An impressive, enterprising effort by an author with verve and imagination to spare.
A sci-fi thriller involving a planet-killing comet, interstellar joy rides, and two heroic citizens fighting to save the planet.
Claire McBeth, a young Manhattan journalist covering science and technology for the New York Sentinel newspaper, excitedly accepts an assignment to report on the revolutionary, swiftly developing space-tourism industry. First, she interviews Texas multibillionaire Kayode Seok, the Korean–African-American creator of KS Space Tourism, who’s dealt with racial prejudice throughout his life. She also gets a scoop on a suborbital excursion project from former Air Force Capt. Herc Ramond, a senior pilot for Seok’s company. Although Claire is instantly attracted to the handsome airman, both are distracted by developments many miles above them involving the International Space Station. Soon afterward, Ramond must rush off to tend to his incapacitated friend Richard Halpren, a jet engine mechanic in the space-tourism industry; he’s in the hospital after surviving a suspicious gas explosion in his home. Meanwhile, FBI agent Quinten Gnash is using lethal means to contain reports of apparent comet sightings. McBeth and Ramond soon stumble on a conspiracy to cover up the truth behind an object hurtling toward Earth. Ohio-based novelist and playwright Roland’s rousing debut novel combines futuristic space technology with a bevy of engaging characters. Some of the subplots are fleeting, but they all directly tie into the main narrative to form a cohesive tapestry of suspense, intrigue, and cosmic thrills. Although the action is a bit frenetic in places, the story is continuously and firmly anchored by strong characterization and an intriguing, visionary premise. McBeth and Ramond are particularly inspired and compelling protagonists who provide just the right amount of spirited toughness to carry things through to the rousing (and open-ended) conclusion.
An impressive, enterprising effort by an author with verve and imagination to spare.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9978843-1-9
Page Count: 428
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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