Not without its flaws but a solid entry for readers craving new, original space operas.
An alien woman tries to track down her former lover in the first installment of Meierz’s (The Fall, 2015, etc.) new Exiles of the Drift series, set in the same universe as the Tales of Tolari Space.
Farryn, who belongs to an empathic race known as the Tolari, once ruthlessly ruled over the province of Monralar. Before this chapter in the ongoing saga, however, he fled and was exiled from his people for what he considered a just cause that manifested in his killing a “child for political advantage.” Now, as the head of a new crime family, he lives among humans in one of their planetary colonies of Far India. Meanwhile, Farryn’s former “pair-bonded” lover, Sharana, who had tried to put their past behind her, finds herself drawn to discovering what happened to him, leading her to track him down. Not long after her quest begins, however, she is captured by Adeline Russell, a Central Security officer trying to trap Farryn. Adeline has Sharana tortured in order to get information on Farryn, using her as a pawn to go after the actual target. There is a great deal to praise about Meierz’s novel, which, in addition to remarkable prose, centers on richly drawn characters in a beautifully detailed world. The conceit of Earth’s future based around Indian and Hindi culture is a refreshing one, given the American/Eurocentric bent to most sci-fi. Additionally, Farryn makes for a fascinating antihero. Readers might be surprised to find themselves equally drawn to and repelled by his and Sharana’s love story. At the same time, the novel is not particularly welcoming to new readers. They’ll be able to follow the basic gist, but intricacies of the political situation will likely be lost on those who haven’t read the preceding series. Furthermore, after a thrilling opening, Sharana spends the majority of the novel imprisoned and victimized—a disappointing fate for a female character with such potential.
Not without its flaws but a solid entry for readers craving new, original space operas.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-9212-9
Page Count: 330
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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