This debut work proves to be an often captivating if predictable trip through space.
Crew members on a diplomatic mission from Earth discover they should beware of invitations in Loric’s debut SF thriller.
Naval Rear Admiral Kevin Brannigan has been contemplating retirement, wishing to spend more time with his understanding wife, MaryAnne. But a fateful phone call summoning him to the Pentagon soon dashes that fantasy. He learns that an old friend has nominated him to lead a space expedition to make contact with an alien race. An invitation broadcast by the extraterrestrial Kammorrigans has already raised suspicions, as the directions they provided for a hyperspace drive is lacking steps. Fortunately, combining previous research and the Kammorrigans’ schematics enables scientists to build such a working drive. Rather than responding directly to the aliens’ broadcast, military leaders decide instead to drop in on the Kammorrigans unannounced. Brannigan uses his power as leader to beef up the expedition’s diplomatic corps, but there are nuclear weapons on board the ships … just in case. The lengthy journey to the aliens’ home world is eventful as the crew learn to master the hyperspace drive while battling pirates and space monsters along the way (“Suddenly every motion sensor they had went off at the same time as several strange creatures of multiple sizes and shapes came bounding towards them”). In his debut novel, the author exploits an intriguing premise: There is somebody out there, and they’re attempting to get in touch with us. Loric doesn’t quibble with such questions as ‘How did they throw together a hyperspace drive?’ or ‘How can they afford to send a fleet across the universe?’ He deserves kudos for coming up with an alien species that’s not even remotely humanoid in the Kammorrigans. However, this novel reads like 252 pages of set-up for a new series: Here’s the protagonists, here’s the villain, here’s the concept. Still, Loric does an admirable job of drawing readers into this intriguing new world where his series will be set.
This debut work proves to be an often captivating if predictable trip through space.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2023
ISBN: 9798886043242
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2024
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
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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