A unique SF romance, though less free-wheeling than earlier books in its series.
Semimythological sisters return—and one may get too close to humans—in the lusty third book in George-Sturges’ SF series.
A group of sisters from the far-flung place called Ventopia tended to the delicate planet known as Earth in the first two books in this series. Earth was created by the girls’ parents—their father, DeMatter, and mother, Nebula—though it was their job as young goddesses to be “responsible for creating, protecting, and guiding various life forms” on the planet. One of the sisters, a girl named Afar, became a little too involved with humans; this book is, for the most part, her story. Simply put, Afar may be too attached to Earth’s first man, a figure known as Mada whose “masculinity was magnetic.” She experiments with Mada sexually (though avoiding intercourse) and, as he explains it, “stimulated me orally, extracted my DNA seeds, mixed them with her own, and planted them around the earth.” Afar even guides him to “Trees of Knowledge,” each of which holds “a secret that can be used for good or evil.” Mada was taught that a ruler should know how to control the masses, and after Afar makes him powerful, jealousy and murder erupt. The book ultimately revisits Afar’s sisters as well, taking up their stories where the second volume in the series left them. This installment, however, has a more earnest tone than the first two books, which involved horrors like rape and murder without losing their whimsical nature. The narrative here exchanges much of the earlier whimsy for the kind of heartfelt sentiment evident in Afar’s early feelings for Mada: “The more she watched him, the more she found herself falling in love with him.” As the romance develops, such passions can become tedious, though the sexual and other action keeps things lively. What will become of this man and his goddess? Though readers familiar with the previous books know that what will eventually happen won’t be good, how the story gets there proves a strange, lust-filled path.
A unique SF romance, though less free-wheeling than earlier books in its series.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-70706-532-5
Page Count: 153
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.
Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.
Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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