Fans of immersive sci-fi, like the work of Philip K. Dick, should take a look; an auspicious start for Jane.
Jane’s debut novel is an inventive, ambitious sci-fi adventure with a heavy dose of science.
Derek Mondragon is having a rough time of it. His buddy, an “EXO gnosint” named Don MacCullum, is recovering in the hospital after having a chunk of his skull taken out in battle. As a gnosint, MacCullum has an ability to figure out complicated patterns, such as the one he discovered in an old book called the Voynich Manuscript—a complicated message to be decoded using an “accidental” genome. This distant-future society has two camps: “accidentals”—in short, naturally occurring humans—and “newstylers,” who have modified themselves genetically. And the two don’t get along. The newstylers on Mars started a rebellion against the emperor on Earth, and MacCullum is considered the final casualty, although hostilities seem to still be open. MacCullum is targeted for what he’s discovered, and Mondragon wants to find out why. But he’s got other problems—his wife leaves him and wants to send their daughter to a state-run hatchery where she can get more attention; her father, who’s on active military duty, doesn’t see her much. His attempt to get out of his service leads him to a secret mission, during which he learns of the emperor’s terrifying plans to build a newstyler army to conquer all of space. Jane’s world is incredibly expansive and well-drawn. Newstylers could buy anything from a fairy to a sentient jellyfish, and there are often political reasons for their choices. Technology and science are at the core of the novel, from how humans change their physical structure to methods they use to travel, theoretically, to the very ends of history. It speaks to the essence of existence—who we are in a time where every bit of us, including our consciousness, can be quantified and projected as a means of travel or transformation. The explanations can get a bit heady at times, but heavy sci-fi fans will find a lot to dig into. And Jane does a decent job balancing the action with the longer stretches of explanation and humor.
Fans of immersive sci-fi, like the work of Philip K. Dick, should take a look; an auspicious start for Jane.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5351-0732-7
Page Count: 604
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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