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
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, 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
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