 years ago. Aaa’s precarious food supply chain is disrupted when information and ships stop showing up. Key imports cease to be available and local food sources begin to run out in an atmosphere of religious and social unrest heightened by a wealthy man’s desire to become a saint. Many people consider Serque Tais unworthy of this ascension, which involves several weeks of fasting and drug-induced contemplation and ends with a fatal poison that permanently preserves the body as a sacred relic—and as a focus for fresh offerings to the temple. Tais’ decision to leave his property and business to his grandchild Elerit makes his feckless son rather unhappy. Meanwhile, Speaking Savant Keemat, the popular cleric whose vision endorsed Tais’ sainthood, clashes with the social-climbing hierarch of their order and begins to wonder if the vision was actually intended for Keemat themselves. Plus, a young man unwillingly sold into servitude on a distant planet instead finds himself pressed into service at home, attending the physically and emotionally injured cousin of the Radchaai governor. A nearly omniscient narrator from several centuries in the future explains how these storylines converge, but never explains the injured cousin’s backstory, which seems like it’s going to be important but never pans out. What the narrator does do is examine the complex, volatile enmeshment of religious and secular matters (something with obvious contemporary relevance), obligations between parents and children, whether a person can make their own destiny despite societal pressures, the impact of small choices in a wider world, and the ripples of larger choices in an even wider galaxy.
A skillfully rendered, thoughtful offshoot of the original story.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9780316290357
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
