by Christopher Villanueva ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 24, 2015
A taxing read that makes good on early promises of an epic adventure.
An epic sci-fi novel centered on an intergalactic dispute from debut author Villanueva.
The world of Atlantis is under attack, and the Galactic Court must take action. After discussion, they decide to intervene since the court “believes the attacks on Atlantis will soon transform into a full invasion.” With skilled warriors like Olivia Silatine and Dakota Raldonar involved in the fray, it seems like the Union (as the opposing forces are called) hardly stands a chance. However, men like Pirate Gen. Thomas Morgan and the diabolical Cmdr. Étienne Fontaine, who once served as the leader of a combating force that killed millions, have tricks up their interstellar sleeves. Meanwhile, a young man named Lex Clark is embarking on a quest of his own. Journeying with his father, a politician of much renown who “had in fact done great things in the past,” the two seek one of several Celestial Artifacts that “are extremely rare and known by only a few in the entire galaxy.” The artifacts are of vital importance, and if found by Fontaine, worlds far beyond Atlantis may very well be doomed. Complex and lengthy, the story is slowed at times by extraneous details; e.g., “Accompanying the trio of capital cruisers, many smaller support craft held formation and surrounded the host vessels. These units not only assisted their flagships during combat but also provided protection during space travel.” The novel is not without surprises, which range from the extent of Fontaine’s evil genius to the emergence of a colorful three-tailed fox, which “actually had more in common with that of an adult lion.” Over-the-top dialogue, however, is often distracting: “The Court sealed its own fate the moment they put trust in the likes of you, FAILED SORCERERRRR!” And the overuse of capitalization doesn’t help: “IT HAS BEEN NEARLY SEVEN LONG CENTURIES SINCE YOUR DEFEAT ON EARTH. YOU FAILED TO UNDERSTAND THEN THAT LIFE DOES NOT ANSWER TO YOUR BECK AND CALL.” Propelled by action—“bullets flew, blue, green, and red shards whizzed, arrows stuck, and little fires grew all around the team”—and plenty of twists, however, this muddled story still manages to satisfy.
A taxing read that makes good on early promises of an epic adventure.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1505672442
Page Count: 718
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
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
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by Cixin Liu ; translated by Ken Liu ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 11, 2014
Remarkable, revelatory and not to be missed.
Strange and fascinating alien-contact yarn, the first of a trilogy from China’s most celebrated science-fiction author.
In 1967, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, young physicist Ye Wenjie helplessly watches as fanatical Red Guards beat her father to death. She ends up in a remote re-education (i.e. forced labor) camp not far from an imposing, top secret military installation called Red Coast Base. Eventually, Ye comes to work at Red Coast as a lowly technician, but what really goes on there? Weapons research, certainly, but is it also listening for signals from space—maybe even signaling in return? Another thread picks up the story 40 years later, when nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao and thuggish but perceptive policeman Shi Qiang, summoned by a top-secret international (!) military commission, learn of a war so secret and mysterious that the military officers will give no details. Of more immediate concern is a series of inexplicable deaths, all prominent scientists, including the suicide of Yang Dong, the physicist daughter of Ye Wenjie; the scientists were involved with the shadowy group Frontiers of Science. Wang agrees to join the group and investigate and soon must confront events that seem to defy the laws of physics. He also logs on to a highly sophisticated virtual reality game called “Three Body,” set on a planet whose unpredictable and often deadly environment alternates between Stable times and Chaotic times. And he meets Ye Wenjie, rehabilitated and now a retired professor. Ye begins to tell Wang what happened more than 40 years ago. Jaw-dropping revelations build to a stunning conclusion. In concept and development, it resembles top-notch Arthur C. Clarke or Larry Niven but with a perspective—plots, mysteries, conspiracies, murders, revelations and all—embedded in a culture and politic dramatically unfamiliar to most readers in the West, conveniently illuminated with footnotes courtesy of translator Liu.
Remarkable, revelatory and not to be missed.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7706-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
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by Cixin Liu ; translated by Joel Martinsen
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