MECHA ROGUE

Name: MECHA ROGUE
Author: Brett Patton
ISBN: 978-0-451-46490-3

by Brett Patton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 4, 2012

Slam-bang action with never a dull moment: imagine a 21st century Lensman series, if anybody still remembers E.E. “Doc”...

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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. 21, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012

Categories:

SCIENCE FICTION

- PROFILES
Brett Patton and His Mecha Universe

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READY PLAYER ONE

by Ernest Cline ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 2011

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

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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

- SEEN & HEARD
Cline Teases Plot of Ready Player Two

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GIDEON THE NINTH

From the Locked Tomb Trilogy series , Vol. 1

by Tamsyn Muir ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2019

Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.

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This debut novel, the first of a projected trilogy, blends science fiction, fantasy, gothic chiller, and classic house-party mystery.

Gideon Nav, a foundling of mysterious antecedents, was not so much adopted as indentured by the Ninth House, a nearly extinct noble necromantic house. Trained to fight, she wants nothing more than to leave the place where everyone despises her and join the Cohort, the imperial military. But after her most recent escape attempt fails, she finally gets the opportunity to depart the planet. The heir and secret ruler of the Ninth House, the ruthless and prodigiously talented bone adept Harrowhark Nonagesimus, chooses Gideon to serve her as cavalier primary, a sworn bodyguard and aide de camp, when the undying Emperor summons Harrow to compete for a position as a Lyctor, an elite, near-immortal adviser. The decaying Canaan House on the planet of the absent Emperor holds dark secrets and deadly puzzles as well as a cheerfully enigmatic priest who provides only scant details about the nature of the competition...and at least one person dedicated to brutally slaughtering the competitors. Unsure of how to mix with the necromancers and cavaliers from the other Houses, Gideon must decide whom among them she can trust—and her doubts include her own necromancer, Harrow, whom she’s loathed since childhood. This intriguing genre stew works surprisingly well. The limited locations and narrow focus mean that the author doesn’t really have to explain how people not directly attached to a necromantic House or the military actually conduct daily life in the Empire; hopefully future installments will open up the author’s creative universe a bit more. The most interesting aspect of the novel turns out to be the prickly but intimate relationship between Gideon and Harrow, bound together by what appears at first to be simple hatred. But the challenges of Canaan House expose other layers, beginning with a peculiar but compelling mutual loyalty and continuing on to other, more complex feelings, ties, and shared fraught experiences.

Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.