Writer-editor Bova, having tackled Mars (1992), moves closer to home with this near-future family melodrama about nanotechnology and the exploitation of the Moon. When philandering Greg Masterson of Masterson Aerospace blows his brains out—it's revealed that he was dying of cancer—his wife Joanna marries her lover, Aerospace executive Paul Stavenger. But her unstable son, Greg II, mistakenly loyal to his rotten father, arranges to have Paul murdered on the Moon with Aerospace's experimental nanotechnology bugs. A horrified Joanna, already pregnant by Paul, bundles Greg off to a psychiatric clinic. In due course, Joanna gives birth to Doug. The years pass; Greg rejoins Aerospace and determines to close Moonbase, a loss-making but visionary and essential enterprise, the brainchild of Paul and now Doug. Inevitably, there will be a final reckoning between crazy Greg and honorable stargazer Paul, with poor Joanna's loyalties tested to the limit. Despite—or perhaps because of—the hokey family feud, little narrative momentum develops: an intermittently involving, elaborate stage-setter for Bova's projected volume two.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-380-97302-2
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1996
A new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
An engaging story framed by a brooding meditation on time and meaning.
In this new novel by Haig (Reasons to Stay Alive, 2016), a man of extraordinarily long life deals with a painfully ordinary question: what is it we live for?
Tom Hazard, though he has gone by many names, has an unusual condition that makes him age exceptionally slowly—he's more than 400 years old in 2017 but looks a mere 40-something. Tragic events taught him early that his seeming agelessness is a lightning rod for witch hunters and the dangerously suspicious in all eras. For protection, he belongs to the Albatross Society, a secret organization led by Hendrich, an ancient, charismatic man who's highly protective of his members and aggressive about locating and admitting other “albas” into the group. After assisting Hendrich in one such quest, Tom starts a new life in London; he's haunted by memories of his previous life there in the early 1600s, when he had to leave his wife and young child to ensure their safety. He's losing hope that Hendrich will help him find his daughter, who he's learned shares his condition. He muddles through his days until he meets a French teacher who claims she recognizes his face. Unraveling that mystery will lead Tom to re-examine his deeply etched pessimism. Meanwhile, readers are treated to memories of his past, including encounters with Shakespeare, Capt. Cook, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Tom sometimes wallows overmuch about the changelessness of the human condition, and one might be forgiven for wondering why so much time has not done more to heal his oldest wounds. But Haig skillfully enlivens Tom’s history with spare, well-chosen detail, making much of the book transporting.
An engaging story framed by a brooding meditation on time and meaning.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-52287-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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