by Brian Estvander ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 2, 2021
A well-written, conceptually agile adventure with a memorable ending.
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A secret clan of biologically enhanced humans battles their would-be destroyers in this SF adventure.
In Pawtucket, Massachusetts, Maggie Henderson leads a ragtime cover band. Her vibrant onstage persona is at odds with her day-to-day life as a postdoctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She’s working on programming “nanorobots” to help fix damaged skin cells. The work will be, as she tells her boyfriend, Tim Gritmuff, like “the perfect skin-cream.” Maggie also harbors a strange secret. She’s a Huply; she has both human and Plythi’i ancestry. The Plythi’i are a race of humanoids created with nanomachines who possess a telepathic Sense. Our heroine’s life putters along until she meets a man flying a kite barefoot in a park. This is polymath Inklebrawt Winklehank, who briefly attended Maggie’s high school. She’s star-struck because of his brilliant work in the field of “Integrated Bio-circuits” and wonders if he’s attending their high school reunion that night. Meanwhile, a violent offshoot of Huply, known as the Shepherds, wants to stop humanity’s “artificial speciation” and destroy the Plythi’i. The last grand battle between the two secret groups happened in 13,330 B.C.E. in Bolivia. With an attack imminent, Maggie must figure out her connection to Inklebrawt, another Huply, and a strange coterie of individuals, including Navy Seal David Wessel and a woman named Zayla. The group’s only hope may rest in contacting the Tsr’ Yyd, an enigmatic force that, once unleashed, could change life on Earth. Can Inklebrawt access a revered Plythi’i text called the Convictions in time to act?
Estvander’s hard SF adventure is similar to Greg Egan’s and Vernor Vinge’s novels; all toss readers headlong into conceptually dense worlds that require skillful absorption of ideas along the way. The story opens on the realm built by the Plythi’i in ancient Bolivia; this segment is flush with futuristic elements, including “Enginteks” who shape and build with stone using devices called “Vecco’i Sean.” The name Sean crops up frequently in reference to the creator of the Plythi’i, but a full explanation doesn’t arrive until the story’s end. Estvander rewards patient readers with tightly interlocking plot segments, many of which shuffle the cast through time and location (to the planet Ply’, for example). Grounding readers in more mainstream SF motifs is the Sense, reminiscent of the Force in the Star Wars franchise. Another familiar element is the way Inklebrawt’s volatile human emotions often co-opt his cool Plythi’i, Spock-like logic. In one thrilling scene, the character Yumi uses her Sense to merge metal and stone, sealing a doorway against attacking Shepherds. And while there’s much innovation to love in the work’s first half, it often relies on traditional thriller components to goose the plot. The Shepherds, for example, appear on Earth as mobsters who resort to kidnapping and gunplay to achieve their goals. The clever, remarkable finale will give audiences much to think about as far as the workings of the universe and humanity’s place in it.
A well-written, conceptually agile adventure with a memorable ending.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-48829-706-7
Page Count: 337
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Blake Crouch ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 26, 2016
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Ernest Cline ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 2011
Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.
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
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