An energetic opener to a comic-book–ish SF series marked by breathless action and cliffhangers.
In this debut SF novel, a farm boy in a time-frozen 1950s America where Earth is declared to be flat realizes the truth of this strange sham world and his key role in it.
Golembiewski’s series opener flirts with Philip K. Dick–style paranoia but primarily harks back to golden age pulp adventure/escapism. In a 1956-inspired contrived existence, James is a husky high school senior in the agrarian town of Eggerton. His young adult life revolves around performing harvest chores; playing baseball; going to see SF movies with his sweetheart, Carol; and anticipating college. James doesn’t initially question the school-taught dogma that Earth is flat or that a taboo, 400-foot wall west of his family’s farm marks its boundary. Approaching the wall or indulging in any anti-social behavior results in unconsciousness (aka being “switched off”). But when an odd meteor shower tears open a field, divulging a gleaming metal subsurface beneath the sod, even James has to admit something is peculiar. Locating an access doorway and settling into an awaiting automated spaceship, James is immediately zoomed to “New Atlantis,” a fabulous city-state in the hollowed-out moon. There, an enticing, gorgeous action girl named Ariel immediately plunges him into shootouts with robots and hairbreadth escapes. It seems the year really is 4040 and the dying Earth was sectioned into a multifaceted construct where the surviving populace has been genetically engineered and implanted to be docile drones. They provide food and material for the moon-dwelling “TK,” humanity’s callous, technocratic masters. James, alias “J.,” is an elite descendant of the TK. He was sent incognito to the Smallville-type community in a labyrinthine scheme to liberate and save what’s left of humankind before the TK heartlessly abandon and doom the home world. There are seemingly countless chases down corridors, innumerable trashed enemy robots, plenty of weapons fire, and lots of supporting characters introduced with such rapidity that they scarcely register (except on a scorecard) when some turn out to be devious traitors. In short, it's breezy fun writ large, with impressive scale to its imaginings but pure bubble gum in its core rather than molten iron/nickel. Readers of a certain age may remember when bubble gum traditionally came in a flat package.
An energetic opener to a comic-book–ish SF series marked by breathless action and cliffhangers. (acknowledgments, author bio)Pub Date: May 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73488-750-1
Page Count: 472
Publisher: Baba Jaga Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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