A riveting, if disappointingly brief, start to what could be a stellar sci-fi series.
In the author’s debut sci-fi thriller, a time-traveling man from the 1940s learns of a present-day Nazi plot.
Mel Taylor works as a genealogist specializing in finding missing people. He’s originally from 1948, but 13 years ago he used a device to time-travel five decades into the future. His latest job involves a boy named Jeffrey who vanished a year ago. Police wrote the boy off as a runaway, but Mel uncovers a link to World War II and an evil Nazi doctor who experimented with genetics. It turns out that Jeffrey’s disappearance may be part of a plot to target Mel himself, and that someone evil may be aware of his complicated history. Sens’ novel is a time-travel story, but certainly not one that bows to convention. Rather than focus on the act of traveling through time, it uses the sci-fi staple to establish Mel’s backstory. He keeps a low profile in a profession that also deals with timelines, but his body was affected by his time-jump in such a way that electronics typically malfunction when he’s near them. He’s surrounded by other exceptional characters, including Joseph, who’s possibly Mel’s only real friend; Emily, Mel’s part-time assistant, who seems unfazed when Mel says that he believes 1940s Nazis are alive and well in Iowa; and Zalbowski, Jeffrey’s father, who willingly faces perils in the hope of finally finding his son. The story is not without humor; for example, Mel is forced to yell across a room to talk with Emily, so that she may use a computer. The author ably generates suspense, as when a blue Volkswagen appears to be following Mel around. In the end, there’s an overwhelming number of unanswered questions, such as the origins of a holy weapon called the Sapphire Staff, which Mel uses against Nazis, and the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Mel’s brother, Sanford, and one of Mel’s friends. However, a plot twist at the end sets up a sequel in which, with any luck, answers will arrive.
A riveting, if disappointingly brief, start to what could be a stellar sci-fi series.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491711835
Page Count: 232
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Leckie’s novel cast of characters serves her well-plotted story nicely. This is an altogether promising debut.
In which a zombie imperialist space cop gets caught up in a complex plot to—well, this enjoyable sci-fi outing gets even more complicated than all that.
Those who have seen the film Event Horizon will remember that a starship that got caught up in a time-space-continuum eddy got all, well, weird—or, as its creator puts it, “[w]hen she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back—she was alive!” Debut novelist Leckie’s premise dips into the same well, only her spaceship has become, over thousands of years, a sort-of human that is also a sort-of borg made up of interchangeable-parts-bearing dead people. Breq, aka One Esk, aka Justice of Toren, has his/her/its work cut out for him/her/it: There’s a strange plot afoot in the far-flung Radch, and it’s about to make Breq violate the prime directive, or whatever the Radchaai call the rule that says that multisegmented, ancillary humanoids are not supposed to shoot their masters, no matter how bad their masters might be. Leckie does a very good job of setting this complex equation up in not many pages, letting detail build on detail, as when Breq finds—well, let’s say “herself” for the moment—in an increasingly tangled conspiracy that involves the baddest guy of all, the even more multifaceted head honcho of the Radch. As the action picks up, one just knows there’s going to be some battering and bruising out on the shoulder of Orion.
Leckie’s novel cast of characters serves her well-plotted story nicely. This is an altogether promising debut.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-316-24662-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
PERSPECTIVES
Third entry in Jordan's monumental Wheel of Time series (The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt). Here, the various factions head toward the city Tear, where, in the Heart of the Stone, hangs the magical sword Callendor that none but the Dragon Reborn may wield. Young Rand, the only man able to use the One Power, already half convinced that he is the Dragon Reborn, strikes out alone. Rand's friend Perrin the blacksmith—he's accompanied by Moiraine, the Power-wielding Aes Sedai, and warrior Lan—suspects that he's turning into a wolf. The junior Aes Sedai, Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve take Mat to Tar Valon to be healed of his evil-magic wound; here, they are given the dangerous new task of flushing out the evil Black Ajah in their midst while evading the latter's deadly traps. Eventually, all will converge at Heart of the Stone, where Rand will seize Callendor and destroy their current evil opponent. Some good plotting here and there, and a rousing finale, but most of the rest is merely embroidered heroic travelogue. Not too bad—if you like monuments.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-312-85248-7
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1991
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