This engaging SF comedy about marauding jellyfish shows the softer side of eco-terror fiction.
In this SF novel, a Canadian retirement haven is the epicenter of a bizarre environmental crisis, as jellyfish go airborne, becoming flying predators of birds and anything else they can grab and sting.
Qualicum Beach, on Canada’s Pacific coast, is an affluent community with a large population of retirees and boaters. The haven’s leaders are always striving to revitalize its image. They see an opportunity when the place inexplicably becomes the focus of a strange maritime phenomenon. Jellyfish of all kinds (and from all over the world) suddenly arise from the waters and take to the air—some drift placidly with the breezes, but others propel themselves at will, hunting for food. Initial sightings and stinging attacks on humans—like local fisherwoman Emma Toonie—and wildlife are dismissed as hype and internet hysteria. But as evidence becomes undeniable, a different sort of hype sets in, as Qualicum Beach promotes itself as the “Flying Jellyfish Capital of the World.” A leading jellyfish biologist, sexy Australian Honey Purcell, flies in to investigate, soon joined by Toonie, flirty Filipino American CIA agent Paul Ip, and various hangers-on, the media, and homegrown entrepreneurs peddling antijellyfish devices. As the jellyfish plague spreads worldwide, atmospheric swarms of the deceptively serene creatures lethally take down airplanes while Qualicum Beach remains under the worst of the siege. Can science find answers? Wilford’s cheeky, engrossing thriller harkens back to the creepy crawly, nature-on-the-rampage potboilers that overran the paperback racks following the smash 1974 novel Jaws. Remember Nightwing, Slither, The Rats, Slugs, Night of the Crabs,and even John Halkin’s Slime (1984), which also posited jellyfish gone bad? But—besides sidestepping the sex and gore that typified that herd—Wilford also delivers a good-natured, homey, regional Canadian character comedy in the manner of Susan Juby’s Woefield Farm series. In addition, there are the requisite eco-messages of genetically modified chemicals and corporate pollutants creating havoc (not that any lessons seemed to be learned in the end). Jellyfish science in painless doses introduces readers to such fetching breeds as the “kingslayer,” the Irukandji, the sea wasp, moon jellies, and the Praya dubia siphonophore, “a long, wavy bright-white string with flashing sparkles of red, yellow, blue, and green, like flying Christmas lights.”
This engaging SF comedy about marauding jellyfish shows the softer side of eco-terror fiction.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2025
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 fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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