In style and violence, a hybrid of the movies Transformers and Independence Day: the sequel to Mecha Corps (2011).
Capt. Matt Lowell is the interstellar Union’s finest Mecha Corps warrior, not least because of his total recall—he calls it his Perfect Record—and his ability to merge his Mecha’s sensory interface, effectively his consciousness, with those of other Mecha pilots. The Mecha are huge, massively powerful, morphing robotic machines developed by Dr. Salvatore Roth to combat the Union's enemy, the Corsairs. Previously, Matt joined the Mecha Corps in order to hunt down and kill Rayder, the genetically engineered HuMax superman who murdered his father. Matt’s latest mission is to destroy a secret lab on a remote planet where more HuMax are being created. But, to his horrified astonishment, he discovers that the Union is behind both the lab and the HuMax, and the mission involves exterminating essentially helpless beings. Unable to stomach the pointless slaughter, he turns rogue and flees with his Mecha to the Corsairs, a vastly more disparate and advanced group than he had been led to believe. And this is just the first of a series of surprises that will cause Matt to question everything he has been told. The narrative moves at a thousand miles an hour, with just enough depth to the backdrop to avoid obvious pitfalls, and makes worthy efforts at character development, though the plotting’s as far-fetched as you might expect, with Matt able to summon up still another battle-winning superpower whenever he needs it.
Slam-bang action with never a dull moment: imagine a 21st century Lensman series, if anybody still remembers E.E. “Doc” Smith, without the latter’s lofty black-and-white moral tone and awful prose.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-451-46490-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: ROC/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
Categories: SCIENCE FICTION
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PROFILES
This future space fantasy might start an underground craze.
It feeds on the shades of Edgar Rice Burroughs (the Martian series), Aeschylus, Christ and J.R. Tolkien. The novel has a closed system of internal cross-references, and features a glossary, maps and appendices dealing with future religions and ecology. Dune itself is a desert planet where a certain spice liquor is mined in the sands; the spice is a supremely addictive narcotic and control of its distribution means control of the universe. This at a future time when the human race has reached a point of intellectual stagnation. What is needed is a Messiah. That's our hero, called variously Paul, then Muad'Dib (the One Who Points the Way), then Kwisatz Haderach (the space-time Messiah). Paul, who is a member of the House of Atreides (!), suddenly blooms in his middle teens with an ability to read the future and the reader too will be fascinated with the outcome of this projection.
With its bug-eyed monsters, one might think Dune was written thirty years ago; it has a fantastically complex schemata and it should interest advanced sci-fi devotees.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1965
ISBN: 0441013597
Page Count: 411
Publisher: Chilton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1965
Categories: GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | SCIENCE FICTION | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION
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BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.
The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three. Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.
Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-88743-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
Categories: GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | SCIENCE FICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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