Interesting ideas overburdened by flat characters and subplots.
Cheung’s debut novel is packed with thrilling ideas about near-future technology.
When cub reporter Sophie wakes for her first day of work, she’s helped by her digital I-ssistant, and she enjoys a relaxing holographic recreation of a lagoon while interacting with a representation of her schedule projected in midair—and that’s only the first page. Other near-future pops up, from new types of transportation to new social technologies, including the Alpha Scores for rating charity and community service. The first half of the novel revolves around a discussion of the role of the market and the individual in society, as presented in a debate between digitally reproduced Karl Marx (rather, three versions of Marx) and the economist Adam Smith. However, while these high-concept ideas and philosophical debates are entertaining, Cheung doesn’t back up the ideas with clearly defined characters for the reader to identify with. Yet there are plenty of players: In addition to Sophie and her I-ssistant personality, Brad, there are also her adoptive parents, Lola and Otto; her biological mother, Xin Sun Er, and grandmother; her fiancé, Mitch; his twin brother, Sam; her colleagues, Karly and Tristan; the three Marx personalities and the Adam Smith construct; her boss and her boss’ many friends; etc. The vast array of ideas may be thrilling, but the large cast of characters can be confusing. On top of that, the narrator sometimes summarizes the situation with a bird’s-eye view, which doesn’t foster emotional identification with the characters, as in one instance when the reader is simply told: “People were shaken….But life went on, and autumn turned into winter.” Lastly, the book loses some excitement due to its structure and slow pacing; in fact, the title object—the virtual game “Presage”—first appears on page 233, finally kicking into gear a thriller plot involving intelligence agencies’ attempt to sabotage the game.
Interesting ideas overburdened by flat characters and subplots.Pub Date: June 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477479988
Page Count: 380
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.
A processing plant manager struggles with the grim realities of a society where cannibalism is the new normal.
Marcos Tejo is the boss’s son. Once, that meant taking over his father’s meat plant when the older man began to suffer from dementia and require nursing home care. But ever since the Transition, when animals became infected with a virus fatal to humans and had to be destroyed, society has been clamoring for a new source of meat, laboring under the belief, reinforced by media and government messaging, that plant proteins would result in malnutrition and ill effects. Now, as is true across the country, Marcos’ slaughterhouse deals in “special meat”—human beings. Though Marcos understands the moral horror of his job supervising the workers who stun, kill, flay, and butcher other humans, he doesn’t feel much since the crib death of his infant son. “One can get used to almost anything,” he muses, “except for the death of a child.” One day, the head of a breeding center sends Marcos a gift: an adult female FGP, a “First Generation Pure,” born and bred in captivity. As Marcos lives with his product, he gradually begins to awaken to the trauma of his past and the nightmare of his present. This is Bazterrica’s first novel to appear in America, though she is widely published in her native Argentina, and it could have been inelegant, using shock value to get across ideas about the inherent brutality of factory farming and the cruelty of governments and societies willing to sacrifice their citizenry for power and money. It is a testament to Bazterrica’s skill that such a bleak book can also be a page-turner.
An unrelentingly dark and disquieting look at the way societies conform to committing atrocities.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982150-92-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Underscores that the stories we tell about our lives and those of others can change hearts, minds, and history.
In a dystopian near future, art battles back against fear.
Ng’s first two novels—her arresting debut, Everything I Never Told You (2014), and devastating follow-up, Little Fires Everywhere (2017)—provided an insightful, empathetic perspective on America as it is. Her equally sensitive, nuanced, and vividly drawn latest effort, set in a dystopian near future in which Asian Americans are regarded with scorn and mistrust by the government and their neighbors, offers a frightening portrait of what it might become. The novel’s young protagonist, Bird, was 9 when his mother—without explanation—left him and his father; his father destroyed every sign of her. Now, when Bird is 12, a letter arrives. Because it is addressed to “Bird,” he knows it's from his mother. For three years, he has had to answer to his given name, Noah; repeat that he and his father no longer have anything to do with his mother; try not to attract attention; and endure classmates calling his mother a traitor. None of it makes sense to Bird until his one friend, Sadie, fills him in: His mother, the child of Chinese immigrants, wrote a poem that had improbably become a rallying cry for those protesting PACT—the Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act—a law that had helped end the Crisis 10 years before, ushering in an era in which violent economic protests had become vanishingly rare, but fear and suspicion, especially for persons of Asian origin, reigned. One of the Pillars of PACT—“Protects children from environments espousing harmful views”—had been the pretext for Sadie’s removal from her parents, who had sought to expose PACT’s cruelties and, Bird begins to understand, had prompted his own mother’s decision to leave. His mother's letter launches him on an odyssey to locate her, to listen and to learn. From the very first page of this thoroughly engrossing and deeply moving novel, Bird’s story takes wing. Taut and terrifying, Ng’s cautionary tale transports us into an American tomorrow that is all too easy to imagine—and persuasively posits that the antidotes to fear and suspicion are empathy and love.
Underscores that the stories we tell about our lives and those of others can change hearts, minds, and history.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-49254-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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