A nuanced and thrilling take on a bellicose future.
A near-future SF novel focuses on politics and war.
Thanks to a mishap at a remote government lab, life in the United States has completely been altered. After a virus known as Xr93P was leaked to the world, everything was upended. Global wars and mutations have created a landscape that can be best described as post-apocalyptic. There are even new creatures such as the cat-humans known as Cathabiens. Simon Crandall was 8 years old when the virus escaped. Although at the outset of the story Simon claims to be a humble civilian, he is anything but. Simon is a “captain of the Loftlin Frontier Rangers,” and he is on a mission to warn his fellow humans that a group called the Monknarrs, mutated primate-human hybrids, is planning to invade. The Monknarrs are vicious fighters who do not mind attacking en masse even if it results in heavy casualties. When Simon is finally able to return home to share what he’s learned, he is met with resistance. He is even charged with treason. This may be a world that has undergone a complete upheaval, but it is still one filled with politics and betrayals. The charges against Simon are just the tip of the iceberg. McBee’s engrossing narrative follows Simon and others as they navigate this complex and brutal setting, where violence is the name of the game. A whole gamut of weaponry includes everything from nuclear missiles to “crude spears” and a 105-millimeter cannon. The cannon is used in a particularly tense, action-filled scene in which the Monknarrs bombard a human city. It is an old-fashioned siege (complete with siege towers) that gives the story a sharp, militaristic edge. But dialogue can slow things down, as when characters ask direct, obvious questions. For example, queries like “Why did you bring me down here?”; “What are we going to do?”; and “How are we going to stop him?” can make the tale feel longer than it is. Nevertheless, the overall story puts a spin on the standard dystopian yarn in an exciting way.
A nuanced and thrilling take on a bellicose future.Pub Date: June 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63988-413-1
Page Count: 566
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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