A compelling, time-scrambled SF take on nuclear angst.
In Powell’s SF novel, a family is caught in a tangled web of destiny as climate change and nuclear war threaten Earth.
The story opens in the dreary dystopia of 2068. What remains of the former USA is now an impoverished and splintered occupied territory divided by China and a resurgent communist Russia; global warming, economic devastation, and AI technology have decimated North America. Teenager Willow Krist, subsisting in the miserable “Middle Eastern District of Cameriko, Western Province of the New Soviet Republic,” knows her late grandfather, William, is blamed for the atomic terrorism and sabotage that left the country stripped of nuclear warheads and defenseless against its insidious occupiers. But the truth hides under layers of social media disinformation, propaganda, and censorship. For a school assignment, she endeavors to uncover the facts, aided by a family cache of papers and legacy media. Willow discovers that William in the 2020s was a rather jaded entrepreneur behind an encryption system that safeguarded launch routines for America’s massive nuclear arsenal; something went wrong, and an accidental global holocaust occurred in 2026. Or did it? Readers learn that in 1809, a Franciscan missionary in South America tremulously transcribed the “Orange Book” from the words of a member of the Indigenous Mapuche tribe. This mystical manuscript teaches disciples to mentally project their consciousness back through time and affect events, creating opportunities to rewrite history. The book has passed in and out of the Krist family, and William, with a small band of trusted associates, tried to use the text to avert the devastation that lay ahead. The narrative is an intriguing mosaic of first-person journal entries, blog posts, bulletins, transcriptions, and ephemera; the stream-of-consciousness, bitter-rant style of the William Krist passages is bracing in the short term but grows rather wearisome in large doses. Powell proffers cause/effect intrigues and paradoxes that will transfix readers acquainted with time-travel SF, but the thematic focus is on nuclear war horror, alongside sobering considerations of climate change, toxic American politics (there’s a mercifully brief appearance by a female Donald Trump stand-in, a right-wing elitist anti-immigrant cretin), and injustice.
A compelling, time-scrambled SF take on nuclear angst.Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9798891387331
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Subplot
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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Buckle up—fans of page-turning SF may find themselves binge-reading this novel in one butt-numbing marathon session.
Like a truck with no brakes speeding down a steep mountain road, Islington’s latest is an adrenaline-fueled SF thrill ride that follows a biomechanically enhanced assassin as he tries to understand his mysterious origins.
The chaotic opening scene gives readers a clear indication of what they’re in for: Contract killer Azure, attempting to complete a mission, is involved in a life-or-death battle with a multieyed biomachine called an Argos. “The thing’s bipedal but has six gorilla-like arms that end in half-metre-long claws,” he complains. After Azure barely dispatches the monster and kills his target, his AI assistant, Atti, informs him of his next job: protecting an elderly—and incredibly rich—woman living in a sprawling underground bunker in the middle of nowhere. “Old Woman,” as Azure calls her, isn’t forthcoming with personal details; all Azure can suss out is that she may be the target of a powerful organized crime syndicate—the same organization that employs him! Is Azure’s ultimate goal to save her or kill her? Although the worldbuilding could’ve been more comprehensive, Islington’s editing choices are brilliant—he strips away the insignificant narrative content to create a streamlined, action-packed adventure with seemingly one goal: to keep the reader furiously turning pages. The various mysteries—Azure’s murky beginnings, the tragic death of his best friend years earlier, Old Woman’s true identity, etc.—maintain the momentum and intensity. The takeaway here is the narrative potential of the characters as well as the plethora of subjects that could be explored more deeply, like immortality for the rich, cloning, and the potential to create bioengineered nightmares for “security.” Islington leaves the conclusion tantalizingly ambiguous. This novel could be the jumping-off point for a memorable series.
Buckle up—fans of page-turning SF may find themselves binge-reading this novel in one butt-numbing marathon session.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781668239247
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
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